RE:RE:Letter To ShareholdersArchimedesB wrote
So, when are they going to collect revenue for the shipped concentrate?
How much oz of gold is refined for 4600 tons of concentrate?
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They have not produced 4600 tonnes of concentrate they have mined 4600 tonnes of ore. They did not mention the ore grade in the news release. They say they have processed most of the 4600 tonnes through the mill and have sold the concentrate. Historical production was aprox. .67 ounce per tonne from previous operations. They are mining above the Custer so lets assume they are getting .25 ounce per tonne just as a guess. That means that if they have processed the 4600 tonnes that would equal aprox. 1150 ounces of gold worth aprox. $2 million US. Not a great deal of money for all this time.
The good news though is that they have finished the ramp development down to the 4600 level and are starting to mine the Custer vein and are getting close to the Parallel vein so grades should improve in the next while. The mill appears to be operating resonably well finally and they are getting recoveries of 75% and trying to improve it to 85% They are also doing more drilling to try and define the ore body better.
So the news is not great for the amount of time that has passed but it appears that they will soon be producing a lot more gold if they can hold on for awhile. I wouldnt be surprised to see more private placements as they still seem to be aways away from being cashflow positive.
At the same time at least they made some kind of announcement which shows they are still in operation and having some progress however slow. Mining is a tough business especially micro juniors like this one trying to start up an old mine with limited funds and income. It appears by the more subdued tone of this press release they have been humbled by how hard things have been but at least they are still trying and going in the right direction even if it is not as quick as they forecasted.
Hopefully they will have some more news releases with much better news in the next weeks and months as they start to mine the Custer and Parallel veins and put the richer ore through the mill.