Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited announced an increase in ore mined at its Kapan mine in Armenia in the first half and said it remains on track to deliver on guidance for own and third-party ore for the year.
According to a statement, the company mined 321,100 tonnes of ore in the half-year to 30 June 2022, up by 6.5% compared to the same period of 2021, although the grade was 12.2% lower at 2.94 g/t gold equivalent, impacted by narrower vein areas.
Targets for the second half of the year remains on “reducing dilution and developing areas of the mine with wider veins”, Chaarat said.
Gold equivalent ounces production was down by 8.1% to 30,562 equivalent ounces, although full-year guidance of 56,000-62,000koz of total own-ore and third-party ore production remains unchanged.
Adjusted preliminary EBITDA in the first half was down by 40% to US$8.1mln as a result of the second quarter suffering pricing adjustments due to lower commodity prices and the adverse impact of the AMD/USD exchange rate.
"Kapan made good progress operationally in the quarter despite mining in narrower vein areas which had an impact on grade. Financial performance was impacted by lower commodity prices and a higher Armenian Dram compared to the US Dollar,” said chief executive Mike Fraser.
The east flank drilling campaign at Kapan is expected to develop an initial JORC resource and reverse statement by the end of 2023, with first assay results expected in the last quarter of this year.
The gold mining company also provided an update on its Tulkubash & Kyzyltash projects in Kyrgyzstan.
At Tulkubash, Chaarat performed a reserve and resource update, including a 13% increase to 647koz, with construction set to commence once financing has been secured.
"We are pleased to note the final resolution of the dispute between Centerra and the Kyrgyz government. This was a material condition to progressing funding of our Tulkubash project in the second half of 2022," said Fraser.
Metallurgical test work on the Kyzyltash core drilled in 2021 continues as planned, with full results expected in the third quarter of 2022.
"Chaarat continues to evaluate opportunities for inorganic growth in line with our growth agenda. Gold equities have been impacted by reduced liquidity in the sector, but this in turn provides a unique opportunity to grow the value of the company," Fraser concluded.