LONDON (Alliance News) - Aureus Mining Inc on Wednesday said it managed to book a substantial amount of revenue in 2015 despite missing its production target, adding that the New Liberty gold mine is now operating to plan whilst discussions with the company's lenders continue.
The West African gold producer said it generated USD19.2 million in revenue in 2015 from selling 17,172 ounces of gold taken from the New Liberty gold mine, the first commercial gold mine to become fully operational within Liberia.
Commercial production from the mine was only declared at the start of this month, but Aureus was producing gold from May last year and managed to book some revenue in 2015. The mine reached full capacity and began making shipments of gold as far back as July, but Aureus fell far short of its target to produce 27,000 ounces of gold from the mine during 2015.
Aureus said it would have produced and sold more gold in 2015 if it didn't suffer problems with equipment failures or face the issues experienced during the commissioning phase of the operation.
In February, the month before commercial production was declared at the mine, New Liberty produced 9,000 ounces of gold with a recovery rate over 90%, which has continued into March.
Earlier this month, Aureus said it had managed to produce 4,500 ounces of gold from the mine over the first 14-days of March, suggesting the monthly production rate has remained broadly flat or increased slightly from the 9,000 ounces produced in February.
Aureus did not provide on Wednesday any production guidance for the mine.
"Although the commissioning stage of the project brought some unexpected challenges, I am proud that we were able to successfully navigate through them, and declare commercial production at New Liberty," said David Reading, chief executive and president.
"The near-term focus of the company is to complete the new mine plan and finalise a debt-repayment schedule with our lenders, whilst ensuring that mining progresses to schedule throughout the wet season to facilitate the availability of sufficient ore stock for continued plant operations," he added.
Aureus secured approval from its lenders in early March to defer its outstanding debt repayments until early April, but the company seems set on trying to extend this further.
FirstRand Bank Ltd, Nedbank Ltd and the Export Credit Insurance Corp of South Africa Ltd gave the company until April 4 to make the outstanding debt repayment, and that already had been extended numerous times earlier in 2016.
Aureus reported a cash balance of USD7.1 million at the end of 2015 after drawing down USD30.0 million of debt during the year and raising an additional USD28.1 million through a fundraising.
Aureus shares were trading up 3.9% to 6.75 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
