Orosur Mining continues to dig itself out of its financial hole in 2016

Orosur Mining continued to dig itself out of the hole it had fallen into as the company progressed on cost-cutting.

Full-year fiscal revenues at the South America-focused gold explorer fell 35% to $42.87m, but the company’s bottom line, before impairments and write-offs, improved from the net loss of $6.8m seen in 2015 to a profit of $1.42m.

Including those extraordinary charges the red ink reached $1.2m which was nevertheless down from the $54.4m it recorded in the previous year.

Gold production over the twelve months ending on 31 May 2016 declined by a third to 35,773 ounces, with total cash costs down by 7.6% to $891 an ounce.

On an all-in-sustaining-cost basis dual-listed Orosur’s production expenses declined 9.7% to $1,069 per ounce, versus the company’s own guidance for AISC costs of between $1,000 and $1,100 per ounce.

AISC’s fell below $1,000 an ounce during the third and fourth quarters, the Toronto and AIM-listed company said in a statement.

Ignacio Salazar, CEO of Orosur, said: “In the first time since early 2013, we are encouraged to finally see signs of market improvement and our intention, as ever, is to continue creating value for our shareholders by ensuring Orosur remains in a position to capitalise on further growth opportunities.”

Guidance for gold production in fiscal year 2017 was increased to between 35,000 to 40,000 ounces of gold at operating cash costs of between $800 to $900 per ounce, as it continues to benefit from the optimisation of its operations and higher grades from the San Gregorio West Underground project.

Cash flow from operations decreased 28% to hit $7.6m and net debt slashed from $1.48m to $352,000.

Its net cash position at period-end was $3.97m, up from the 2015 closing level of $3.31m.