Mining Breaks

Atlantic Gold has done a $C9M deal for a 39.2% stake in Velocity Minerals and its $US98M Rozino Gold Project in SE Bulgaria, for which an independent PEA has estimated open pit production of 461,000oz gold over an initial 6-years, the 1st step in the development of a multi satellite deposit hub operation producing more than 100,000oz pa gold for over 10-years.
The non-brokered private placement of shares (units)/convertible debentures package gives Atlantic the right to appoint up to 2 directors to the 5 person board.
Velocity is earning a 70% stake in Rozino, with local Gorubso 30%, which has a currently operating CIL process facility near Rozino. The base case financial model gives the project an after-tax NPV5% of $129M and an after-tax 33.1% IRR.

A Perth suburban sand quarry best known for supplying major road construction projects may have a new future supplying high-grade silica sand to global technology markets.
West Australian explorer Bauxite Resources has reached a binding agreement with privateer Urban Resources to jointly develop a 1Mtpa operation that will produce an initial 50,000tpa, with capacity for up to 250,000tpa.
Bauxite Resources will supply up to $A1.25M for additional equipment to purify and upgrade the mined sand to 99.95% silica with iron levels under 0.012%. It will handle marketing and sales while Urban Resources maintains operations.

The Asanko Gold Mine in Ghana has produced a record 223,152oz in the Dec 2018 year (FY/CY18) from 2017’s 205,047oz, exceeding guidance of 200,000oz-220,000oz and generating $US284.1M from sales up to 227,772oz from 206,079oz at an average realized $1,247oz.
The 50/50 Asanko Gold- Gold Fields JV is expecting an updated LoM plan, including development of the large-scale Esaase deposit and resource estimates, in Q2 19, ahead of an investment decision on full-scale long-term mining operations at Esaase and the construction of an overland conveyor.
Asanko fiished the year with $10.4M cash and an additional $25.9M held by the JV in cash and immediately convertible working capital balances. FY18 results expected Feb 14, 2019.

Australian explorer GBM’s ambitious co-development plans for its Mount Coolon and Twin Hills gold projects in N Qld are supported by a new JORC combined mineral resource of 963,000oz (13.6Mt @ 2.2g/t).
GBM is acquiring Twin Hills from Minjar Gold for $A1.5M with the aim of developing it as a high-grade satellite feed to the proposed Mount Coolon processing hub 90km away.
The resource upgrade at Twin Hills’ historic 309 and Lone Sister gold resources adds 633,000oz (6.9Mt @ 2.8g/t). Like Mount Coolon’s existing Koala, Glen Eva and Eugenia deposits, the Twin Hills deposits are considered to have considerable exploration upside.

Australian developer Korab Resources is pursuing permits and stakeholder agreements to allow it to start production in H2 2019 at its Winchester magnesium carbonate project near Darwin, NT.
It follows the signing a non-binding agreement with Polish specialist refractory equipment supplier and service provider ZM Ropczyce on a potential long-term relationship covering off-take of up to 20,000tpa dead burned magnesia plus funding, development and marketing support for the project.
Korab is continuing negotiations with other potential buyers of Winchester’s raw magnesium carbonate rock, caustic calcined magnesia and dead burned magnesia with the aim of concluding agreements prior to operations starting.

Mine expansion ramp-ups and relatively benign weather have enabled Rio Tinto to lift total Pilbara iron ore production in Western Australia by 2% to 337.8Mt for the year to end-Dec (FY2018), from 329.8Mt in FY2017.
Rio expects FY2019 production to grow further to 338-350Mt. A Jan 10 plant fire at Cape Lambert port is expected to cause “limited disruption” to Robe Valley lump and fines shipments.
Strong performance at Escondida in Chile and higher grades at Kennecott in USA lifted mined copper output to 633,500t, beating guidance of 510,000-610,000t (FY2017: 478,100t).
Subject to grades, Rio expects mined copper to total 550,000-600,000t in FY2019.
Bauxite production slipped 1% to 50.4Mt after commissioning and transitional issues at CBG in Guinea and Amrun in Qld, Australia cut Q4 output.

