Lac des Iles Palladium Mine numbers from North American Palladium year end financials.
In 2011, LDI produced 146,624 ounces of payable palladium at a cash cost per ounce(1) of US$448. Production costs per tonne of ore milled were $54. 2011 production at the LDI mine included the blending of underground ore with lower-grade surface sources.
During the year, 1,830,234 tonnes of ore were mined, of which 988,502 tonnes came from underground sources (with an average palladium mined grade of 5.7 grams per tonne), and 841,732 tonnes from surface sources (with an average palladium mined grade of 1.8 grams per tonne). For the year ended December 31, 2011, the LDI mill processed 1,689,781 tonnes of ore at an average palladium head grade at the mill of 3.7 grams per tonne, with a palladium recovery of 78.3%.
As discussed in the Company's guidance news release issued on January 17, 2012, during 2011 NAP made significant progress in advancing the critical aspects of the mine expansion and remains on schedule to commission the shaft at the end of 2012. The shaft will allow LDI to increase its underground mining rate to 3,500 tonnes per day at the beginning of 2013, and then gradually increase the rate during 2013 and 2014 up to 5,500 tonnes per day starting in 2015, at which point the Company expects production to exceed 250,000 ounces at a cash cost per ounce(1) of approximately US$200 (based on current by-product metal prices).
In 2011, the Company conducted 84,686 metres of drilling on the LDI property. The objective of the 2011 exploration program was to expand the Offset Zone, improve knowledge of the Offset Zone mineralization through infill drilling, and to identify potential surface targets. The final update on the 2011 program was recently released on January 30, 2011.
