Great Panther Mining Limited has announced unaudited second-quarter financial results from its three wholly-owned mines -- Tucano in Brazil as well as Topia and the Guanajuato Mine Complex (GMC) in Mexico.
In a statement, CEO Rob Henderson said the temporary suspension of mining at Tucano's Urucum Central South (UCS) pit resulted in lower gold production and higher costs in the second quarter of 2021. Mining at UCS has since recommenced at depth.
"While this is a positive development, we will continue to have significant additional waste removal in Q3 related to UCS pushback activity,” Henderson said. “We have also revised our production guidance downward to account for lower than expected production in Q2 and uncertainty around production from our GMC complex in Mexico, given the lack of progress on permits. The higher costs combined with lower production have caused us to further revise our cost guidance upward for 2021."
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He added: "Looking forward, we are excited by the positive exploration results we have seen in our Tap C pit and the recent promising results from the Urucum North deposit at Tucano. We believe the investments we have made in Urucum Central South as well as in our exploration programs will allow us to grow our production for the balance of 2021 and beyond."
Great Panther said gold production at Tucano for its 2Q, which ended June 30, was lower as a result of halting ore production from the UCS open pit due to the detection of movement in the west wall of the south-central portion of the pit. With the objective of improving the wall's stability, about 1.4 million tonnes of waste material has been removed from the upper west wall of the UCS pit, with a further 1.2 million tonnes planned to be removed in the 3Q.
During the designed pushback at UCS, the company also said the mill at Tucano received lower grade ore from stockpiles and the Urucum North (URN) open pit. Compared with the same period last year, the company said revenue was $52.1 million versus $67 million, and production costs increased to $45 million from $31.4 million.
Great Panther said its 2Q financial and production highlights include:
- UCS pit pushback activities ahead of schedule and production ramping up with higher-grade ore to be mined in upcoming quarters;
- Metal production of 27,722 gold equivalent ounces, inclusive of 22,804 gold ounces and 334,423 silver ounces;
- All-in-sustaining costs, excluding corporate G&A, of $2,201 per gold ounce sold compared with $1,027 for the same period in 2020;
- Revenue of $52.1 million, a 22% decrease compared to the same period in 2020;
- Mine operating loss of $0.6 million compared with mine operating earnings of $23.9 million in 2Q 2020;
- Net loss of $10.1 million compared with net income of $8.6 million in 2Q 2020; and
- Adjusted net loss of $9.5 million compared with an adjusted net income of $16.7 million in 2Q 2020.
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