Aura Minerals Reports Preliminary Fourth Quarter Operational Results and 2015 Guidance

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - January 19, 2015) - Aura Minerals Inc. ("Aura Minerals" or the "Company") (TSX: ORA) is pleased to announce preliminary 2014 fourth quarter and full year production results and guidance for 2015 production and capital expenditure. All dollar figures are in United States dollars unless otherwise indicated. 

Preliminary 2014 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Operating Results

The Company produced 43,430 ounces ("oz") of gold in the fourth quarter ("Q4") of 2014, as compared to 48,506 oz gold produced in Q4 2013. In 2014, Aura Minerals produced 181,096 oz of gold, representing a 12% decrease over 206,956 oz produced in 2013. Full year gold production for 2014 exceeded previously provided guidance.

Aura Minerals' full year 2014 preliminary gold production per mine was as follows:

 ¹ Subject to change when 2014's year-end reporting documents are filed with the regulatory authorities.

The Company's Aranzazu Mine ("Aranzazu") produced 2,685,000 pounds ("lbs") of contained copper in Q4 2014, as compared to 3,638,000 lbs of contained copper in Q4 2013. In 2014, Aranzazu produced 14,593,000 lbs of contained copper, representing a 7% increase over the 13,623,000 lbs of contained copper produced in 2013.

Production and Capital Expenditure Guidance - 2015

The Company's production and cash cost per oz² guidance for the 2015 calendar year is as follows:

 ² A cautionary note regarding non-GAAP measures is included at the end of this news release.

As previously announced, operations at Aranzazu have been suspended and therefore guidance is not provided for the 2015 calendar year.

For 2015, capital expenditures are expected to be $11.5M. Of this amount, $11.3M relates to San Andres and principally includes the heap leach expansion, power line and committed community expenditures. The remaining portion will be spent on Sao Francisco. The Company also expects to spend up to $1.0M on an updated bankable NI 43-101 report for Aranzazu.

Non-GAAP Measures

This news release includes certain non-GAAP performance measures, in particular, the average cash cost of gold per oz and average cash cost per payable pound of copper are non-GAAP performance measures. These non-GAAP measures do not have any standardized meaning within IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The Company believes that these measures provide investors with additional information which is useful in evaluating the Company's performance and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Average cash costs per oz of gold or per payable pound of copper are presented as they represent an industry standard method of comparing certain costs on a per unit basis. Total cash costs of gold produced include on-site mining, processing and administration costs, off-site refining and royalty charges, reduced by silver by-product credits, but exclude amortization, reclamation, and exploration costs, as well as capital expenditures. Total cash costs of gold produced are divided by oz produced to arrive at per oz cash costs. Similarly, total cash costs of copper produced include the above costs, and are net of gold and silver by-products, but include offsite treatment and refining charges. Total cash costs of copper produced are divided by payable pounds of copper produced to arrive at per payable pound cash costs. 

About Aura Minerals Inc.

Aura Minerals is a Canadian mid-tier gold and copper production company focused on the development and operation of gold and base metal projects in the Americas. The Company's producing assets include the San Andres gold mine in Honduras and the Sao Francisco gold mines in Brazil. Operations at the copper-gold-silver Aranzazu mine in Mexico have been suspended. The Company's core development asset is the copper-gold-iron Serrote da Laje project in Brazil. 

Cautionary Note

This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements", as defined in applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the Company's current estimates, predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, without limitation, statements with respect to: preliminary Q4 and 2014 full year production, 2015 production, cash costs and capital expenditure guidance. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategy", "goals", "objectives" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements in this news release are based upon, without limitation, the following estimates and assumptions: the presence of and continuity of metals at the Company's Mines at modeled grades; the capacities of various machinery and equipment; the availability of personnel, machinery and equipment at estimated prices; exchange rates; metals and minerals sales prices; appropriate discount rates; tax rates and royalty rates applicable to the mining operations; cash costs; anticipated mining losses and dilution; metals recovery rates, reasonable contingency requirements; and receipt of regulatory approvals on acceptable terms.

Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to predict or control could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Specific reference is made to the Company's most recent Annual Information Form for a discussion of some of the factors underlying forward-looking statements, which include, without limitation, gold and copper or certain other commodity price volatility, changes in debt and equity markets, the uncertainties involved in interpreting geological data, increases in costs, environmental compliance and changes in environmental legislation and regulation, interest rate and exchange rate fluctuations, general economic conditions and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect the forward-looking statements. 

All forward-looking statements herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.