Record Dec qtr (Q4) production of 10,256oz has helped Serabi Gold lift FY2018 output at its Palito and San Chico operations in the Tapajos region of N Brazil to 37,108oz (FY2017: 37,004oz).
CEO Mike Hodgson says Q4 has been superb with excellent production and very exciting results of airborne and ground geophysics, to be followed up in 2019. 
With new initiatives including the scrubber and planned commissioning of an ore sorter in H2, Serabi’s FY2019 gold production is forecast to be 40,000-44,000oz.

Record Dec qtr (Q4FY2018) production of 6,279oz PGM at its Hernic ferrochrome project in South Africa, up from 6,009oz in Q3, has boosted Jubilee Metals’ attributable operational earnings to £2.17M from £1.78M.
CEO Leon Coetzer says it’s a notable performance in the traditionally challenging festive season.
The DCM chrome operation delivered 8,958t chromite concentrate (Q3: 8,053t) despite slowed production during commissioning of the new fine chrome recovery plant. Production should ramp-up to 25,000tpm capacity soon.
The PlatCro PGM operation is expected to begin deliveries to the Eland platinum concentrator in Jan after commissioning the hydro-mining and dewatering plant. Eland targets 50,000-60,000tpm platinum-rich material.

The impact of the Oct 2018 pit wall failure in the Smarts 3 pit, coupled with major maintenance to the primary and secondary crushers, has slashed Dec qtr (Q2FY19) gold production to 14,227oz at Troy Resources’ Karouni operation in Guyana.
The outcome compares with 18,991oz in the Sept qtr but meets the revised guidance range of 14,000-15,000oz announced following the ground slip.
Troy confirmed it met a $US3M repayment under its syndicated debt facility with Investec Bank, in line with the revised repayment schedule announced in Nov. The final $5.2M repayment is due at end-March.

Aussie battler Moreton Resources expects to begin silver production next month at its Granite Belt project in SE Qld after finally coming up with a processing route it believes will overcome the project’s many challenges.
The change in strategy adopted under new MRV Metals CEO Kalman Salgo involved removing ore from the existing project’s heap leach 4 and re-stacked to overcome past acid mine drainage issues at the mine, which has been mothballed for nearly 5 years.
While the problems have raised significant financial costs, Moreton says it is now confident it has isolated the problem and can manage it into production.

Wesdome Gold Mines has lifted Dec 2018 year (FY/CY18) gold production from its Eagle River Complex in Wawa, Ontario, Canada, to 71,625oz from 2017’s 58,980oz, with sales up to 70,480oz from 57,770oz, generating $C115.9M from $94.9M.
The result came despite ore milled down to 255,804t from 309,841t, with the company now expecting FY/CY19 production up to 72,000oz-80,000oz at lower operating costs of $830oz-$900oz ($US640oz-$690oz) and AISC $1,280oz-$1,350oz ($US985-$1,040oz). Full results to follow.

Avesoro Resources has lifted preliminary Dec 2018 year (FY/CY18) gold production 15% on 2017 to match guidance of 220,458oz from its New Liberty Gold Mine in Liberia and Youga Gold Mine in Burkina Faso.
New Liberty output jumped 44% to 109,707oz, but Youga fell 4% to 110,751oz, largely due to heavy rains. Total ore mined rose 14% to 2.32Mt and ore processed was up 13% to 2.34Mt.
Full report, including 2019 production guidance, expected in March 2019.

Hillgrove Resources is evaluating alternative underground mining methods in a bid to offset the estimated loss of 2,000t of copper metal due to a pit rock fall last month at its Kanmantoo mine in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia.
Although the affected wall has been remediated and access restrictions lifted, Hillgrove says it's had to modify pit designs in a way that may cut about 10% of forecast future production prior to the pit’s completion.
Processing has continued at capacity through the period of restrictions, but ore stockpiling has fallen behind budget.

