After furiously undertaking a toll treating operation at its Jeffrey’s Find gold deposit near Norseman, Auric Mining (ASX: AWJ) is all smiles with $4.2m cash in hand for the 2023 calendar year.
A second stage tolling operation is underway as the company also looks to replicate its toll treating success at the much larger Munda gold deposit in the same region.
Auric’s statutory maiden profit for the 2023 calendar year was $1.31 million, which was adjusted upwards to A$2.85 million after accounting for about $1.53 million in “tenement expenditure write offs” that were a non-cash expense.
The favourable gold price trend, which sent the price of the precious yellow metal soaring to a then record peak of US$2066 (~A$3161) per ounce at the end of December 2023 saw the company pump out 9741 ounces of gold at an extraordinary average price of A$3006 per ounce.
Six months of mining generated almost $10 million in surplus cash for Auric and its JV partner, BML Ventures Pty Ltd of Kalgoorlie.
Auric Mining managing director Mark English
Auric Mining managing director Mark English said: “Six months of mining generated almost $10 million in surplus cash for Auric and its JV partner, BML Ventures Pty Ltd of Kalgoorlie. The past 12 months has seen us become self-funding for 2024.”
In what could be described as an example of impeccable timing – and perhaps even good fortune - the company says it generated $10m in surplus cash for itself and its mining partner BML Ventures in just six months from its Stage-1 mining operation at Jeffreys Find. During the year two milling campaigns processed a total of 175,865 dry tonnes of ore at a solid overall average grade of 1.86g/t gold.
The company has already kicked off a second stage of mining at Jeffreys Find with grade control drilling being completed in January and first ore processing is scheduled for mid-late April.
The company is planning to upscale its mining with a new revised pit shell based on a gold price of A$2900 an ounce, well under today’s spot price of $3327. Ore will be being hauled to the Greenfields mill at Coolgardie, 38km south-west of Kalgoorlie on the Great Eastern Highway, where gold can be poured and sent to the Perth Mint for sale.
The Jeffrey’s Find project is a planned short-life operation which is due to be completed in early 2025. Cash derived from Jeffreys is slated to fund the development of a new operation at its Munda project, near Widgiemooltha, 91km north of Norseman.
Auric is on a roll with its small open pit toll treating mining model and its 2023 result that left the company with a cash surplus of just over $4m sets it apart from many other small explorers out there who are still living hand to mouth from capital raise to capital raise.
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