CNMC's Sokor mine in Malaysia produced 8,750 ounces of gold in Q2

CNMC Goldmine Holdings on Monday announced that with the firm's carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant in full commercial operation since May 2, its flagship Sokor gold mine in Malaysia produced a total of 8,750 ounces of gold doré bars in the second quarter this year.

According to the Singapore-listed gold miner, a doré bar is a crude gold and silver bullion usually produced at the mine site, which is then sent to a refiner where the silver and gold are separated, and the gold is refined to commercial-grade gold bullion.

Said CNMC chief executive officer, Lim Kuoh Yang: "With the CIL plant now in stable operation, the company's focus is to identify opportunities to further optimise operating parameters, with the view to increasing gold output and bringing down costs."

An independent assessment by Australia-based Optiro said that as at Dec 31, 2017, the project is believed to hold 724,000 ounces of measured, indicated and inferred gold, based on 13.86 million tonnes of ore and 1.6 grammes of gold per tonne of ore.

BT reported in March that CNMC's share of the gold resources is 586,000 ounces, a 16 per cent increase from the last assessment in 2016. But measured gold resources, the estimate with the highest level of confidence, that is attributable to CNMC decreased 5,000 ounces to 40,000 ounces.

As at 9.55am on Monday, CNMC shares were trading at 27 Singapore cents apiece, up 3.8 per cent.