Aurelia Metals Ltd.: Quarterly Activities Report - March 2015
SUMMARY
HIGHLIGHTS
- Declaration of Commercial Production at the Hera Gold-Zinc-Lead Operation (100%)
- Multiple high-grade exploration drill results from Hera North and Hera South
- Significant Upgrade to Hera Resources, implying mine life extensions of 2 years
- Forward gold sales of 10,500 ounces at A$1591/oz
OPERATIONS & DEVELOPMENT
- Commissioning of the Hera Process Plant continued during the quarter with steady improvement in process plant throughput and metal recoveries during the quarter.
- Significant attention on plant throughput and gold recovery during the quarter yielded positive results. Plant throughput in March was 27,175 tonnes which was 93% of design capacity, and gold recoveries improved to 76% during the month of March and to >80% by the end of March.
- Aurelia declared commercial production at the Hera Gold-Zinc-Lead Operation (100%) from the 1 April 2015, marking the completion of commissioning of the Process Plant.
- Continued strong underground mine performance with a switch from development to stoping at the end of the quarter.
- Upgraded Resources Estimate announced on 21 April delivered a 32% increase in tonnes and a 5% increase in grade of the Hera Resource.
EXPLORATION
- Continued high grade drill results from surface exploration drilling at Hera North, including:
* HRD060: 3.65m at 39.7 g/t Au, 243 g/t Ag, 7.91% Pb and 11.3% Zn
- High grade results from underground exploration drilling at the southern end of the Hera deposit, including:
* HRUD159: 12.0m at 24 g/t Au and 4.3% Pb+Zn
CORPORATE
- Gold revenue in the quarter was $6.5 million from sales of 4,156 ounces at an average price of A$1565/oz.
- Provisional lead-zinc concentrate sales revenue of A$3.2 million was received in the quarter.
- At quarter end, the Company held 26,445 oz of gold put options at a strike of A$1500/oz and Gold Forward sales of 8,900 ounces at A$1591/oz (from an initial forward sales volume of 10,500 oz established in February 2015).
- Completion of a fully underwritten rights issue raised $10 million to fund high priority exploration, working capital and growth.
- At 31 March 2015, the Company held cash in bank of $12.4 million.
Rimas Kairaitis, Managing Director commented "The declaration of Commercial Production at Hera on 1 April marks a major step in Aurelia's growth. We are now focused on optimisation and ramping up to full scale production. The recently announced resource upgrade highlights the potential of the Hera orebody to continue to grow in size and quality and it also highlights the potential for increased mine life or potentially higher future metal production."
To view the quarterly report, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-AMI-716944.pdf
About Aurelia Metals Ltd:
Aurelia Metals Ltd. (ASX:AMI) is focused on the development and exploration of the high grade Hera-Nymagee Project in the Cobar district of NSW.
Aurelia is actively drilling the evolving copper deposit at Nymagee with the potential that the Nymagee mineralisation may evolve into another 'Cobar Giant' similar to the world class CSA copper deposit located approximately 100km north-west along strike.
Aurelia also remains active in the exploration for copper, gold and tin on a number of tenements in the Lachlan Fold Belt of NSW.
Contact:
Aurelia Metals Ltd.
T: +61-2-6363-5200
F: +61-2-6361-4711
E: office@aureliametals.com
www.aureliametals.com