Fort Knox Mine
RSSFort Knox Mine is an open-pit gold mine in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, operated by Kinross Gold. It ranks among Alaska's largest gold producers and includes adjacent heap-leach operations. It is also called Fort Knox Gold Mine or Kinross Fort Knox.
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Kinross's Alaska mine output falls 29% as less Manh Choh ore reaches the mill
Kinross Gold's two Alaska mines produced 29% less gold and silver in the third quarter than a year earlier, and each ounce sold cost 46% more to produce, the company reported Wednesday.
Most of the drop traces to Manh Choh, the mine near Tok whose ore is trucked to Kinross's Fort Knox mill northeast of Fairbanks. The mill ran 185,000 tonnes of Manh Choh ore, down from 286,000 a year earlier, and Kinross said production fell "primarily due to the decrease in tonnes processed and mill grades from Manh Choh."
Rain also slowed mining. The operation mined 23% less ore "as a result of significant rainfall impacting mining productivity," the company's quarterly report says.
Kinross reports the two mines as one operation. Together they produced 80,118 gold-equivalent ounces, down from 112,181. That measure converts silver to its value in gold.
Kinross doesn't break out Manh Choh's output, but it does subtract the 30% share owned by its partner, Contango: 7,675 ounces this quarter, against 16,439 a year earlier. Working backward from those numbers, by Alaska News' calculation, Manh Choh produced roughly 25,600 ounces, less than half as much as a year earlier. Fort Knox's own output slipped about 5%, to roughly 54,500.
Kinross's average gold price across its mines was $4,249 an ounce, up 23%, so sales fell less than production did. Sales from the Alaska mines dropped 18%, to $333.8 million, and operating earnings fell 45%, to $90.4 million. Costs held at about $159 million but were spread over fewer ounces, pushing the cost of each ounce sold to $1,981 from $1,359.
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Thursday, Sep 24
Kinross cuts gold forecast over Chile and Nevada mines; its Alaska operation's output is also down this year
inross trimmed its gold forecast, blaming Chile and Nevada, and its shares fell 11.6%. Alaska wasn't mentioned; its mines are producing less at higher cost.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read