Galane revenues fall on softer gold prices
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday May 6, 2016 10:48
According to the group’s chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Brodie, the financial results for 2015 reflect the challenging gold price environment that has affected all gold producers during the past year.
“Gold sales for 2015 were 7,548 ounces less than in 2014. This was coupled with a reduction in the average gold price achieved between the two years of $126 per ounce. As a result revenue was $14.0 million less in 2015,” said Brodie.
Mining costs for 2015 were $9.1 million compared to $10.6 million for 2014, with the main variance being explained by the reduction in volume mined.
The CEO said management efforts were being put in place in 2016 to take advantage of an increasing gold price.
Last year, Galane acquired 66 percent of the outstanding Galaxy Gold, a gold mining company in the Mpumalanga Province in South Africa. The mine, which met all of their acquisition criteria as the property is near term production, has the ability to increase production with minimal capital requirement, has a drill plan ready to potentially increase the resource and is surrounded by prospective targets. When acquiring the mine, the CEO said they intended to turn around the mine and return it to a full and profitable production within the next 12 months, as they believed that the mine would assist Galane in being able to operate in any realistic gold price environment.
Despite the challenging environment, Galane management team also managed two significant achievements in the previous year, which included the commencement of commercial production at Tau underground in the third quarter of 2015. The work required to build an underground mine and restructure an operation from an open pit mine.
“We have now started exploration from underground of the Tau ore body and are hopeful that this will form the long term backbone of the Mupane operations,” said Brodie.
The company also completed a new five-year mine plan for the Mupane property in 2015 with a focus on the optimisation of the mining operations and the expansion of the resource base. Galane Gold is an un-hedged gold producer and explorer with mining operations and exploration tenements in Botswana and South Africa. It is a public company and its shares are quoted on the TSX Venture Exchange and the Botswana Stock Exchange under the symbol GG. Galane Gold is committed to operating at world-class standards and is focused on the safety of its employees, respecting the environment and contributing to the communities in which it operates.