Production steady for High River

Revenue for High River Gold Mines (HRG-T) dropped about 50% between the second quarters of 1998 and 1999, as lower cash costs at its mines failed to offset the effect of expired hedging contracts.

However, although revenue fell to $4.7 million from $8.1 million, the company incurred a loss of only $1.9 million (or 6 cents per share), compared with a loss of $3.7 million (14 cents per share) in the second quarter of 1998.

For the first six months of this year, High River lost $1.2 million (4 cents per share) on revenue of $12 million, compared with a year-ago loss of $3.8 million (14 cents per share) on revenue of $15.4 million.

High River owns half of Manitoba’s New Britannia mine, which churned out 23,355 oz. gold at a total cash cost of US$230 per oz. in the first half of 1999, compared with 24,660 oz. at US$239 in the initial six months of last year. Production between the 6-month periods remained steady (47,135 oz. this year, compared with 48,029 oz. in the first half of 1998), while cash costs fell to US$222 from US$241 per oz. The lower costs are said to reflect improved gold recovery and lower maintenance expenses.

On average, the company received US$263 per oz. gold in the second quarter and US$328 per oz. in the first half of the year, down from US$450 and US$428 in the corresponding periods of 1998. The drop in price marked the end of the company’s hedging program.

High River owns 23% of Russian producer Buryatzoloto, which has two gold mines in southern Siberia. The Russian company earned US$1.8 million (30 cents per share) for the first six months of 1999, compared with US$394,000 (7 cents per share) for the corresponding period in 1998. Cash costs between the periods fell to US$175 from US$225 per oz. Buryatzoloto has 15,000 oz. hedged at US$375 per oz.

High River owns 62% of the Taparko project in West Africa. Total resources there were recently upgraded to 17.4 million tonnes at 2.07 grams gold, equivalent to 1.2 million ounces contained gold. Recently, the company raised $1.8 million in a private placement and, as of June 30, its cash position was $1.6 million.

Print


 

Republish this article

Be the first to comment on "Production steady for High River"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*


By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. To learn more, click more information

Dear user, please be aware that we use cookies to help users navigate our website content and to help us understand how we can improve the user experience. If you have ideas for how we can improve our services, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to email us. By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. Please see our Privacy & Cookie Usage Policy to learn more.

Close