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Monsters of Rock: ASX waves goodbye to mid-tier goldie, Aeris eyes improvement after Round Oak deal
Mining
share
- Gold miner OceanaGold bails on Australia
- Company will exit ASX listing as it stays on track to produce 445,000-495,000oz in 2022
- Aeris Resources looks for improvement as Round Oak assets join the fold
Shares in OceanaGold Corporation (ASX:OGC) copped the cold shoulder from investors after the mid-tier goldie announced its intention to leave the ASX.
OGC stock slid 8.2% in Oz today as emotional investors said something like: Fine, go then! We didn’t god damn want you anyway.
The turncoats will be moving from Brisbane to Vancouver, which will do little to cure the irrelevance plaguing that city since the Grizzlies moved to Memphis back in 2001.
“In conjunction with today’s second quarter results, we announced that we have applied and received approval to delist from the ASX. While this decision was not easy given the Company’s historical ties to the ASX, we believe that consolidating the shares into one liquid market in which almost all of the shares are held will benefit shareholders,” CEO Gerard Bond said.
“I was pleased to announce earlier this week the considerable strengthening of our Executive Leadership Team, most of whom will be based in our Brisbane office. Having regard to the location of our shareholder base, our operations and opportunities, I will be relocating to Vancouver, Canada in the coming months and in due course this is where our corporate headquarters will be going forward.”
OceanaGold, mainly listed in Canada, said its Australian CDIs had dropped to just 7.5% of its stock on issue, making the decision to leave our shores a relatively simple one.
The company has been in revival mode for the past couple quarters after restarting its Didipio copper and gold mine in the Philippines.
It second quarter gold production came in at 112,296 ounces at all in sustaining costs of US$1430/oz, with first half gold production of 246,331oz at US$1243/oz, a 39% improvement on the first half of 2021.
OGC expects to deliver 445,000-495,000oz of gold this year and 12,000-14,000t of copper at US$1375-1475/oz, with costs up 7.5% due to inflation and falling copper credits but has trimmed capex by US$30 million to US$305-365m.
The company has turned over US$98m in profit after tax so far this year from its Didipio mine, along with the Haile mine in America and the Macraes and Waihi mines in New Zealand.
OceanaGold Corporation share price today:
Aeris says Tritton copper is back on track
One of the last miners to report its quarterly results, Aeris Resources (ASX:AIS) says it is getting its operations back on track after battling low production and rising costs earlier this year.
We could hardly say a bad word about Aeris executive chairman Andre Labuschagne, whose son is indeed true blue Aussie batting hero Marnus.
That said, Aeris has seen better days, like 2021.
2022 has been a tough one, with the small scale Tritton copper operations battling against inflation.
FY22 production came in at 18,581t at $5.10/lb, within production guidance but above cost guidance of $4.60-4.85/lb.
But the June quarter (5127t at $5/lb) was better, with output rising as new orebodies at Budgerygar and Avoca Tank head into the production schedule.
Aeris also struggled at its Cracow gold mine in Queensland, with production for the June quarter hit by “reconciliation with the geological models”, generating 11,717oz at AISC of $2361/oz. That is normally code for – our grades weren’t as high as planned.
Cracow delivered 53,920oz at AISC of $1911oz, a miss of production and cost guidance of 56,000-59,000oz at $1775-1825/oz.
Aeris has $141m in the bank and no debt, and is looking to brighter times for production growth at least in FY23, with contributions from the Jaguar mine and Mt Colin mine from its acquisition of Soul Patts’ Round Oak Minerals business starting from July 1.
Aeris Resources (ASX:AIS) share price today:
