Minto Metals Corp (TSX-V:MNTO) has announced its results for the three months to 30 September 2022, which revealed a 17.1% revenue growth and a 7.1% rise in copper sales.
The miner recorded revenue of $35.3 million in the third quarter, compared to $30.1 million in the same period in 2021, mainly due to an increase in sales volume, which was partly offset by a 16.4% drop in average realized copper prices.
Year-to-date (YTD) revenue grew by 32.5% to $120.6 million.
Third-quarter copper sales increased to 7.86 million pounds from 7.34 million pounds, while YTD copper sales were 29.6% higher at 22.4 million pounds.
The company said it is confident of meeting its production forecast of 28-31 million pounds of copper for the year.
"We are pleased with our team's recovery in Q3 resulting in 7.86 million pounds of copper being produced after a challenging second quarter,” commented Chris Stewart, president and CEO of Minto Metals in a statement.
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“The improvements implemented to the company's water treatment plant along with the improved water management on site have allowed us to treat and discharge over 1.2 million m3 of water YTD which is more than double the cumulative amount of water that has been discharged from the site over the past 7 years,” he said.
“This is truly a remarkable feat in such a short time and a credit to our employees, contractors, and consultants," he added.
Minto said mined ore increased by 9.5% to 222,696 tonnes in the third quarter, with total YTD mined ore rising by 15.7% to 698,470 tonnes.
Mill Feed was 269,096 dry metric tonnes (dmt) for the third quarter of 2022, a 35.8% increase from the same quarter last year. The total YTD 2022 mill feed of 682,504 dmt was 6.3% higher than the year-ago period.
Cash costs per pound sold in the third quarter averaged $3.18 per pound, up 16.5%, while in the year to date, cash costs per pound sold averaged $2.91 per pound, down 12.6% on the same period in 2021.
All-In Sustaining Costs (AISC) per pound sold averaged $3.87 per pound in the third quarter, a 4.0% increase from last year. In the year to date, AISC per pound sold averaged $3.88 per pound, a fall of 3.9% on 2021.
The company posted a $0.7million adjusted EBITDA loss for the third quarter, compared to a $1.1 million profit for the same period in 2021. YTD adjusted EBITDA rose to $18.5 million from $9.2 million.
Minto said that similar to many mining companies, it has been faced with circumstances that have contributed to rising costs on various fronts, such as supply chain issues related to COVID-19, the rising costs of fuel, steel, and the availability and cost of equipment parts.
Additional unique challenges during Q3 included the underground capital development and ore production rates which were lower than budget, the company added.
It said both of these items were negatively impacted by equipment reliability, which has negatively impacted the quarterly adjusted EBITDA number with more fixed costs allocation to the operating cost expense versus ongoing capital development.
"Although the continued decrease in copper price combined with increasing consumable costs are partially offsetting the positive impacts of the improved operational results, we are confident that operations will continue to perform consistently and that we will achieve our previously announced production guidance of 28-31 million pounds of copper," said Stewart.
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 mine has been operating since 2007 with underground mining starting in 2014. Since 2007, around 500 million pounds (Mlbs) of copper have been produced from the asset.
The current mine operations are based on underground mining, a process plant to produce high-grade copper, gold, and silver concentrate, and supporting infrastructure associated with a remote location in Yukon.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com