North American Palladium (NAP) has revealed that it produced 27,839 oz of palladium in the second quarter of 2010.

The company restarted operations at its flagship Lac des Iles mine in Ontario in April after placing it on care and maintenance in October 2008 due to declining metal prices.

According to Chief Executive Bill Biggar, the facility is now meeting its production expectations and the company hopes to post output of 70,000 oz in the second half of the year.

NAP is currently building a 1,500m ramp from the Roby zone into the new Offset zone, which should be completed by the end of 2010 and will offer exploration potential.

The firm announced that the results of a scoping study on the Offset zone - which is also set to have a new surface shaft in the near future - should be released later this month.

Meanwhile, gold production at NAP's Sleeping Giant mine in Quebec reached 4,237 oz, although the average gold grade was 5.71g/t, much lower than the overall average of 9.3g/t.

New higher-grade zones are currently in the pipeline which should improve gold output and lower costs in 2011, with the company posting a full-year target of 50,000 oz.

Sources:



North American Palladium Ltd posts net loss of CAD11.6m for second quarter 2010 (13/08/10)



NA Palladium misses targets at Sleeping Giant, LDI study out soon (14/08/10)

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