9th Jun 2014 10:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - Trans-Siberian Gold PLC Monday said its pretax loss widened in 2013 as production increases were offset by a slight fall in revenues due to lower metal prices, higher cost of sales, and a one-off stock inventory impairment.
The resources company, with a focus on gold-mining assets in Russia, said its pretax loss widened to USD16.5 million in 2013 from USD3.4 million in 2012, as revenues fell slightly to USD44.2 million from USD44.9 million.
The company said its cost of sales increased to USD46.4 million from USD37.2 million, and it was hit by a USD5.4 million one-off charge due to the impairment of its ore stock inventory during the period, due to the impact of lower gold prices on its lower grade material.
Trans-Siberian said its gold production increased 7.5% to 29,670 ounces and its silver production increased 11% to 39,026 ounces as its Asacha plant underwent a range of technical improvements to help deal with high dilution problems which have been associated with the site since 2012.
Offsetting the production increases, the company said the average price it received for gold fell to USD1,402 per ounce from USD1,668 per ounce, and its average price received for silver fell to USD23 per ounce from USD30 per ounce.
The company said in January that dilution continued to affect the grade of ore delivered to the plant, although previously reported measures to reduce dilution, including changes to mine development and stoping methods, were expected to lead to significantly higher grades in 2014.
Mining dilution is when non-ore rock is removed, by necessity, along with the ore in the mining process, subsequently lowering the grade of the ore.
In April, the company reported an increase in gold and silver production at its Asacha mine for the first quarter. It said gold production increased to 7,431 ounces in the period, up from 6,826 ounces a year earlier, while silver in dore increased to 11,033 ounces, compared with 8,791 ounces the prior year.
A dore bar is a semi-pure alloy of gold and silver, usually created at the site of a mine, which is then transported to a refinery for further purification.
Trans-Siberian Gold shares were down 3.8% at 10.10 pence on Monday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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