Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY and FSE: D7Q1) “Monument” or
the “Company” today announced its annual financial results for the
year ended June 30, 2021. All amounts are in United States dollars
unless otherwise indicated (refer to www.sedar.com for full
financial results).
President and CEO Cathy Zhai commented: “During
this fiscal year, Monument has focused on consolidating the asset
portfolio by spinning off the Mengapur base metal project and
placing the Tuckanarra Gold Project into a joint venture. The
restructured gold focused portfolio provides potential catalysts
for re-rating the share price going forward into fiscal 2022 and
beyond for our shareholders.
“For the same reason, as of June 30, 2021, we
established a solid financial position with $38.62 million in cash
and cash equivalents on hand. The strengthened cash reserves allow
us to support and implement the corporate value creation
strategies, especially to fund the Selinsing gold treatment plant
expansion and exploration of Murchison. Monument is open to all
corporate development opportunities to optimize our future growth
and shareholders value moving forward”.
Ms. Zhai further commented: “With the continued
challenges from the global Covid-19 pandemic that caused more than
six weeks mine shut down during the year, Selinsing Gold
Mine produced positive cash flow in 2021 from mining
super-low grade ore, leachable sulphide ore and Peranggih
materials, which has brought our aggregated Selinsing Gold Mine
production to 325,509 ounces at an average cost of $535 per ounce
with gross revenue of $452.1 million, gross margin of $279.3
million and net cash from production of $275 million. Looking
forward, our management team will continue to work hard with the
“Can Do” attitude and the philosophy of “being a doer” in
delivering our commitment to our shareholders.”
Fiscal 2021 Highlights:
- Restructured assets to a gold
focused portfolio by spinning out Mengapur copper and iron
project;
- Two staged Selinsing gold plant
conversion with the flotation plant construction commenced and
fully funded;
- Murchison Project exploration
strategized to test potential gold discovery and upside;
- Tuckanarra Joint ventured with
Odyssey fast tracking exploration and development;
- Selinsing Gold Mine continued with
leachable sulphide ore production transitioning to new life of
mine
Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2021
Production and Financial Highlights
|
Three months ended June 30, |
Year ended June 30, |
|
2021 |
2020 |
2021 |
2020 |
Production |
|
|
|
|
Ore mined (tonnes) |
72,074 |
42,331 |
427,528 |
263,074 |
Waste removed (tonnes) |
687,255 |
463,228 |
3,639,490 |
2,887,441 |
Ore processed (tonnes) |
94,940 |
68,961 |
579,569 |
675,708 |
Average mill feed grade
(g/t) |
0.72 |
1.06 |
0.84 |
1.11 |
Processing recovery rate
(%) |
64% |
67% |
61% |
71% |
Gold production (1) (oz) |
1,838 |
2,311 |
10,282 |
17,360 |
Gold sold (oz) |
3,473 |
3,282 |
12,850 |
19,401 |
|
|
|
|
|
Financial (in thousands of US
dollars) |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Revenue |
6,085 |
5,404 |
23,236 |
29,971 |
Gross margin from mining
operations |
1,270 |
2,652 |
8,103 |
12,944 |
Net income before other
items |
(1,009) |
704 |
1,696 |
4,509 |
Net loss |
(2,702) |
(1,273) |
(99,318) |
(275) |
Cash flows generated from
operations |
2,208 |
657 |
1,654 |
6,273 |
Working capital |
48,539 |
18,786 |
48,539 |
18,786 |
|
|
|
|
|
Loss per share before other
items – basic (US$/share) |
(0.00) |
0.00 |
0.01 |
0.01 |
Loss per share – basic
(US$/share) |
(0.01) |
(0.00) |
(0.31) |
(0.00) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three months ended June 30, |
Year ended June 30, |
|
2021 |
2020 |
2021 |
2020 |
|
|
|
|
|
Other |
US$/oz |
US$/oz |
US$/oz |
US$/oz |
Average realized gold price
per ounce sold (2) |
1,812 |
1,684 |
1,864 |
1,563 |
|
|
|
|
|
Cash cost per ounce (3) |
|
|
|
|
Mining |
496 |
233 |
397 |
223 |
Processing |
711 |
454 |
602 |
