LONDON (Alliance News) - Aureus Mining Inc on Tuesday said it has secured another approval from its lenders to defer its outstanding debt repayment until early April as it continues to advance its new mine plan for its operation in Liberia, which will begin commercial production this month.
The company's lenders, FirstRand Bank Ltd, Nedbank Ltd and the Export Credit Insurance Corp of South Africa Ltd, have given Aureus final credit approval to delay a repayment that was due before the end of February.
Aureus now has until April 4 to make the repayment, which had already been extended to the end of February from the end of January.
Aureus is trying to establish a new debt repayment schedule with its lenders, but needs to finalise its updated mine plan for the New Liberty gold mine in Liberia beforehand, as this will form the basis of discussions with its lenders.
Last month, Aureus said it produced almost 10,000 ounces of gold less than it was targeting, following problems late in 2015 with the commissioning of the plant at its New Liberty gold mine.
Last week, Aureus said it had improved the gold recovery levels at the mine and said it expected further improvements moving forward as it aims to begin commercial production from New Liberty sometime this month.
The gold miner said the recovery levels at the processing plant at the mine increased in January and current stand at an average of 85% in February. However, Aureus said that the recovery level averaged 87% over the week to February 18, and that further improvements are expected.
Gold production from the mine since the start of 2016 stands at 11,001 ounces of gold, of which 5,478 ounces were produced in January with the other 5,523 ounces coming in February, suggesting production is steadily rising as a result of the recovery improvements.
To put that into some form of perspective, Aureus produced 17,172 ounces of gold from the mine in the entire second half of 2015, or an average rate of 2,952 ounces per month.
Aureus shares were down 1.2% to 4.45 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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