Semafo posts record financial results for 2008

It may have been a year many companies would prefer to forget, but 2008 was one of the best years in Semafo‘s (SMF-T) history.

The Montreal-headquartered company posted record net earnings of US$39.5 million; record operating cash flow of US$56.3 million (more than five times that of the previous year); and record gold production of 195,400 ounces, an 84% increase over 2007.

Semafo posted average cash operating costs of US$461 per oz. gold (a year-on-year decrease of 7%) and record gold sales of US$169.9 million (a 129% year-on-year increase) at an average selling price of US$858 per ounce.

It ended the year with an equity financing of US$18.7 million in December and at Dec. 31, 2008 had cash and equivalents of US$28.7 million.

Among other milestones, the company successfully started up and commissioned its Mana mine in Burkina Faso and recorded a return to profitability at its Kiniero mine in Guinea.

Mana is Semafo’s newest mine and construction was completed in 14 months. It moved into commercial production in the second quarter of 2008, and during its first three months of operations (April, May and June) Mana produced 17,200 ounces of gold using a 2,000 tonne-per-day ball mill.

The company successfully commissioned a new 4,000 tonne-per-day ball mill during the third quarter and the design throughput was reached at the beginning of September.

The company trades at about C$1.93 per share and has a 52-week trading range of 75-$2.13 per share.

Semafo currently has about 232.7 million shares outstanding.