Comstock Mining Announces 2018 Year End Results; Advances Lucerne and Non-Mining Assets Sales
Corrado De Gasperis, Executive Chairman and CEO of the Company, said, “We dedicated 2018 to repositioning the platform by forging agreements to option and sell Lucerne, lease American Flats and enable the sale of the Silver Springs non-mining assets by leveraging the newly designated Opportunity Zones, while significantly reducing liabilities and operating costs in almost every category over the past two years, enhancing liquidity and positioning the company for meaningful and substantial growth. We expect to close these transactions over the next few months, bringing us over $20 million dollars in 2019.”
Mr. De Gasperis added, “Our focused cost reduction efforts, coupled with expanded strategic partnerships, well-positions us to advance our mine projects, both the Dayton and Lucerne, at a very low net cost and in a capital efficient manner. We now have the partners and agreements in place to monetize our permitted platform and our non-mining assets, allowing us to self-fund our projects to feasibility and eliminate debt."
Corporate and Outlook
We plan on closing the Tonogold transaction between March 31, and May 31, with proceeds of at least $9 million more upon closing. We plan on finalizing the agreements for selling the non-mining asset and the options during the next few weeks and then closing these sales between March 31, and July 31, 2019, with proceeds of $9.75 million, net of closing expenses estimated at approximately $250k. We expect to have paid off the entirety of our outstanding debenture obligations, of approximately $8.2 million, plus accrued and other interest costs, during the second quarter of 2019, most likely by May 2019. Interest expense is expected to be eliminated by mid-year, with about $500k of actual interest savings realized during 2019.
Our annual operating expenses are planned at $3.8 million, with approximately $1.2 million of that amount currently being reimbursed under the existing Tonogold Option. We anticipate an additional $1 million of annualized savings, or $2.2 million annually, upon closing the new transaction, with about $1.7 million realized in 2019, or approximately $500k more operating savings realized during 2019, vs. 2018.
Tonogold has announced that they plan on publishing an updated NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate for the Lucerne Project during the first quarter of 2019. We plan on publishing an NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate for the Dayton Project during the second quarter of 2019. The plan also includes expanding the current resource at the Dayton and continuing southerly into Spring Valley with incremental expansion programs that include exploration and definition drilling of targets identified by geophysical surveys during 2019. We also plan on commencing permitting for Dayton in 2019.
