Didipio posts new record gold output

Australia’s OceanaGold Corp. has achieved record quarterly gold production at Didipio for a second consecutive quarter.

In a regulatory filing, OceanaGold said it had unearthed 35,122 ounces at the Didipio mine in Nueva Vizcaya in the first quarter.

This helped push consolidated output to 91,146 ounces of gold with 56,024 ounces coming from the New Zealand mines.

The earlier gold record for OceanaGold was in the fourth quarter of 2014, with 34,783 ounces produced at Didipio. At the time, Macraes’ output was 40,668 ounces and Reefton, 15,420 ounces. The total company-wide output then was 86,568 ounces.

On copper output, Didipio was not as prolific and the New Zealand mines had no output. OceanaGold produced 6,102 tons of copper, all from Didipio. This was lower than the 6,747 tons produced in the fourth quarter of 2014.

“The slight decrease in production from the previous quarter was a result of lower production from Macraes which was partly offset by higher production from Didipio and Reefton,” OceanaGold said.

The significant drop in copper price in January 2015 led to unfavorable final price adjustments on prior year shipments, which were finalized during the quarter and revaluations to open shipments, OceanaGold said.

The average provisional copper price received for shipments made in the first quarter of 2015 was $2.59 per pound.