507 |
Royalties |
167 |
143 |
169 |
136 |
Operations, net of silver recovery |
12 |
8 |
10 |
12 |
Total cash cost per
ounce |
1,386 |
838 |
1,178 |
878 |
All-in sustaining costs per
ounce (4) |
|
|
|
|
By-product silver recovery |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Operation expenses |
119 |
179 |
46 |
40 |
Corporate expenses |
3 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
Accretion of asset retirement obligation |
9 |
12 |
10 |
9 |
Exploration and evaluation expenditures |
25 |
45 |
22 |
32 |
Sustaining capital expenditures |
104 |
174 |
162 |
171 |
Total all-in sustaining cost per ounce |
1,647 |
1,255 |
1,425 |
1,136 |
(1) |
Defined as good delivery gold bullion according to London Bullion
Market Association (“LBMA”), net of gold doŕe in transit and
refinery adjustment. |
(2) |
Exclude gold prepaid delivery for
comparison purposes. |
(3) |
Total cash cost includes
production costs such as mining, processing, tailing facility
maintenance and camp administration, royalties, and operating costs
such as storage, temporary mine production closure, community
development cost and property fees, net of by-product credits. Cash
cost excludes amortization, depletion, accretion expenses, capital
costs, exploration costs and corporate administration costs. |
(4) |
All-in sustaining cost per ounce
includes total cash costs, operation expenses, and adds sustaining
capital expenditures, corporate administrative expenses for the
Selinsing Gold Mine including share-based compensation, exploration
and evaluation costs, and accretion of asset retirement
obligations. Certain other cash expenditures, including tax
payments and acquisition costs, are not included. |
|
|
2021 Gold Production
Production Analysis
- Gold production
of 10,282oz, a 41% decrease as compared to 17,360oz of the previous
year. Gold production for the year ended June 30, 2021 was mainly
from transitional leachable sulphide ore from Selinsing Pit 4 &
Pit 5, oxide ore from Peranggih and old tailings materials. This
resulted in lower mill feed grades and lower recovery rates.
- 2021 mining
activities delivered 427,528 tonnes of ore from Selinsing (259,459
tonnes), Buffalo Reef (27,642 tonnes), Felda (13,022 tonnes) and
Peranggih (127,405 tonnes). Mining costs for Peranggih were
recorded against inventories for 127,405 tonnes during the year, of
which 118,688 tonnes were fed into the mill.
- Ore processed
decreased to 579,569 tonnes from 675,708 tonnes last year. The
decreased was due to the lack of availability of stockpiled ore.
Ore stockpile has significantly reduced mainly due to the adverse
impact of the shortage of explosive supplies in the first quarter
resulting in a lower mining rate. COVID-19 pandemic has not helped
in achieving the target. The Company has devoted its effort to
improve the stockpile balance.
- Total production
costs $15.13 million as compared to $17.03 million of last year.
Cash cost per ounce increased by 34% to $1,178/oz as compared to
$878/oz of last year. The increase was attributable to a 24%
decrease in the mill feed grade from 1.11g/t to 0.84g/t and a
decrease in recovery to 60.8% (2020: 70.9%) as a result of
processing significantly more leachable sulphide ore and other low
recovery ores.
Financial Analysis
- Gold sales
generated revenue of $23.24 million for the year as compared to
$29.97 million from last year. Gold sales revenue was derived from
the sale of 10,700oz (2020: 16,750oz) of gold at an average
realized gold price of $1,864 per ounce (2020: $1,563 per ounce)
and the delivery of 2,150oz (2020: 2,651oz) in fulfilling gold
prepaid obligations at an average London Fix PM gold price of
$1,525 per ounce (2020: $1,429 per ounce).
- Mining
operations before non-cash amortization and depreciation generated
a gross margin of $8.10 million, a decrease of 37% from $12.94
million from the previous year. The decrease in gross margin was
attributable to the decrease in gold sold offsite by a higher
average realized gold price.
