18 May 2017resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed the pre-feasibility study technical report, effective 17 May 2017, behind the April reserve statement.
Announcements, explained
Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
6 Apr 2017resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
Pre-feasibility study turns resources into reserves for the first time: 65 million tonnes proven and probable at 0.62 g/t gold and 37.8 g/t silver, supporting after-tax net present value of US$310 million and a 41% return on US$117 million of initial capital, with payback in 2.2 years and all-in sustaining costs of US$862 an ounce of gold-equivalent. Life-of-mine output of 1.04 million ounces of gold and 70.9 million ounces of silver, and the company sets a production target of 2019 - which now depends on permits rather than on drilling.
8 Feb 2017drilling result▲ GoodMajor
TU-16-487 returned 41.45 metres at 1.52 g/t gold and 117.3 g/t silver including 4.60 metres at 6.68 g/t gold and 565.4 g/t silver, and TU-16-489 cut half a metre grading 16.85 g/t gold and 3120 g/t silver. The last drill results before the pre-feasibility study is published.
18 Jan 2017drilling result▲ Good
Eight holes across four sections: TU-16-486 returned 105.00 metres at 1.20 g/t gold and 87.1 g/t silver including 10.50 metres at 4.70 g/t gold, and TU-16-485 gave 38.60 metres at 1.08 g/t gold and 106.2 g/t silver. Not every hole worked - TU-16-482 managed a single metre at 2.23 g/t gold.
22 Dec 2016drilling result▲ Good
Five more holes on sections 10+525 and 10+675: TU-16-479 gave 30.35 metres at 1.92 g/t gold and 62.1 g/t silver plus 8.50 metres at 2.56 g/t gold and 357.0 g/t silver, and TU-16-477 returned 4.70 metres at 3.13 g/t gold and 737.9 g/t silver in Ixtaca North.
30 Nov 2016drilling result▲ GoodMajor
The highest gold grade in the company's cached record: TU-16-470 cut 5.50 metres at 27.31 g/t gold and 66.3 g/t silver up-dip of the main zone, including one metre at 143.00 g/t gold. TU-16-474 gave 15.80 metres at 4.31 g/t gold and 98.0 g/t silver in the new vein zone. Seven holes, all inside or just outside the pit outline.
12 Oct 2016drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Three holes from one pad on section 10+625E found a new vein zone inside the pit outline - 24.20 metres at 2.37 g/t gold and 98.1 g/t silver, including 14.40 metres at 3.57 g/t gold and 146.9 g/t silver - plus very narrow, very silver-rich veins to the north, one of 0.50 metres at 1335.0 g/t silver.
10 Aug 2016drilling result▲ Good
Deepened a 2013 hole that had stopped short of its target and confirmed a vein zone first cut in 2011: TU-16-318A returned 70.43 metres at 0.44 g/t gold and 53.5 g/t silver with half-metre intervals up to 11.25 g/t gold and 619 g/t silver, all outside the current pit outline. A companion hole was much thinner, at 0.74 metres of 1.26 g/t gold and 203 g/t silver.
13 June 2016drilling progress report● Neutral
Project update: geotechnical, geomechanical and hydrologic fieldwork will be finished to pre-feasibility standard this year, with environmental permit applications to follow shortly after - the permitting clock starts here. The Rock Creek mill it has optioned ran for only a few months before the mine it served was curtailed in 2008. A geophysical survey over the two-kilometre gap between the deposit and the weakly mineralised Tano zone produced targets for a new drill programme, alongside the Ixtaca East and southeast clay-alteration areas.
14 Apr 2016resource reserve update▼ Bad
A second British Columbia Securities Commission review in six months forced another refiling: the report had cited the superseded October 2014 study instead of the November 2015 amended one, still referred to production scenarios from earlier studies, and lacked detail on sampling protocols, compositing and the water balance. Conclusions are unchanged, but two regulator-driven amendments in half a year is the second such refiling in six months.
14 Apr 2016resource reserve update● Neutral
The amended January 2016 economic assessment technical report, updated 7 April 2016 after a second securities commission review.
22 Feb 2016drilling result▲ Good
A single hole drilled for metallurgical sample material in the core of the pit returned 43.00 metres at 2.26 g/t gold and 85.7 g/t silver, including 12.75 metres at 6.10 g/t gold and 158.5 g/t silver. The company is designing a 2016 programme to test vein structures next to the pit outline, its first exploration drilling since 2014.
29 Jan 2016resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed the technical report, effective 22 January 2016, behind December's Rock Creek mill economic update.
10 Dec 2015resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
Rebuilt the project around the second-hand Rock Creek mill: initial capital falls to US$100 million from the US$399 million base case of September 2014, for after-tax net present value of US$166 million and a 30% return at a lowered price deck of $1150 gold and $16 silver. The trade-off is scale - 36 million tonnes of feed at 0.76 g/t gold and 47 g/t silver producing 724,000 ounces of gold and 48.8 million ounces of silver over 13 years, against 129 million tonnes in the original plan. 97% of the feed is now in the confident resource categories.
