Based on the numbers from the MD&A posted by Lawnbowler, ECU has made a tremedous improvement in the gold and silver recovery rate from the oxide mill. Even though the ore grades fed into the mill were somewhat low, the recovery rate for the gold was 75% and the recovery rate for the silver was 65%. Our recovery of the gold and silver oxides for the last 2 years have been closer to 60% and 50% respectively. This means the gold recovery increased 25% and the silver recovery has increased 30%. Looks like the addition of the copper circuit was worth the effort.
The 2nd positive from the MD&A is that the mine grades last quarter were much higher than the mill grades. This high grade ore will probably get processed in Q2 improving our sales. The average milled gold grade was 1.66 g/t while the mined grade was 2.45 g/t, an increase of 48% and the average silver milled grade was 85 g/t while the mined grade was 114 g/t, an increase of 34%.
A third positive was that mined tonnage was 58,879 tonnes while milled tonnage was 52,888 tonnes, so the change in mining methods has us adding to our stockpile of ore for the first time since the oxide mill ramped up.
