31st Mar 2015 13:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - Arian Silver Corp Tuesday said its net loss widened in 2014 and said operations at the San Jose mine restarted in the fourth quarter of 2014 ahead of the milling plant, which came online in March.
The silver miner focused on projects in the silver belt of Zacatecas in Mexico reported a net loss of USD5.9 million for 2014, compared with a USD1.6 million loss in 2013 as it generated no revenue in 2014 compared with USD129,000 a year earlier. The absence of revenue in 2014 was due to the termination of toll milling operations in June 2013.
The net loss widened primarily because it had booked a USD3.7 million gain in 2013 in respect of the reported fair value of the derivative liability of the USD15.6million convertible loan note issued to Platinum Long Term Growth VIII LLC in August 2013 and transaction costs relating to financing, it said.
Cash at the end of the period stood at USD2.8 million, down from USD7.2 million at the end of 2013.
"Arian Silver made tremendous progress in 2014, advancing towards its goal of becoming a mid-cap silver producer. Despite the challenging environment in the junior mining sector, we successfully concluded a significant financing, which has enabled us to complete the refurbishment and construction of our processing plant, and which will take the San José project into production," said Chief Executive Jim Williams.
Arian's focus is on the San Jose mine in Chile, and the processing plant at the project has been reassembled and site infrastructure has been developed, including the installation of a 4 kilometre dedicated power line connecting the plant to the grid.
Arian also started construction of the water reservoirs, water management systems and the tailings facility, which is nearing completion.
Since October, over 1,700 metres of mine development work has been completed, which will lead to the plant producing around 1,500 tonnes per day at full capacity, it said.
Mining activities at San Jose restarted in the fourth quarter in preparation for the resumption of milling activities at the plant.
By the end of 2014, the plant was almost fully constructed, as scheduled. Commercial production is expected to commence at an initial rate of up to 500 tonnes per day, increasing to a maximum of 1,500 tonnes per day over the following 18 months, it said. In March, the first lead-silver concentrate was produced at the plant.
Arian shares fell 1.5% to 29.55 pence per share on Tuesday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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