Wolf Minerals treated 310,949 t of ore during the March quarter at its Drakelands open-pit mine and produced 17,607 metric tonne units (mtu) of tungsten concentrate. Revenue from sales of concentrates was A$3.8 million (£1.9 million).
The total cash expenditure for the quarter was A$16.8 million (£8.2 million), including A$3.9 million (£1.9 million) on development, A$7.7 million (£3.8 million) on production and A$4.1 million (£2.0 million) on debt service and repayment. As at 31 March 2016, the company had cash of A$17.4 million (£8.5 million).
Post-quarter end, and as reported by QuotedData on 22 April, the company has arranged a £25 million standby subscription facility with its major shareholder, RCF, and has requested an initial drawdown of £16 million.
The facility was put in place to provide working capital as the company continues the ramp up and optimise the plant after manufacturing faults in a number of pieces of equipment (under warranty) impacted on production. Furthermore, the quarterly tungsten price remained much weaker than projected in the feasibility study (although the price has moved up by at least 10% recently).
The company’s lenders have agreed to provide a number of waivers and amendments to the senior loan conditions through to March 2017.
On the mining side, the activities in the quarter predominantly focused on the extraction of ore from benches on the northern end of the pit and the company has introduced regular blasting of the waste rock (killas).
Devon Country Council has extended the 24/7 working trial of the processing plant for six months and it will now run through to September 2016.
Wolf continues plant optimisation and secures additional funding amid weak prices:WLFE