Strong Gold production at Kirkland
Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd announced the Company’s full-year guidance for 2019, which includes strong production growth, improved unit costs and a continued strong commitment to exploration and growth. The Company also announced three-year production guidance, which includes the Fosterville Mine achieving over 500,000 ounces of production by 2020 and demonstrates the potential for consolidated production to reach one million ounces by 2021.
According to the 2019 guidance, production growth to 740K to 800K ounces, driven largely by significantly higher production at Fosterville, as well as increased production at Macassa. Exploration expenditures estimated at $100 – $120 million, including capitalized exploration expenditures, with $85 – $100 million targeted for Fosterville and the Northern Territory in Australia.
For three-year production guidance it says, Kirkland Lake Gold is targeting consolidated production growth of 10 – 15% per year over the next three years, with production of 740,000-800,000 ounces in 2019 to be followed by production of 850,000 – 910,000 ounces in 2020 and 945,000 – 1,005,000 ounces in 2021.
Tony Makuch, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Kirkland Lake Gold is poised to achieve substantial production growth and improved unit costs in 2019. We will also continue to invest in exploration and additional production growth, with our plan being to reach one million ounces of annual gold production as early as 2021.
While achieving one million ounces of production will be a significant milestone, it is more important that the growth we achieve continues to drive down unit costs, increases margins and positions us to generate substantial amounts of free cash flow going forward.”