10 Nov 2015resource reserve update● Neutral
The amended economic assessment technical report itself, effective 9 October 2014 and updated 6 November 2015 to address the securities commission's review.
10 Nov 2015resource reserve update▼ Bad
Refiled the October 2014 economic assessment after the British Columbia Securities Commission's review found filing and disclosure problems with it: qualified persons were missing from the title page, the summary resource table showed only gold-equivalent grades, and the required warning about inferred material was absent. The company says the data, inputs and conclusions are unchanged, and the specific amendments it lists are presentational rather than economic.
22 May 2015drilling result▲ Good
One hole, TU-15-453, cut 118.50 metres at 0.21 g/t gold and 61.6 g/t silver with several silver-rich bands including 31.50 metres at 0.39 g/t gold and 117.0 g/t silver, two of them beneath the current pit outline. Gold is weak here; the value is in the silver.
15 May 2015resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed a technical report on the El Cobre copper-gold project, 7,456 hectares near Veracruz with four porphyry targets along a four-kilometre trend, the largest of them - Villa Rica - never drilled. Almaden holds 100% subject to a sliding-scale royalty to a third party. The report lands five months before El Cobre is handed to the spin-out company.
17 Apr 2015drilling result● Neutral
Final infill and step-out results at Chemalaco: 19.50 metres at 1.52 g/t gold and 55.6 g/t silver, and a step-out 125 metres north of previous drilling that returned only 20.74 metres at 0.23 g/t gold and 55.9 g/t silver - thin gold but inside the pit outline. Drilling stops here; the 2015 budget goes to engineering and environmental work for the pre-feasibility study.
20 Oct 2014resource reserve update● Neutral
Announced the filing of the updated economic assessment technical report on SEDAR, restating the findings released on 3 September.
20 Oct 2014resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed the technical report for the September economic update, dated 9 October 2014.
3 Sept 2014resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
Reworked economics on the same resource model cut initial capital 19% to US$399 million and lifted the after-tax net present value to US$515 million with a 28% return and 2.5-year payback, mostly by remodelling the waste rock and conveying ore to the mill. A smaller alternative starts at 7,000 tonnes a day for US$244 million and expands to 30,000 by year six out of cash flow - the first sign the company is designing around what it can actually finance.
14 Aug 2014drilling result▲ GoodMajor
TU-14-438, drilled just outside the study's pit outline, returned 32.00 metres at 2.22 g/t gold and 5.4 g/t silver including 15.00 metres at 4.43 g/t - high-grade volcanic-hosted gold immediately beside the deposit. A second hole southeast of the deposit gave 27.00 metres at 0.45 g/t gold, also outside the pit.
9 July 2014drilling result▲ Good
Infill drilling is complete, closing out the conversion programme that began in September 2013; the last holes gave 62.00 metres at 0.96 g/t gold and 76.4 g/t silver. Drilling now turns to exploring the wider Tuligtic concession.
2 June 2014resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed the full technical report behind April's economic study on SEDAR.
17 Apr 2014resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
First economic study for Ixtaca: after-tax net present value of US$437 million at a 5% discount and a 22% return, on pre-production capital of US$496 million, a 12.1-year life at 30,000 tonnes a day and average output of 130,000 ounces of gold and 7.8 million ounces of silver a year. Payback is four years and 16% of the mine plan is still inferred material, so the capital number is the number to watch.
1 Apr 2014drilling progress report● Neutral
Economic study for Ixtaca under way with Knight Piesold and Moose Mountain, with one rig collecting geotechnical and rock-strength data rather than looking for ore. Environmental baseline studies and more advanced metallurgy also started - the first work in the record aimed at permitting rather than at finding metal.
7 Mar 2014resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed the technical report supporting the January 2014 resource update, prepared by APEX Geoscience and Giroux Consultants.
23 Jan 2014resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
Updated resource, published a day after the last infill assays: 30.44 million tonnes measured at 1.38 g/t gold-equivalent (1,351,000 ounces), 62.61 million tonnes indicated at 1.08 g/t (2,182,000 ounces) and 22.70 million tonnes inferred (717,000 ounces). Against the January 2013 estimate the confident categories went from 2.02 to 3.53 million ounces while inferred fell from 1.55 to 0.72 million - the year of infill drilling did what it was meant to do.
22 Jan 2014drilling result▲ Good
Last of the infill assays before the resource update: TU-13-373 returned 92.50 metres at 1.48 g/t gold and 91.1 g/t silver, including 12.00 metres at 2.82 g/t gold and 156.9 g/t silver.