Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
30 Jan 2014production update▼ BadMajor
Produced 43,850 ounces in 2013 from record mill throughput of 280,054 tonnes at 5.11 g/t and 95.25% recovery, selling 44,823 ounces at about $1,423 - below the 50,000-54,000 ounce guidance, on grade. Mine production also set a record at 286,145 tonnes with 10% fewer site staff.
Filed the Seabee technical report behind the 7 November reserve increase, setting out proven and probable reserves of 2,785,200 tonnes at 6.19 g/t for 554,100 ounces (Seabee 221,100 oz at 7.26 g/t, Santoy 8 89,900 oz at 4.45 g/t, Santoy Gap 243,000 oz at 6.24 g/t), 77,000 ounces measured and indicated and 603,400 ounces inferred at 6.35 g/t.
20 Dec 2013asset acquisition disposition● NeutralMajor
Agreed to sell the Madsen project in Red Lake outright to Laurentian Goldfields for C$3.75 million cash on closing, C$2.5 million three months later, a further C$2.5 million in cash or shares at six months, and shares equal to 19.9% of Laurentian. Two years of drilling at Madsen ended with the asset going for cash to fix the balance sheet, with equity upside retained.
Santoy Gap converted to reserve for the first time - 243,000 ounces at 6.24 g/t - lifting Seabee's total reserves 78% to 554,100 ounces. This is the payoff from the 2011 surface discovery, and the reason the company could talk about growing production rather than just sustaining it.
Chose to leave the NYSE MKT voluntarily to cut costs, with the last US trading day around 31 October and a Form 25 to follow. The TSX listing continued and the company said it would keep filing with the SEC for now, but intended to deregister when permitted - the shares moved to the OTCQB instead.
Three step-out holes, two of them decisive: JOY-13-692 cut 18.80 g/t over 13.86 m (including 73.49 g/t over 3.00 m) some 400 m below the base of the Santoy 8 inferred resource, and JOY-13-690 cut 330.35 g/t over 1.55 m at 684 m depth at Santoy Gap. Both were materially higher grade than the existing reserve and resource base.
Closed the $25 million five-year Crown Capital facility at 10%, with no principal due for twelve months then $300,000 a month and $10.9 million at maturity, and granted 5.75 million warrants at $0.70. With the expanded Canadian Western Bank lines that gave access to $50 million of debt at a blended cost of about 8% - deliberately chosen, management said, over a large equity raise.
Disclosed, as NYSE MKT rules require, that its auditors had put a going-concern qualification on the 2012 accounts filed a week earlier. The company was producing about 50,000 ounces a year and had just arranged $50 million of debt, but its auditors were not satisfied it could fund itself - the low point of the record held here.
Completed the Seabee shaft extension from 600 m to 980 m depth. The 20-day shutdown was covered by ore from Santoy 8 and the upper Seabee mine at over 700 tonnes a day, and mining costs at Seabee Deep and L62 were expected to fall by as much as 10% a tonne on shorter trucking and better ventilation.
Met guidance with 49,570 ounces in 2012 from record mill throughput of 275,230 tonnes at 5.86 g/t, up about 10% on 2011, and guided 2013 to 50,000-54,000 ounces. The shaft extension was due to finish in January and the newly upgraded Santoy Gap resource - 281,000 ounces indicated at 8.80 g/t - was being worked into the life-of-mine plan.
Two facilities. Canadian Western Bank's lines were expanded to $25 million in total (line of credit to $10m, leases and demand loans to $10m, a new $5m revolver) at a weighted average rate near 4.5%, with only $8.6 million drawn. And a new five-year $25 million facility with Crown Capital Partners at 10% interest, principal repayments starting in 2014, with 5.75 million warrants struck at $0.70 - expensive money, and not yet closed.
Updated Santoy Gap resource from 194 holes and 71,600 m: 994,000 tonnes at 8.80 g/t for 281,000 ounces indicated, plus 1,875,000 tonnes at 5.92 g/t for 357,000 ounces inferred, over 800 m of strike to 690 m depth. Most of the 495,000 inferred ounces of a year earlier had been upgraded and the grade nearly doubled in the indicated category. About 265 m of a planned 800 m exploration drift had been driven.
The 2012 Santoy Gap programme extended the system down-dip to 650 m and south towards the Santoy 8 mine (8.16 g/t over 5.93 m in JOY-12-686, 6.91 g/t over 16.73 m in JOY-12-636) and discovered a sub-parallel lens about 150 m to the east - evidence the Santoy shear hosts several deposits over a three-kilometre strike.
The 2012 Madsen programme - 19,100 m in 16 holes - confirmed the 8 Zone's plunge continuity (26.50 g/t over 2.00 m in MUG-12-20, 29.60 g/t over 1.50 m in MUG-12-28) and depth continuity in the Austin and McVeigh Tuffs. Encouraging grades on narrow widths at a project that would be sold a year later.
