LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Romania and Zimbabwe-focussed mining company Vast Resources updated the market on its operations and production for the three months ended 30 September on Friday, reporting a "solid" third quarter for the Pickstone-Peerless gold mine in Zimbabwe.
The AIM-traded firm said it saw a 3% increase in tonnes of ore mined to 104,156 tonnes there, with a 4% rise in tonnes of ore milled to 102,416 tonnes.

There was an 8% decrease in gold production to 6,397 ounces, and an 8% decrease in gold sold to 6,519 ounces, alongside a 7% decrease in milled gold grade to 2.32g/t.

Vast said performance and production over at the Manaila Polymetallic Mine in Romania was also impacted, due to a continued focus on pre-stripping, with an 8% decrease in tonnes of ore mined to 23,955 dry tonnes.

It reported a 15% decrease in tonnes of ore milled to 23,448 dry tonnes at Manaila, with a 42% increase in the stripping ratio of waste versus ore to 17x and a 32% decrease in copper concentrate produced to 615 dry tonnes.

The copper concentrate grade fell by 12% to 15.8%, with a 68% decrease in zinc concentrate produced to 48 dry tonnes and a 0.3% increase in zinc concentrate grade to 35.1%.*

"Our primary focus is on providing the means through which to ensure long term, consistent and reliable production at our operating assets both in isolation, and importantly, in the context of our growing development portfolio," said chief executive officer Andrew Prelea.

"This is a particularly notable when considering the development objectives that we have in place at Manaila and the Carlibaba extension and metallurgical complex, which we believe will radically transform throughput, grade and efficiency of our operations."

Prelea said that, from the fourth quarter of 2016, a clear pattern of decreasing ore quality emerged at Manaila, which he said was the result of continued mining without the prerequisite waste pre-stripping which Vast had been unable to conduct due to funding restraints at that time.

"From the first quarter of 2018, and in line with the company's stated strategy to resolve this issue, the ratio of stripping to mining starts to reverse on an upward trend, however until the company takes delivery of the new dumpers and excavators in early 2019, the targeted increase in productivity will be delayed.

"The board is confident that once the equipment is on-site the new fleet can focus on rectifying the five quarters of negative waste stripping and expose sufficient quantities of the correct ore grades while minimising dilution."

Andrew Prelea explained that the work underway at Pickstone-Peerless to expose the sulphide ore would also provide for a more consistent gold head grade, which in turn would also augment the "already very impressive" gold production record achieved during 2018.

"The recent fundraising initiatives undertaken by the company, together with the anticipated $5.5m second tranche payment expected from Mercuria Energy Group, will support the execution of our development objectives at Manaila and our increasing portfolio of near-production assets including the Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine.

"With this increased focus on our development assets, Vast will begin presenting periodic development updates covering its various other assets and interests, including the Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine, the Blueberry Project and the Piciorul Zimbrului and Magura Neagra licences, all located in Romania, together with the Eureka Gold Mine and Heritage Concession of the Marange Diamond Fields in Zimbabwe.

"We look forward to issuing the first of these updates in due course and detailing the progress of activities across our pre-production portfolio."

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