VANCOUVER, British Columbia,
July 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
- Second quarter production of 19.3 million pounds of copper in
concentrates
Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone") (TSX: CS) today announced
operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2013 of its two operating mines, Cozamin
and Minto. Combined production
totalled 19.3 and 37.9 million pounds of copper in concentrates in
the second quarter and year-to-date period, respectively, with
additional by-products of zinc, lead, silver and gold.
Q2 2013 Production
YTD
Q1 Q2 2013
Cozamin
Copper in concentrates
(thousands of pounds) 10,142 12,123 22,265
C1 cash cost per pound(1) $1.06 $1.22 $1.15
Minto
Copper in concentrates
(thousands of pounds) 8,444 7,201 15,645
C1 cash cost per pound(1) $2.50 $2.49 $2.49
Total
Copper in concentrates
(thousands of pounds) 18,586 19,324 37,910
C1 cash cost per pound(1) $1.72 $1.70 $1.71
(1) This is an alternative performance measure; please see
"Alternative Performance Measure" at the end of this release. C1
cash cost per pound is per pound of payable copper produced. All
amounts in US$ unless otherwise specified.
"Both operations continued to run well in the quarter, each
breaking mill throughput records," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "At
Cozamin, we were able to completely make up for the first quarter
production shortfall and ended the quarter with production back on
plan. At Minto, year-to-date
production is on plan, and we are adding resources to ensure we
catch up mining from the pit wall failure that occurred in the
fourth quarter of 2012."
Operational Highlights for the Three
and Six Months Ended June 30,
2013
- Production of 19.3 and 37.9 million pounds of copper contained
in concentrates, respectively.
- By-product production of 4.2 and 9.2 million pounds of zinc,
1.1 and 2.0 million pounds of lead and 478,573 and 880,845 ounces
of silver in concentrates. Final gold production is not available
since assaying is conducted off-site, but is estimated at 2,839 and
6,341 ounces for the respective periods.
- At Cozamin, additional short and long term sources of water
were secured, resulting in higher second quarter throughput rates
that have production for the year back on plan as of June 30. In the second quarter, the mill broke
both monthly (3,685 tonnes per day in May) and quarterly (3,548
tonnes per day) throughput records.
Costs on a per pound basis are higher than planned due to the
effect of a strengthening Mexican Peso, additional costs to secure
water sources and higher contractor costs for haulage. Costs for
the remainder of the year are expected to run at the top end of
Cozamin's 2013 C1 cash cost(1) guidance of $1.00 to $1.10 per pound.
- At Minto, operations continued
to improve in the second quarter. The mill is running very well and
broke a monthly throughput record, processing 4,154 tonnes per day
in May. Ore that was deferred from the fourth quarter of 2012, due
to the stability issues in the west pit highwall, was accessed in
the first quarter and the mining rate now needs to increase to get
to the high grade ore planned for later in the year. Site personnel
have taken advantage of additional dig faces to increase the mining
rate, and are working with the mining contractor to improve
operating flexibility and productivity. Expenditures for the
quarter were in line with expectations; however, unit costs were
lower than expected due to additional deferral of stripping
costs.
Q2 2013 Operating Details
Cozamin Minto
YTD
Q2 2013 2013 Q2 2013 YTD 2013
Production(2) (contained in concentrates)
- Copper (000s pounds) 12,123 22,265 7,201 15,645
- Zinc (000s pounds) 4,238 9,187 - -
- Lead (000s pounds) 1,112 2,049 - -
- Silver (ounces) 452,473 818,996 26,100 61,849
- Gold (ounces) - - 2,839 6,341
Mine (tonnes)
- Ore 299,677 596,526 106,146 522,648
- Waste - - 3,052,103 5,302,914
Mill
- Tonnes processed 322,829 598,729 349,609 682,955
- Tonnes processed per day 3,548 3,308 3,842 3,773
- Copper grade (%) 1.83 1.82 1.03 1.14
- Zinc grade (%) 0.95 1.08 - -
- Lead grade (%) 0.26 0.25 - -
- Silver grade (g/t) 61.3 59.8 3.3 3.8
- Gold grade (g/t) - - 0.35 0.38
Recoveries
- Copper (%) 92.9 92.8 90.5 90.8
- Zinc (%) 62.6 64.2 - -
- Lead (%) 59.6 61.0 - -
- Silver (%) 71.1 71.2 70.9 75.0
- Gold (%) - - 73.0 76.0
Concentrates(2)
- Copper concentrates (dmt) 21,316 38,644 9,173 19,848
Copper (%) 25.8 26.1 35.6 35.8
Silver (g/t) 566 558 88 96.9
Gold (g/t) - - 9.6 9.9
- Zinc concentrates (dmt) 4,002 8,682 - -
Zinc (%) 48.0 48.0 - -
- Lead concentrates (dmt) 846 1,561 - -
Lead (%) 59.6 59.5 - -
Silver (g/t) 2,363 2,504 - -
Payable copper produced (000s lbs) 11,596 21,307 6,966 15,136
C1 cash cost(1)
(per pound of payable of copper produced) $1.22 $1.15 $2.49 $2.49
YTD totals may not add due to rounding. (1) This is an
alternative performance measure; please see "Alternative
Performance Measure" at the end of this release. C1 cash cost per
pound is per pound of payable copper produced. All amounts in US$
unless otherwise specified. (2) Adjustments based on final
settlements will be made in future periods.
