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Manuka soon to be debt-free after record gold sales, profit trifecta
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Manuka has paid $US1m off its debt a year ahead of schedule after notching continuous record gold sales and profit from its Mt Boppy mine for the September quarter.
Manuka Resources (ASX:MKR) has booked its third consecutive month of record gold sales and profit, bringing in $9.12m in revenue on the sale of 3,710oz of gold and 2,757oz of silver for the month of September.
This delivered the company a handsome $4.1m profit and enabled it to pay $US1m off its existing debt facility well ahead of the September 30, 2022 deadline.
The September profit result very nearly matched that of July and August combined, which added $4.6m to the coffers, taking the profit for the September quarter to a punchy $8.7m.
Manuka’s expectation is that the remaining debt of $US9m will be fully repaid by the first quarter of 2022, well ahead of schedule and coinciding with the end of the current gold production campaign at Mt Boppy in NSW’s Cobar Basin.
“We are naturally very pleased with the magnitude of the profits from Mt Boppy but also the consistency of operations at the mine over the quarter,” Dennis Karp, Manuka’s founder and executive chairman, told Stockhead.
“We are confident of this continuing and therefore the board took the step to voluntarily pay down a portion of the debt facility well ahead of schedule. Our cash balance continues to grow and as a result our net debt is already well below the headline figure outstanding of $US9m.”
Manuka previously flagged it expected to produce 10,000oz more gold than its original forecast at the time of its IPO thanks to increased grades and mining and haulage efficiency gains.
By the time the company finishes mining at Mt Boppy in November, it will have produced roughly 36,000oz of gold and still have around 30,000oz remaining in the resource
Manuka plans to resume the production of silver doré at its Wonawinta mine, also in the Cobar Basin, in early 2022 following the completion of production at Mt Boppy.
Silver will initially come from processing the 515,000 tonnes of Wonawinta stockpiled ore, which has a high grade of 70 grams per tonne (g/t) and is not included in the resource estimate.
This will be followed by the processing of a further 200,000 tonnes of stockpiles that are also close to the plant.
The added bonus for Manuka is that there is no mining cost associated with the stockpiles because they are already sitting on the ROM pad.
Once all the stockpiles have been processed, Manuka expects to start mining its existing silver JORC resource.
This article was developed in collaboration with Manuka Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
