Page 45 T ra in w ith a w orld le a der in Firs t A id & CPR – c hoose CA NA DI A N RED CR OS S L et us prov i de sol utio ns t o y ou r t r ai ni ng ne ed s by con t actin g us at 1 - 877 - 356 - 3226 o r v is it r ed cr oss.ca R ed C ross Fir st A i d. P repa re f or Lif e ® Page 44 summary , 2012 demonstrated a good bounce back from a challengi ng 201 1 and provided us the confdence that this production growth can continue.” Pollitt said “we continue to expect the Eagle River Mine to produce about 41,000 ounces and the Mishi Mine about 9,000 ounces. W e believe Kie - na will contrib ute about 5,000 ounces by the time mining activities are sus - pended in June.” In 2012, production increased 17% to 55,813 ounces of gold and gold sales increased 7% to 55,500 ounces com - pared to 201 1. Mining and process - ing costs increased 17% to average $1,385 per ounce for the year on a production basis. In 2012, bullion sales exceeded min - ing and processing costs resulting in a mine operating proft, or gross mar gin, of $15.8 million. In addition to these direct operating costs, addi - tional cash costs, including royalty payments, corporate and general costs and interest payments amounted to $4.8 million. At the Eagle River Mine, grades steadily improved as the company Cont’d from pg. 42 worked its way through a heavily di - luted sequence of stopes and develop - ment ore. In 2012, recovered grades were 35% higher than in 201 1 and for - ward development in the 81 1 Zone re - fects the start of a higher grade mining sequence expected to last through 2015. “At the new Mishi Mine, we mined 102,216 tonnes of ore and 1,213,664 tonnes of waste for a stripping ratio of 1 1.9:1. W ith the incorporation of a 200 metre long east pit exte nsion into the mine plan, the current life-of-mine stripping ratio decreases to 2.7:1. In 2012, mill availability was less than expected. Over the year we averaged 625 tonnes per day and we were plan - ning for 900 tonnes per day . Consider - able ef forts have been made to debottle - neck processes, update equipment and human resources and improve reliabil - ity and throughput. This work is ongo - ing and represents our easiest route to increasing production growth over the short term. Mishi reserves and resources justify a longer term view . W e have commenced studies to select a new tailings manage - ment facility , with a view towards in - creasing our milling capacity . W e have substantially worked our way through the high strip early stages of the Mishi Mine, stockpiled over 37,000 tonnes of ore at the mill and increased our reserve life to 10 years at current rates. The fact that the frst year ’ s production returned better grades than estimated gives us great optimism in the potential of this asset to drive a longer term vi - sion and support key infrastructure investments. At the Kiena Mine, salvage mining of developed reserve blocks will continue until the mine closes, af - ter which the infrastructure will be placed on care and maintenan ce sta - tus. The decision to close Kiena was made in context of optimizing re - turns of capital allocated amongst all our operating mines and proj - ects. Management does not favour equity fnancing options under current fragile market conditions to fund further exploration and de - velopment work at this point at Ki - ena,” said Pollitt. First year ’ s pr oduction r eturned better grades than estimated for Mishi Mine