VANCOUVER, British Columbia,
July 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
Second quarter production of 27,700
tonnes of copper
Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone") (TSX: CS) today announced
operating results for the three and six months ending June 30, 2014 of its three operating mines: Pinto
Valley, Cozamin and Minto.
Combined production totalled 27,700 and 55,300 tonnes of copper (in
concentrates and cathode) in the second quarter and year-to-date
periods, respectively, with additional by-products of zinc,
molybdenum, lead, silver and gold.
Q2 2014 Production (tonnes)
YTD
Q1 Q2 2014
Pinto Valley
Copper in concentrates 16,700 16,900 33,600
Copper cathode 600 500 1,100
Pinto Valley Total 17,300 17,400 34,700
Cozamin
Copper in concentrates 5,100 5,200 10,300
Minto
Copper in concentrates 5,200 5,100 10,300
Total Copper production(1) 27,600 27,700 55,300
Totals may not add due to rounding. (1) Total production
includes copper in concentrate and cathode production.
"At the midway mark of the year our copper production is on plan
with all operations performing well," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone.
"With operations at Pinto Valley now fully ramped up and
essentially stabilized at targeted throughput rates we can direct
all of our focus on continued cost and business improvements at
Pinto Valley."
Operational Highlights
- Pinto Valley grade and recoveries more than offset lower than
planned throughput. One of the six ball mills was down for 25 days
in May, as a result of a gear failure. Repairs were completed by
June 4, and the mill operated at
capacity for the month of June.
- At Cozamin, strong throughput offset slightly lower grade than
planned. Grade is forecasted to improve in the third quarter in
accordance with the 2014 mine plan.
- At Minto, lower grade than
expected in the open pit was largely offset by continuing very
strong throughput and recoveries. The mill achieved a quarterly
throughput record of 4,124 tonnes per day. Ore from the underground
M-Zone began feeding the mill in April, with grade and tonnage as
planned.
- Payable copper shipped for the quarter from all three mines was
24,564 tonnes.
Q2 2014 Operating Details
Pinto Valley Cozamin Minto
Q2 YTD 2014 Q2 YTD 2014 Q2 YTD 2014
Contained Copper Production(1) (contained in concentrates and cathode)
- Copper in
concentrate
(tonnes) 16,892 33,593 5,191 10,292 5,130 10,350
- Copper cathode
(tonnes) 526 1,147 - - - -
- Zinc (tonnes) - - 1,728 3,360 - -
- Molybdenum (Mo
tonnes) 24 49 - - - -
- Lead (tonnes) - - 229 745 - -
- Silver (ounces) * * 422,174 874,278 50,551 108,402
- Gold
(ounces)(2) - - - - 5,185 10,313
Payable Copper
Production[(1)]
(tonnes)
(in concentrate
and cathode) 16,843 33,595(3) 4,964 9,835 4,963 10,014
Mine
- Ore (tonnes) -
open pit 4,862,433 10,468,564 - - 133,315 388,448
- Waste (tonnes) 554,648 555,374 - - 1,063,967 1,897,170
- Ore (tonnes) -
underground - - 303,289 613,033 79,151 97,581
Mill
- Tonnes processed 4,162,409 8,373,414 313,557 621,482 375,317 727,970
- Tonnes processed
per day 45,741 46,262 3,446 3,434 4,124 4,022
- Copper grade (%) 0.46(3) 0.45(3) 1.79 1.79 1.45 1.51
- Zinc grade (%) - - 0.94 0.91 - -
- Molybdenum grade
(%) 0.0107 0.0117 - - - -
- Lead grade (%) - - 0.16 0.22 - -
- Silver grade
(g/t) * * 59.48 61.22 5.13 5.68
- Gold grade (g/t) - - - - 0.55 0.57
Recoveries
- Copper (%) 89.1(3) 88.4(3) 92.7 92.5 94.2 93.9
- Zinc (%) - - 58.7 59.6 - -
- Lead (%) - - 44.7 54.6 - -
- Silver (%) * * 70.4 71.5 81.7 81.6
- Gold (%) - - - - 77.6 76.7
Concentrates(2)
- Copper
concentrate (dmt) 55,670 111,342 20,126 40,800 13,322 26,860
Copper (%) 30.3 30.2 25.8 25.2 38.5 38.5
Silver (g/t) * * 604.0 593.0 118.0 125.5
Gold (g/t) - - - - 12.1 11.9
- Zinc concentrate
(dmt) - - 3,624 7,155 - -
Zinc (%) - - 47.7 47.0 - -
- Molybdenum
concentrate (dmt) 49 99 - - - -
- Lead concentrate
(dmt) - - 392 1,211 - -
Lead (%) - - 58.4 61.5 - -
Silver (g/t) - - 2,471 2,459 - -
Payable Copper
Shipped (tonnes)
(in concentrate
and cathode) 15,735 31,165 5,208 9,916 3,621 10,083
(1) Adjustments based on final settlements will be made in
future periods. (2) Final gold production is not available since
assaying is conducted off-site, but is estimated above. (3) Grade
and recoveries were estimated based on concentrate production.
