VANCOUVER, British Columbia,
January 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone") (TSX: CS) today announced
operating results for the three and twelve months ended
December 31, 2014 for its three
operating mines: Pinto Valley, Cozamin and Minto. Combined production totalled 23,100 and
103,300 tonnes of copper (in concentrates and cathode) in the
fourth quarter and full year 2014, respectively, with additional
by-products of zinc, molybdenum, lead, silver and gold.
2014 Production
(tonnes)
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 2014 2014
Production Guidance(1)
Pinto Valley
Copper in
concentrates 16,300(2) 16,500(2) 15,300(2) 14,600 62,700 63,500
Copper
cathode 600 500 700 600 2,400 2,800
Pinto Valley
Total 16,900 17,000 16,000 15,200 65,100 66,300
Cozamin
Copper in
concentrates 5,100 5,200 4,900 4,600 19,800 20,000
Minto
Copper in
concentrates 5,200 5,100 4,800 3,300 18,400 18,500
Total copper production(3) 27,200 27,300 25,700 23,100 103,300 104,800
Totals may not add due to rounding. (1) 2014 guidance +/- 5%. (2) Pinto Valley
quarterly production has been adjusted to reflect reconciliations from smelter to mine
that lagged in the first part of the year. Adjustments will be done on a monthly basis
going forward. (3) Total production includes copper in concentrate and cathode
production.
"All three of our operating mines were within the range of their
production guidance for 2014, and exited the year running at, or
very close to, plan," said Darren
Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "Our primary focus
continues to be on reducing costs and increasing mill reliability
at our Pinto Valley operation and a review of maintenance operating
systems is continuing."
Fourth Quarter Operational Highlights
- Payable copper shipped for the quarter from all three mines was
23,751 tonnes.
- At Pinto Valley, throughput was 4% lower than planned for the
quarter and grade was slightly lower than planned.
- At Cozamin, throughput remained strong, however grade was lower
than planned. Ongoing ground support remediation activities delayed
access to some of the higher grade areas of the mine.
- At Minto, the mine plan called
for a lower fourth quarter as processing transitioned primarily to
stockpiled ore, supplemented with underground material from the
M-Zone through November and Area 118 underground where mining
commenced in December. The mill will continue to process
underground and stockpiled ore, with surface mining on hold until
receipt of the required permits, expected in March.
Q4 2014 Operating Details
Pinto Valley Cozamin Minto
Q4 2014 Q4 2014 Q4 2014
Contained Copper Production(1) (contained in concentrates and cathode)
- Copper in concentrate
(tonnes) 14,606 62,716(2) 4,573 19,813 3,299 18,411
- Copper cathode (tonnes) 616 2,413 - - - -
- Zinc (tonnes) - - 1,632 6,509 - -
- Molybdenum (Mo tonnes) 49 113 - - - -
- Lead (tonnes) - - 213 1,148 - -
- Silver (ounces) 66,284 285,877 348,074 1,615,216 23,628 170,946
- Gold (ounces)(3) - 923 - - 3,398 19,909
Payable Copper
Production(1) (tonnes)
(in concentrate and
cathode) 14,716 62,986(2) 4,374 18,941 3,192 17,813
Mine
- Ore (tonnes) - open pit 4,962,042 20,930,601 - - 39,803 517,260
- Waste (tonnes) 129,729 932,037 - - 88,042 2,858,274
- Ore (tonnes) -
underground - - 301,566 1,216,235 68,645 301,447
Mill
- Tonnes processed 4,359,423 17,231,201 305,079 1,228,234 350,474 1,438,740
- Tonnes processed per day 47,385 47,209 3,316 3,365 3,810 3,942
- Copper grade (%) 0.37(4) 0.41(4) 1.61 1.74 1.04 1.37
- Zinc grade (%) - - 0.83 0.85 - -
- Molybdenum grade (%) 0.011 0.012 - - - -
- Lead grade (%) - - 0.14 0.18 - -
- Silver grade (g/t) * * 50.7 57.8 3.1 4.7
- Gold grade (g/t) - - - - 0.42 0.56
Recoveries
- Copper (%) 88.8 (4) 88.9 (4) 92.8 92.7 90.4 93.2
- Zinc (%) - - 64.8 62.0 - -
- Lead (%) - - 49.5 52.5 - -
- Silver (%) * * 70.0 70.8 68.4 78.5
- Gold (%) - - - - 71.8 77.5
Concentrates(2)
- Copper concentrate (dmt) 49,087 211,709 17,774 77,735 10,916 50,246
Copper (%) 27.1 29.6 25.7 25.5 30.2 36.6
Silver (g/t) * * 558.0 583.4 67 105.8
Gold (g/t) - - - - 9.7 12.3
- Zinc concentrate (dmt) - - 3,580 14,099 - -
Zinc (%) - - 45.6 46.2 - -
- Molybdenum concentrate
(dmt) 94 222 - - - -
- Lead concentrate (dmt) - - 397 1,951 - -
Lead (%) - - 53.6 58.8 - -
Silver (g/t) - - 2,298 2,504 - -
Payable Copper Shipped
(tonnes)
(in concentrate and
cathode) 15,399 64,085 3,954 18,968 4,398 20,894
(1) Adjustments based on final settlements will be made in future periods. (2)
Pinto Valley quarterly production has been adjusted to reflect reconciliations
from smelter to mine that lagged in the first part of the year. Adjustments
will be done on a monthly basis going forward. (3) Final gold production is
not available since assaying is conducted off-site, but is estimated above.
(4) Grade and recoveries were estimated based on concentrate production.
*Silver has not been estimated in the Pinto Valley resource model. Only
recovered silver is reported for this mine.
2015 Operating and Capital Guidance
Capstone expects to release 2015 operating and capital guidance
during the week of January 19 - 23,
2015.
Financial Results Timing
Capstone will report 2014 financial results on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 after market close,
followed by a conference call and webcast for investors and
analysts on Wednesday, February 18,
2015 at 11:30 am Eastern Time
(8:30 am Pacific Time).
Conference Call and Webcast Details
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2015
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/1460897/1625621
Replay: North America: 1-888-390-0541, International: +416-764-8677
Replay Passcode: 380257#
The conference call replay will be available until Wednesday, March 4, 2015. The conference call
audio and transcript will be available on Capstone's website within
approximately 24 hours of the call
at http://capstonemining.com/investors/conference-calls-and-webcasts/default.aspx.
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 "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 (Technical Information related to mining and
production) and Gregg Bush, P. Eng.,
Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, all Qualified
Persons under NI 43-101.
Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor
Relations and Communications, +1-604-637-8157,
cburnett@capstonemining.com