North American Palladium (NAP) says output from its Lac des Iles (LDI) palladium mine was "steady" in the third quarter with production of approximately 35,000 oz.

The company produced 34,871 oz of payable palladium, taking total output for the nine months ended September 30th to 112,503 oz.

NAP maintained its guidance for 2011 production of between 145,000 oz and 155,000 oz of palladium.

Third quarter production at the LDI mine included the blending of underground ore with surface stockpiles. Average head grade at the mill during the third quarter was 3.5g/t.

The company said the decreased head grade resulted from processing more lower grade surface stockpiles than in past quarters.

Variation in LDI production from quarter to quarter is to be expected during the company's mine expansion transition phase, the firm explained.

Q3 also saw 477,923 tonnes of ore extracted from underground and from the surface stockpiles.

The LDI mill processed 442,253 tonnes of ore at an average rate of approximately 10,500 t/d, with a palladium recovery rate of 76.4 per cent.

NAP also said it has completed its definition drilling programme on the upper north Roby Zone extension, and has recently completed the access development extension drift in the upper south Roby Zone resource to conduct definition drilling during the fourth quarter.

The firm hopes mine expansion work will result in annual production of 250,000 palladium ounces by the first quarter of 2015.

"During a very active development period, our LDI palladium mine achieved steady operational results in the third quarter," said William J Biggar, president and chief executive officer.

"With the mine expansion being our top priority, our revised 2011 mine plan allowed us to mitigate some of the logistical constraints identified earlier this year, enabling us to keep the mine expansion on schedule to begin mining via shaft in the fourth quarter of 2012." 

© Adfero Ltd