The widest Santoy Gap intercept to date, 14.58 g/t over 29.74 m in JOY-12-677, confirming a high-grade core with combined vein widths of 20 to 30 m. Santoy Gap then held an inferred resource of 495,000 ounces at 6.63 g/t, and underground development from the Santoy 8 workings had started.
Filed the Seabee technical report on SEDAR carrying the March resource and reserve statement unchanged - 355,600 ounces of reserves at 5.37 g/t, 873,400 ounces inferred at 6.48 g/t. Paperwork behind an already-announced number.
The first resource statement to take in L62 and Santoy Gap. Inferred resources rose 236% to 873,400 ounces at 6.48 g/t from 260,100 ounces at 6.23 g/t, measured and indicated rose 43% to 70,700 ounces at 5.35 g/t, and reserves edged up net of depletion to 355,600 ounces at 5.37 g/t from 352,600 at 5.58 g/t. L62 alone added 70,400 ounces of probable reserve and Santoy Gap 495,000 ounces of inferred - both within reach of existing infrastructure. 130,000 m of drilling was budgeted for 2012.
Guided 2012 to about 50,500 ounces after producing 44,760 ounces in 2011, a 5% fall the CEO called disappointing: Santoy 8 reached commercial production but lower-grade ore and unforeseen problems held output back. The response was capital spending - a shaft extension, a mill expansion and more mine development - to lift production sustainably and cut unit costs.
Closed the St. Eugene acquisition by court-approved plan of arrangement for about 9.6 million Claude shares, taking Amisk to 100% ownership at 23,450 hectares. St. Eugene holders also received 0.25 of a share in the spun-out Satori Resources per share, which took the Tartan Lake project and began trading as BUD; Claude kept its pro-rata Satori stake, assumed St. Eugene's warrants and cut its Tartan Lake royalty to 2%, repurchaseable at $1 million per percentage point.
Final 2011 underground results from L62: 195.06 g/t over 2.29 m true width (U11-651), 27.06 g/t over 4.83 m, 24.16 g/t over 5.71 m and 22.03 g/t over 4.41 m. Six months after discovery the zone measured up to 85 m of strike by 400 m of dip and was heading into an updated resource for the first quarter.
The remaining 2011 Amisk holes returned 6.24 g/t gold and 23.5 g/t silver over 12.00 m plus 3.39% zinc over 1.81 m (AL-11-318) and 1.95 g/t over 18.95 m (AL-11-319), from 20 holes and 6,480 metres testing to beyond 700 m depth.
Underground drilling at the Madsen project in Red Lake extended the 8 Zone about 250 m further down plunge and found depth extensions to the McVeigh Tuff (15.70 g/t over 2.00 m in MUG-11-13, 53.70 g/t over 0.70 m in MUG-11-17). On the strength of it the company approved a 29,000 m programme for 2012 - money going into a second, non-producing asset.
Closed the Nokomis sale; Auriga Gold issued the 3,428,571 shares, subject to a four-month hold. The release notes Seabee had produced over 962,000 ounces since 1991.
The widest Santoy Gap intercepts yet - 19.10 g/t over 20.48 m (JOY-11-556) and 12.79 g/t over 20.25 m (JOY-11-555), with 36.51 g/t over 1.72 m and 25.10 g/t over 1.20 m in step-outs. The results were to feed a first Santoy Gap resource in the first quarter of 2012.
Agreed to sell its 46% minority in the Nokomis property near Flin Flon to Auriga Gold, the 54% holder, for 3,428,571 Auriga shares at $0.35 - about 7.8% of Auriga. Paid in paper, in line with a stated strategy of shedding minority positions while keeping exploration upside through equity.
Agreed to buy the rest of St. Eugene Mining - its 35% of Amisk - for about $19 million in Claude shares, at 0.0789 of a Claude share per St. Eugene share, worth $0.145 each on 20-day averages: a 28% premium to St. Eugene's own 20-day average and 53% to where it traded before Claude first approached it in July. St. Eugene's Tartan Lake project and $800,000 of cash were to be spun out to its shareholders, with Claude keeping its pro-rata share and cutting its Tartan Lake royalty to a flat 2%.
The Amisk Gold Project, a 65:35 joint venture with St. Eugene Mining that Claude operates, returned 1.88 g/t gold and 12.4 g/t silver over 24.61 m (AL-11-301) and 0.51 g/t over 89.75 m (AL-11-306) from 18 holes and 5,500 m. Bulk-tonnage grades, an order of magnitude below Seabee's, on a separate 15,400-hectare property.
Surface drilling at Santoy Gap, on strike from and within 400 m of the producing Santoy 8 mine, expanded the system to over 400 m of strike and beyond 450 m depth: 10.30 g/t over 5.43 m (JOY-11-535), 22.06 g/t over 2.82 m (JOY-11-551) and 49.60 g/t over 1.36 m (JOY-11-554), from 30 holes and 11,000 m drilled in 2011. A third surface rig was added.