RE:goldSorry Scanner, but I think you are off the mark here. The raise is strictly for ramping up production, which includes definition/production drilling to see where the grade-stopes are. But the way you put it "to advance drilling" makes it seem like they will be doing exploratory drilling, which is absolutely not the case. They should stop all explorative activities in order to preserve capital for production. In fact, we don't need even a single dollar more of exploration activity until we get the mine running full gear. We have nearly a million ounces to mine, focus on mining.
They don't have all that much cash in the bank which is why they are raising money in the first place. They are burning through cash piles to get to steady state mine production and expected grades.
Whatever "8-zone" there is, we will find out only later on. Whatever the resource estimate due 6 months ago had in store, we will find out only later on. Resource estimate is no longer a priority, 50,000 meters of drilling for that estimate, all that data can sit put. All focus, and I mean ALL focus, is on mining now. Everything else is just fine. They just have to get the underground mining right... 1,000 tpd, 600 at decent grade to mill, 400 at lower grade to stockpile with the occasions couple hundred higher grade to high grade stockpile (should they have one).
No more talk about explorative drilling, please. It is clear why they needed the $25MM. They have burned through the cash raised in the last PP. With production so low in October, their AISC (for that month only) was probably >$2,000/oz produced. If they can get AISC all-in to $1,500/oz, that would be a feat on its own. They have cost whether or not they produce, lower production in one month means higher unit cost. It's not like anyone at PGM is foregoing salary and taking their pay in equity. PGM has bills to pay. You can run the numbers yourself:
Just take October 2021 for example: 1,347 oz produced. Times $1,800 USD/oz times 1.3 exchange rate = CAD $3.1MM for the month. If they have 300 employees on site, and let's say just imagine that the average wage is $75,000/year. So $6,500 per month. 300 employees times $6,500 per employee = $2MM. So just after payroll on-site, not even including payroll in Vancouver office, you have $1.1MM left to cover all other expenses. Imagine the electricity expense, the mine consumables expense, the maintenance expense on equipment, the maintenance expence on the shaft infrastructure, the ventilation costs, the mill expenses, my goodness. I am sure those expenses add up to more than $1.1. So to your point, no, the revenues they generate are not covering their expenses and so they have eaten up the cash from the previous PP and are now raising more cash to try and get the mine to steady state production. On top of the running expenses, they also have capital costs, that are also paid out of the cash pile.
This is honestly their last chance before Anglo gets the opportunity to eat our lunch for a dime.. or a nickel. I'm hoping Maryse can work some magic.