Year-to-date includes a 38 tonne adjustment to payable copper
related to inventory and final settlements for Pinto Valley.
*Silver production at Pinto Valley is not yet available since
assays are conducted offsite. Capstone will commence reporting of
Pinto Valley silver starting later in 2014.
Production Outlook
Capstone's 2014 guidance for 102,000 tonnes ±5% of copper in
concentrates, at a C1 cash
cost[(1)] of US$1.90 to US$2.00 per pound of payable copper,
net of by-product credits and selling costs, remains unchanged.
Financial Results Timing
Capstone will report Q2 2014 financial results on Thursday August 7, 2014 after market close,
followed by a conference call and webcast for investors and
analysts on Friday, August 8, 2014 at
11:30 am Eastern Time (8:30 am Pacific Time).
Conference Call and Webcast Details
Date: Friday, August 8, 2014
Time: 11:30 am Eastern Time (8:30 am Pacific Time)
Dial in: North America: 1-888-390-0546, International: +416-764-8688
Webcast: http://www.newswire.ca/en/webcast/detail/1371699/1520925
Replay: North America: 1-888-390-0541, International: +416-764-8677
Replay Passcode: 057773
The conference call replay will be available until August 22, 2014. 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,
focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development
of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three
producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in
Arizona, US, the Cozamin
copper-silver mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two
copper development projects; the large scale 70% owned copper-iron
Santo Domingo project in Region
III, Chile, in partnership with
Korea Resources Corporation, and the 100% owned copper-zinc Kutcho
project in British Columbia,
Canada, as well as exploration properties in Chile. Using our cash flow and strong balance
sheet as a platform, Capstone's strategy is to continue to grow
with mineral resource and reserve expansions and exploration, and
through acquisitions in politically stable, mining-friendly
regions. We will pace our growth with our financial capacity,
ensuring we retain, as a priority, sufficient financial flexibility
to meet the requirements of our existing operations and our
committed development projects, while maintaining an adequate
cushion to deal with market volatility and operating risks inherent
in the mining industry. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the
Toronto Stock Exchange (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 conversion of mineral resources to
mineral reserves, 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; counterparty risks associated with sales
of our metals; changes in general economic conditions; increased
operating and capital costs; operating in foreign jurisdictions
with risk of changes to governmental regulation; impact of climatic
conditions on our Pinto Valley, Cozamin and Minto operations; increasing energy prices;
our ability to integrate new acquisitions into our operations, 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
The technical information in this news release ("Technical
Information") was prepared by, or under the supervision of, 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"). The disclosure of the Technical Information contained in
this news release has been reviewed and approved by Brad Skeeles, P. Eng., Vice President of North
American Operations, and Gregg Bush,
P. Eng., Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, both
Qualified Persons under NI 43-101.
Alternative Performance Measures
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.
For further information:
Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor
Relations and Communications
+1-604-637-8157
cburnett@capstonemining.com