Gold miner Shanta Gold is expected a Dec 2018 year (FY/CY18) net profit “significantly higher” than 2017’s $US4.2M after its New Luika mine in SW Tanzania lifted gold production to 81,872oz from 2017’s 79,585oz and above 80,000oz guidance.
The expectation is on EBITDA up 21% to $45.5M, with record New Luika milled tonnage to 639,679t from 638,088t also lifting silver production a little to 106,851oz from 106,238oz, with AISC down to $731oz from $747oz and ahead of $750oz guidance. Shanta is expecting 80,000oz-84,000oz in 2019 at AISC $740oz-$800oz.
The company finished 2018 with gross debt down 24% on 2017 to $40.5M, the lowest in 6 years, with net debt down 21% to $31.M. Full financials later.

Higher grades have enabled Australian producer Aeris Resources to offset lower tonnages at its flagship Tritton copper operations near Nyngan in central NSW in the Dec qtr (Q2FY19), delivering above-plan production of 6,515t compared to 6,753t in Q1. C1 cash costs were $A2.96/lb (Q1: $2.77/lb).
Aeris has maintained FY19 guidance at 24,500t at $2.75-2.90/lb.

Higher seasonal evaporation rates have enabled Orocobre to increase production rates at its Olaroz brine lithium project in Argentina’s Jujuy province by 65% to 3,782t in the Dec qtr (Q2FY19), up from 2,293t in Q1 and the project’s second-best qtrly result.
Soft market conditions reduced realised prices to $US10,587/t FOB (Q1: 14,699/t), against cash costs of $3,974/t ($4,460/t) and reducing gross cash margins to $6,613/oz ($10,059/oz).
Construction began in the period on the $295M Stage 2 expansion to increase capacity by over 140% to 42,500tpa >99.0% Li2CO3) lithium carbonate.
Available cash was $284M ($308.7M) after expansion expenditure.

Atlantic Gold has exceeded expectations for the 1st full year’s production from its Moose River Consolidated Gold Mine in Nova Scotia, Canada, hitting 90,531oz for the Dec 2018 year (FY/CY18) and topping 82,000oz-90,000oz guidance.
And it has flagged 2019 production up to 92,000oz-98,000oz at cash costs of $C560oz-$610oz ($US420oz-458oz) and AISC $695oz-$755oz ($US521oz-566oz.) following the successful ramp up of phase-1 operations.
The result was on 2.1Mt milled at a head grade 1.41g/t and 94.9% recovery, the 12-months production including 2-months ramp-up, with commercial production declared Mar 1, 2018. Full financials expected Mar 5, 2019.

Amerigo Resources looking for more records in 2019 after record Dec 2018 year (FY/CY18) copper output of 65Mlbs at cash costs down to $US1.56lb from 2017’s 62.5Mlbs at cash costs of $1.64/lb from its 100%-owned Minera Valle Central (MVC) operation at Rancagua, Chile.
The completion of the Cauquenes expansion project also saw record molybdenum production up to 1.9Mlbs from 1.6Mlbs, exceeding guidance of 1.8Mlbs.
In 2019, MVC expects to produce 80Mlbs-85Mlbs copper and 2.5Mlbs molybdenum at cash costs of $1.30/lb-$1.45/lb Cu. FY/CY18 financials expected Feb 21, 2018.

Underground trucking issues at the Björkdal mine in Sweden and the delayed start of the Brunswick development at Costerfield in Australia has seen Mandalay Resources’ Dec 2018 year (FY/CY18) production plunge to 81,568oz AuEq from 2017’s 131,186oz AuEq.
However, the company is expecting gold equiv production rising to 131,000oz-162,000oz AuEq for 2021, from 91,000-107,000oz AuEq in FY/CY19 and 108,000oz-127,000oz AuEq in 2020.