- Cash and cash
equivalents balance as at June 30, 2021 was $38.62 million, an
increase of $28.50 million from the balance at June 30, 2020 of
$10.13 million. As at June 30, 2021, the Company had positive
working capital $48.54 million (June 30, 2020: $18.79 million). The
increase in working capital was mainly due to the increase in cash
and cash equivalents.
- Cashflow from
investing activities for the year was $26.87 million (2020: outflow
of $5.47 million), which was mainly from the sale of the Mengapur
project of $29.16 million and the sale of 80% interest in
Tuckanarra project of $2.66 million.
Development
Selinsing Gold Mine
This year the Company commenced to develop the
Selinsing Sulphide Project into production through a two stages
de-risking process in order to reduce the initial upfront
investment required. Stage 1 is the construction of a flotation
plant aimed to produce saleable gold concentrates and stage 2 is
the construction of a BIOX ® leaching plant to treat third party
concentrates should a niche market be successfully established.
Selinsing Flotation construction will take
approximately 15 months to be completed for an estimated $20
million, including flotation plant optimization and engineering,
procurement, construction and commissioning, and securing off-take
agreements. Flotation test work was completed at the Selinsing
on-site lab to determine the optimum concentrate gold grade and
recovery for maximizing revenue. The positive results were
independently tested at Bureau Veritas Laboratory under Orway
Mineral Consultant’s (“OMC”) supervision.
OMC completed the process plant design in June
2021, and submitted the flotation process engineering design
including the process design criteria, major equipment summary,
flowsheet, mass balance and consumables estimates, as a
modification to the flotation conceptual engineering design that
reported in the Snowden feasibility study in February 2019. The new
set of design criteria would allow Selinsing to produce gold
concentrates as a final product for sale.
Further development work was carried out
including: an underground mining desktop study, Tailings Storage
Facility development, and mining cutback and test work for oxide
mining assessment at Peranggih in order to sustain Selinsing gold
production.
Murchison Gold Project
At Murchison development work took place to
re-assess early production opportunity. The mine plan was completed
by management and the independent review conducted by SRK, which
covered geotechnics, hydrology and environmental compliance in
addition to resource modelling, mining optimization and scheduling,
and metallurgical recoveries. The follow up work has been
recommended and considered by the Company. As a part of the value
creation strategies, the Company has taken direction to focus on
regional exploration to test potential for larger gold production
at Murchison pending on new gold discoveries. The geological study
has been conducted to further identify and optimize regional
exploration targets. Geological data has been further investigated
and integrated to the database. As a result, the phase one
exploration program was commenced subsequent to the end of the year
in July 2021.
Major Transactions
Tuckanarra Joint Venture (“JV”)
In October 2020 Monument entered into a JV
arrangement with Odyssey Gold Ltd. (“Odyssey”) to advance the
Tuckanarra Gold Project, and in December 2020 sold an 80% interest
in Tuckanarra to Odyssey for AUD$5 million subject to certain
conditions, leaving Monument with a 20% free carried interest and a
1% NSR royalty over Odyssey’s 80% interest in the property. Odyssey
will be solely responsible for funding the exploration and
evaluation activities at Tuckanarra until a decision to mine is
reached. The future processing of ore from tenements held by
Odyssey through the Burnakura plant remains an option should
commercial terms be reached.
Mengapur Copper-Iron Project Divestment
Monument closed a transaction with Fortress
Minerals in April 2021 to sell 100% interest in the Mengapur Copper
and Iron Project. The sale is part of the Company’s corporate
restructuring to focus on the development of the gold portfolios in
both Malaysia and Western Australia. Monument sold Mengapur Copper
and Iron Project for US$30,000,000 in cash, and will also receive a
1.25% gross revenue royalty on all products produced at the
Mengapur Project.
Exploration
Malaysia
A Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program was
completed at Selinsing which consisted of 1,128m over 19 holes at
Pits 4, 5, and 6. A total of 1,335 including 225 QAQC samples were
assayed. The drill program aimed to identify and define
mineralization areas with average grades that can be immediately
mined economically in the current CIL plant. The main drilling
target was the shallow dipping structure extension close to the
east flank of the pits. The drilling program resulted with several
significant intercepts.
