KRR ... Karora Delivers Another Strong Quarter With Gold Production of 24,078 ounces and June 30, 2020 Cash Balance of $50.2 Million
Canada NewsWire
TORONTO, July 16, 2020
TORONTO, July 16, 2020 /CNW/ - Karora Resources Inc. (TSX: KRR) ("Karora" or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce another strong quarter with consolidated gold production of 24,078 gold ounces for the second quarter of 2020 from its Beta Hunt and Higginsville mines in Western Australia. Gold sales for the second quarter were 23,185 ounces. The difference in ounces sold vs. produced was sold during the first week of the third quarter.
Karora's consolidated cash balance increased to $50.2 million as at June 30, 2020, a 31% increase from $38.4 million on March 31, 2020. The improved cash balance is after payments into gold hedge agreements during the second quarter. As of June 30, 2020, Karora is completely unhedged and will have full exposure to spot gold prices going forward.
Paul Andre Huet, Chairman & CEO, commented: "I am extremely pleased with our performance during the second quarter where, despite the logistical challenges all miners were faced due to COVID-19 precautions, we delivered yet another rock solid quarterly performance. In fact, this is our fourth straight quarter of strong, consistent gold production results since acquiring the Higginsville mill and mining operations in June of 2019.
Production for the first half of 2020 was 48,894 ounces placing us in a good position going into the second half of the year to achieve our 2020 gold production guidance of 90,000-95,000 ounces and AISC1 of US$1,050-$1,200 per ounce sold.
There is no better measure of our success than our balance sheet. With cash now sitting at over $50 million, net of delivery into the last of our hedges, we are in a stronger financial position than ever before.
We have also made significant progress in our efforts to aggressively reduce costs to achieve our target of lowering AISC costs to US$1,000/oz by the end of 2020. As part of these efforts we have negotiated almost 10% in reductions to our royalty burden on our Western Australian operations, achieved significant savings in phase one of our initiatives with vendors, increased workforce productivity and are on track to achieve significate G&A savings.
We expect to see continued AISC cost reductions despite the costs of the temporary measures we have in place to mitigate the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the hiring of additional medical personnel at our operating sites, special charter flights for on-site personnel and the building of ore stockpiles and supplies in front of our gold processing operations.
With a growing cash balance of over $50 million, underpinned by steady state operations and our success in reducing costs in a rising gold price environment, Karora is in a very strong position to continue to deliver value to its shareholders and we are excited about our future."
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| Non-IFRS: the definition and reconciliation of these measures are included in the Non-IFRS Measures section of Karora's MD&A dated May 7, 2020.
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