“In February and March to date, Abra concentrate production and haulage has been affected by flooded roads forcing the mine to preserve LNG stocks,” said Tony James, managing director, Galena Mining. “The mined and processed grade continues to be lower than planned due to ongoing modeling and operational variances. The mine has brought forward a mill re-line which was initially scheduled for April with the view of achieving a continuous processing block in the coming weeks once the road is re-opened.”

During February, ore mined and processed was also impacted by rainfall and subsequent road closures. Mill downtime for the month totaled eight days. During the month 83,950 mt at 5% lead grade was processed and 88,280 mt at 5.2% lead grade was mined (stope ore of 70,734 mt at 5.3% lead grade and development ore of 17,546 mt at 4.6% lead grade). The mine achieved 702 m of development during February.

Abra’s tenth lead concentrate shipment departed from Geraldton Port containing 10,441 mt on March 7, 2024.