Minto Metals Corp (TSX-V:MNTO) has said it produced 28.9 million pounds of copper in the financial year 2022, 12.6% higher than in the previous year despite record snow levels during the period.
Announcing its financials for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2022, the company said its full-year revenue rose by $14.9 million, driven by higher sales and higher average realized prices for copper, underscored by a strong first quarter in 2022.
During the year, the company also discovered multiple, new high-grade mineralized lenses through 28,438 metres of diamond drilling. It also identified two substantial, high-priority drill targets during the period.
READ: Minto Metals reports on progress from its 2022 exploration drilling program at Minto East
Higher mine output led to higher costs, up by 17.9% to $133.8 million, while royalty expenses rose by $4.3 million, the company said, noting that finance costs rose by $2.5 million.
During the fourth quarter, copper sales fell by 22.6% to 6.46 million pounds, dented by cold weather conditions. Revenue slipped by $14.7 million to $32.6 million from the corresponding period of the previous year, the company said.
In a statement accompanying the results, Minto president and CEO Chris Stewart noted that there had been numerous challenges during the year, among them record snow levels, supply chain disruptions and volatile copper prices.
“Q4 was negatively impacted by a two-week mill shutdown in December due to extremely cold weather which resulted in mechanical/reliability issues with our surface crushing plant for the Mill. On a positive note, we discovered multiple, new high-grade mineralized lenses through our 28,438 metres of diamond drilling and two substantial, high-priority drill targets were identified through geophysics below and within 1 km of the mine infrastructure. We look forward to following up on these results in the second half of 2023," Stewart said.
"Despite the challenging times we are experiencing, we are aggressively managing our costs and continuously working towards improving our relationships with our suppliers and other stakeholders,” he added.
Minto operates the producing Minto mine located within the traditional territory of the Selkirk First Nation in the Minto Copper Belt of the Yukon. The Minto mine has been operating since 2007 with underground mining since 2014.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com