Outlook
Capstone's 2013 guidance at Cozamin and Minto for 85 million pounds ± 5% of copper in
concentrates, at a C1 cash cost(1) of $1.65 to $1.75 per pound of payable copper, net
of by-product credits and selling costs, remains unchanged.
Q2 Financial Results Timing
Capstone will report 2013 second quarter financial results on
Tuesday, July 30, 2013 after market
close, followed by a conference call and webcast for investors and
analysts on Wednesday, July 31, 2013
at 11:30 am Eastern Time
(8:30 am Pacific Time).
Conference Call and Webcast
Details
Date: Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Time: 11:30 am Eastern Time -- 8:30 am Pacific Time
Dial in: North America: 1-888-390-0605, International:
+416-764-8609
Webcast: http://www.newswire.ca/en/webcast/detail/1178711/1290143
Replay: North America: 1-888-390-0541, International:
Replay +416-764-8677
Passcode: 363769
The conference call replay will be available until August 14, 2013. The conference call audio and
transcript will be available on Capstone's website within
approximately 24 hours of the call at
http://capstonemining.com/s/Conference_Calls.asp
About Capstone Mining Corp.
Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company,
committed to the responsible development of our assets and the
environments in which we operate. We are preferentially focused on
copper, with two producing copper mines, the Cozamin
copper-silver-zinc-lead mine located in Zacatecas State,
Mexico and the Minto copper-gold-silver mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two
development projects, the large scale 70% owned Santo Domingo copper-iron-gold project in
Chile in partnership with Korea
Resources Corporation and the 100% owned Kutcho
copper-zinc-gold-silver project in British Columbia, as well as exploration at
properties in Canada, Chile, Mexico
and Australia. Using our cash flow
and strong balance sheet as a springboard, Capstone aims to grow
with continued mineral resource and reserve expansions,
exploration, and through acquisitions in politically stable,
mining-friendly regions. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the
TSX. Further information is available at
http://www.capstonemining.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Information
This document may contain "forward-looking information" within
the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively,
"forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are
made as of the date of this document and Capstone Mining Corp. (the
"Company") does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to
update these forward-looking statements, except as required under
applicable securities legislation.
Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future
performance and reflect Company management's expectations or
beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited
to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserves
and mineral resources, the realization of mineral reserve
estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production,
costs of production, capital expenditures, success of mining
operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation
expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance
coverage. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be
identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does
not expect", "is expected", "outlook", "budget", "scheduled",
"estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not
anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases
or statements that certain actions, events or results "may",
"could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be
achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology.
In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified
by words including "scheduled", "guidance", "plan", "planned",
"estimated", "projections", "projected" and "expected". By their
very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual
results, performance or achievements of the Company to be
materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking
statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to
actual results of current exploration activities; changes in
project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices
of mineral resources; possible variations in ore reserves, grade or
recovery rates; accidents; dependence on key personnel; labour pool
constraints; labour disputes; availability of infrastructure
required for the development of mining projects; delays in
obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion
of development or construction activities; and other risks of the
mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time
in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and
management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of
which are filed and available for review on SEDAR at
http://www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to
identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events
or results to differ materially from those described in
forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause
actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or
intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements
will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events
could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward
looking statements.
National Instrument 43-101
Compliance
Unless otherwise indicated, Capstone has prepared the technical
information in this news release ("Technical Information") based on
information contained in the technical reports, news releases and
MD&A's (collectively the "Disclosure Documents") available
under Capstone Mining Corp.'s company profile on SEDAR at
http://www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was reviewed and
approved by a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in
National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral
Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI
43-101"). Readers are encouraged to review the full text of
the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical
Information. Readers are advised that mineral resources that
are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic
viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as
a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of
context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions
and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.
The disclosure of the Technical Information contained in this
news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen Winkelmann, Capstone VP of North
American Operations, Registered Member of The Society for Mining,
Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc. (SME), a Qualified Person under
NI 43-101. In addition, Gregg Bush,
Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer reviewed all
Technical Information in this news release.
Alternative Performance Measure
The item marked with (1) "C1 Cash Cost per Pound of
Payable Copper Produced" is an Alternative Performance Measure.
This performance measure is included because this statistic is a
key performance measure that management uses to monitor
performance. Management uses this statistic to assess how the
Company is performing to plan and to assess the overall
effectiveness and efficiency of mining operations. This performance
measure does not have a meaning within IFRS and, therefore, amounts
presented may not be comparable to similar data presented by other
mining companies. This performance measure should not be considered
in isolation as a substitute for measures of performance in
accordance with IFRS.
Cautionary Note to United States
Investors
This news release contains disclosure that has been prepared in
accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which
differ from the requirements of U.S. securities laws. Without
limiting the foregoing, this news release uses the terms
"indicated" and "inferred" resources. U.S. investors are cautioned
that, while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian
securities laws, the SEC does not recognize them. Under U.S.
standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve"
unless the determination has been made that the mineralization
could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time
the reserve determination is made. U.S. investors are cautioned not
to assume that all or any part of indicated resources will ever be
converted into reserves. U.S. investors should also understand that
"inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their
existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or
economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of
"inferred resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category.
Therefore, U.S. investors are also cautioned not to assume that all
or any part of inferred resources exist, or that they can be mined
legally or economically. Accordingly, information concerning
descriptions of mineralization and resources contained in this news
release may not be comparable to information made public by U.S.
companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of
the SEC.
For further information:
Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor
Relations and Communications
+1-604-637-8157
cburnett@capstonemining.com
(CS.)
SOURCE Capstone Mining Corp.