An RC drill program was undertaken at Peranggih
to upgrade the grade and ounces of mineralized material based on
previous close spaced drilling results. The first phase was
completed in April 2021 with 1,697m drilled over 34 holes. The
second phase drilling includes completing 420m over 9 holes and
additional drilling progressed at year end. Drill assays received
from the Selinsing Mine lab showed moderate to high grade
interceptions. RC drilling costs were recorded under Exploration
and Evaluation assets.
Western Australia
In fiscal 2021, Monument announced the results
of the drilling program carried out from February to May 2020,
which confirmed the continuity of gold mineralization within
identified structures and favorable lithology from existing mineral
resources. The Company decided to begin regional exploration
potential assessment and commenced work on a 2-year exploration
strategy designed to test beneath cover for potential
mineralization that is aimed to lead to the discovery of shallow
stand alone or satellite gold deposits, aiming to add significant
additional resources to the current resource base. The strategy
will involve testing down dip of high-grade mineralization
underneath existing pits as well as test some of the high priority
regional targets through Greenfield exploration of the land package
at Burnakura and Gabanintha. Field work permitting activities have
continued with ground preparation activities during the fourth
quarter, and the first stage of drilling started, subsequent to the
end of the year.
About Monument
Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY, FSE:D7Q1)
is an established Canadian gold producer that owns and operates the
Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia. Its experienced management team is
committed to growth and is also advancing the Murchison Gold
Projects comprising Burnakura, Gabanintha and Tuckanarra JV (20%
interest) in the Murchison area of Western Australia. The Company
employs approximately 200 people in both regions and is committed
to the highest standards of environmental management, social
responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and
neighboring communities.
Cathy Zhai, President and CEOMonument Mining
LimitedSuite 1580 -1100 Melville StreetVancouver, BC V6E 4A6
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION visit the company web
site at www.monumentmining.com or contact:
Richard
Cushing, MMY Vancouver |
T:
+1-604-638-1661 x102 |
rcushing@monumentmining.com |
"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation
Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the
TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release."
Forward-Looking Statement
This news release includes statements containing
forward-looking information about Monument, its business and future
plans (“forward-looking statements”). Forward-looking statements
are statements that involve expectations, plans, objectives or
future events that are not historical facts and include the
Company’s plans with respect to its mineral projects and the timing
and results of proposed programs and events referred to in this
news release. Generally, forward-looking information can be
identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as
"plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget",
"scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or
"does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words
and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may",
"could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be
achieved". The forward-looking statements in this news release are
subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that
could cause actual results or achievements to differ materially
from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
These risks and certain other factors include, without limitation:
risks related to general business, economic, competitive,
geopolitical and social uncertainties; uncertainties regarding the
results of current exploration activities; uncertainties in the
progress and timing of development activities; foreign operations
risks, including risks related to changes in mining license rights,
tax rates and government royalty requirements; other risks inherent
in the mining industry and other risks described in the management
discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on
the Company’s projects, all of which are available under the
profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Material factors
and assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements in this
news release include: expectations regarding the estimated cash
cost per ounce of gold production and the estimated cash flows
which may be generated from the operations, general economic
factors and other factors that may be beyond the control of
Monument; assumptions and expectations regarding the results of
exploration on the Company’s projects; assumptions regarding the
future price of gold of other minerals; the timing and amount of
estimated future production; the expected timing and results of
development and exploration activities; costs of future activities;
capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration
activities; mining or processing issues; exchange rates; expected
mining rights, tax rates, and government royalty requirements in
the jurisdictions in which the Company operates; and all of the
factors and assumptions described in the management discussion and
analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Company’s
projects, all of which are available under the profile of the
Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has
attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those contained in
forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause
results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can
be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as
actual results and future events could differ materially from those
anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not
place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company
does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except
in accordance with applicable securities laws.
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