Black Oak Minerals (ASX:BOK) has joined the ranks of producer...

Black Oak Minerals (ASX:BOK) has joined the ranks of producer with the first pour of 136 kilograms (about 4,000 ounces) of silver from the  Manuka Silver Project in central New South Wales.

Production is anticipated to increase progressively over coming weeks to current capacity of around 200,000 ounces of silver per month.

After six months it is intended to then switch processing to treat gold ore trucked from the company’s Mount Boppy gold mine where mining has recently commenced.

Since the acquisition of Manuka in September 2014, the plant has been reset to incorporate a 1500kW ball mill, an upgraded Carbon-In-Leach circuit, and several other improvements to enhance recovery and increase throughput.

Mining of silver ore in the Manuka pit is ahead of schedule due to improved cycle times from in-pit waste disposal. This is expected to deliver lower mining costs versus plan.

Additional milling is expected to deliver improved grinding circuit performance versus plan and will support the processing of the current stockpiles of ore that average 50g/t silver to increase overall silver production by 350,000 ounces.

In addition, mining of the Mount Boppy pit commenced in early March and is on track for the gold ore to be trucked to Manuka for processing in September to meet delivery obligations under the Company’s financing agreements.