There was a twin purpose to Vatukoula’s announcement of 24th August. It was designed to talk up the successful commissioning of the new oxide processing circuit at the company’s mine in Fiji, and to forewarn the market, ahead of a full production update in September, that this year’s production targets will now be missed. In fact with output for the quarter to the end of August now projected at between 6,000 ounces and 6,500 ounces, the company has just had its worst production quarter of the year, and at a time when new equipment was supposed to be initiating a ramp up towards a targeted annual production rate of 110,000 ounces per year. Vatukoula’s chief executive Dave Paxton is still hopeful that such a production rate can still be reached. But with the new kit that will be required to make it happen arriving...

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