Mexican miner Impact Silver aka IPT released its Q1 results, and they were not great, albeit with pretty good explanation as to why. Even as zinc production from the the Plomosas mine gradually increases, aiming at reaching full production by the end of the year, both silver and gold production from Zacualpan were down in Q1. It turns out they ceased production temporarily from their primary source of gold while trying to improve recoveries, while silver production was down primarily due to production interruptions due to upgrading the underground railway Hence IPT lost over $3M in Q1, though they claim this will be more than made up for by the recently completed improvements. We shall see.
There were a few other interesting tidbits. They are designed what they say will be a low cost solar and battery power source for Plomosas, and have signed a new labour agreement with the workers at Zacualpan.
In spite of lesser production, IPT did manage to reduce their direct production costs per tonne significantly in Q1, and also recently completed an upsized PP, so they are in good financial shape. Let us hope the improvements and the continuing high price of all the metals they produce will generate some decent profits.
West African gold miner Endeavour Mining aka EDV continued its recent string of positive news with the announcement that wet commissioning is now underway at its Lafigué project in Côte d’Ivoire. The build has gone well, on budget and months ahead of schedule, with the first gold pour expected next month. Mining to date has built a stockpile of 1.6Mt ore at 1.30g/t containing 65koz Au. The mine is expected to produce over 200k oz Au a year during its initial 13 years at an AISC of less than $900/oz.
H2 looks better and better for EDV. If the PoG cooperates as I expect, I think the share price will increase substantially from current levels.
BTW, I also checked the voting at their recent AGM to see if the turmoil over the fired CEO had had an impact, but there was no effect that I could discern.
Mexican gold miner Minera Alamos aka MAI released its Q1 results and a YTD operations update. Anyone who has been following the company knows that permit issues have got in the way of expanding production at its Santana mine in Sinaloa, so in response they had reconfigured the mine plan to a new approach to maximize production without the heap leach expansion. This process has already begun with the stockpiling of higher grade ore to be processed following metallurgical testing to maximize recoveries, as well as increasing mining rates.
Gold production did increase in Q1, to 907 oz, but this is expected to greatly increase over the next 12 months as the new plans kick in. In the meantime, MAI remains in good financial shape, with a cash stash of $11.8M and working capital of $18.2M. The shares have been trading better of late. If they get the heap leach expansion permits, which could happen at any time, expect another an upward re-rating of the stock.
FWIW, Saville is removing FVI from his recommendations and replacing it with BTO due to the way FVI has run of late. In general I do not value his stock recommendations the way I do his calls on the overall market, but this one looks like a good call.
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