Business
Steppe Gold Reports Strong Cash Flow in First Year of Production Pushing Ahead with Stage 2 Expansion
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2021) - Steppe Gold Limited (TSX: STGO) ("...
About this update from Steppe Gold Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"Steppe Gold Reports Strong Cash Flow in First Year of Production Pushing Ahead with Stage 2 ExpansionUlaanbaatar, Mongolia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2021) - Steppe Gold Limited (TSX: STGO) (\"Steppe Gold\" or the \"Company\") is pleased to announce its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2020.The full version of the Condensed Interim Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion & Analysis can be viewed on the Company's website at www.steppegold.com or under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Amounts are expressed in United States dollars unless otherwise noted.Steppe Gold President and CEO, Mr Bataa Tumur-Ochir commented, \"We are very pleased to report a strong start to production at the ATO Gold Mine with operating cash flow from mine operations in 2020 of $32.6m, on revenue of $52.1m, in an approximate 9 months of production. Most importantly we are proud to report a zero accident safety record at the project, and our exemplary environmental record has been recognised with a 93% result on the latest environment audit.Cash costs remain at market-low levels at $607 per ounce sold for the year and this allowed us to build up a solid cash balance, ending the year at $32.6m. Discussions with Mongolian and International lenders are progressing well and this supports our optimistic outlook for a timely debt financing for the Phase 2 expansion now underway.We have now mined approximately 1.7m tonnes of ore and 1.25m tonnes stacked on the leach pad. With a new fixed crusher in place this summer, we are planning a record year for stacking in 2021. We have paused production in the first quarter with extreme cold weather conditions and we expect to resume production shortly. We have seen some bottleneck in supply of critical reagents and this will impact second quarter production as we conserve supplies for the important summer months. Hopefully this issue is temporary and will be resolved shortly.With the ATO resource now at 2.45m oz Au Eq, and procurement of long lead capital items underway, we are focused on increasing our production run rate from the oxide phase through 2021 and 2022 and executing the Phase 2 expansion which has already begun.\"Year Ended December 31, 2020 Highlights (all figures in US$000s unless stated)Revenue for the year ended December 31, 202...