Cerrado Gold reports 21% rise in quarterly gold-equivalent output
Selected Calandrias feed lifted mill production as Cerrado targeted the upper end of its unchanged annual guidance range.
Mara Quinlan
Cerrado Gold Inc. CVECERT OTCMKTSCRDOF reported on Monday that third-quarter production at its Minera Don Nicolas mine in Argentina rose 21 per cent to 16,685 gold-equivalent ounces. The company now expects 2026 output at the upper end of its unchanged guidance range of 50,000 to 60,000 gold-equivalent ounces.
Shares closed higher at C$2.28 on the TSX Venture Exchange at 4:00 p.m. EDT on Oct. 16, before Monday's release, according to the CVECERT quote page.
The Martinetas carbon-in-leach mill produced 7,036 gold-equivalent ounces in the quarter, primarily because selected higher-grade Calandrias material was redirected there from the heap-leach operation. Heap-leach output was 9,649 gold-equivalent ounces, close to the preceding quarter's level.
Production for the nine months ended Sept. 30 reached 44,942 gold-equivalent ounces, up 23 per cent from a year earlier. A new crushing plant is undergoing commissioning, while another heap-leach pad is expected to be completed late in the first quarter of 2027.
The guidance range is unchanged from Cerrado's Aug. 18 results, which reported second-quarter production of 15,415 gold-equivalent ounces. That quarter's mill output was 5,434 gold-equivalent ounces.
Selected Calandrias material sent to Martinetas generally grades above 2.5 grams of gold per tonne. Cerrado said laboratory bottle-roll tests on milled samples supported the routing decisions because some selected material achieved recoveries of up to 95 per cent.
The mill processed 101,000 tonnes in the third quarter, close to the preceding quarter's 100,000 tonnes. Its average gold head grade rose to 2.29 grams per tonne from 1.53.
The company compared those test results with approximately 60 per cent recovery expected through heap leaching under the mine's current technical report. The tests cover selected material and do not represent overall plant recovery.
"The additional gold recovered provides an economic benefit, even after accounting for higher processing and transportation costs," Cerrado said in Monday's release.
Actual third-quarter gold recovery at the carbon-in-leach plant was 90 per cent, according to the operating table. Heap-leach gold recovery was 33 per cent.
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Cerrado said resolving irrigation problems and improving the crushing circuit helped heap-leach operations. Higher gold prices also allowed it to include additional low-grade material in the feed.
The new tailings dam is operating and offers approximately five years of capacity at planned rates. The planned heap-leach pad would add 12 million tonnes of capacity.
Underground development beneath the Paloma pit supplied more fresh feed toward quarter-end, with additional material expected in the fourth quarter. Exploration is focused on the Falcon property to support resource growth for a preliminary economic assessment targeted for late in the first quarter of 2027.
Cerrado expects to release its full third-quarter financial results before Nov. 23, 2026.
