Half Year Report to December 2013: New Growth Strategy in Three Key Elements
Sydney, Mar 19, 2014 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Argent Minerals Limited (
ASX:ARD) (Argent, Argent Minerals or the Company) is pleased to report that it has concluded the first half of the 2014 financial year with a strong operational and financial performance.
In the December quarter report released on 31 January 2014, Argent Minerals announced that it had entered a new phase of development and growth, with three key elements to the Company's strategy:
- Income generation from mining production. The Company continues to advance its 100%-owned Kempfield project, a registered NSW State Significant Development, toward its first stage of production based on a low cost silver-gold heap leach operation. This design is advantageous in lower precious metal pricing environments and provides leverage to any price recovery that may occur. Government approvals must be in place before production can commence, a top priority for the Company;
- Exploration. The second key element is Argent Minerals' aggressive pursuit of the significant exploration upside potential that has been identified within the Kempfield project area. Tonnes and grade are key factors in any project economics, and the Company's focus is to add both where opportunities exist to do so, particularly where this might add to the Company's zinc and lead resources for potential extension of mine life beyond the envisaged Stage 1 of production which is designed to extract silver and gold from primarily oxide material; and
- Capital Efficiency. The third key element in Argent's strategy is its capital efficiency. In addition to the low cost project design, the Company's overheads are relatively low, and during calendar year 2013 it secured approximately $2.4 million in funding. Significantly, over $1.7 million of this cash was raised through the 2012 and 2013 R&D claims, and the Option Entitlement Issue, with a considerable portion of these funds in the process of being invested directly into project value.
Subsequent to balance date, Argent Minerals raised an additional $485,000 through proceeds from the issuance of shortfall options and the 2011 R&D claim.
The net result is that Argent Minerals has only diluted its ordinary share capital by 10% since July 2011. The Company's major advances in exploration during the half year are set out in the following section, followed by a summary of the R&D claims.
To view the full Half Year Report to Dec 2013, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/76776-ASX-ARD-670973.pdf
About Argent Minerals Limited
Argent Minerals Limited (
ASX:ARD) is an Australian publicly listed company with a 100% interest in a silver/gold project at Kempfield NSW. Work is underway on the preparation of an EIS and a feasibility study for the first stage of the project which will involve heap leaching some 8.8 million tonnes of mainly oxide and transitional material to produce over 9.5 million ounces of silver and 15,000 ounces of gold over a 5 year mine life. Argent is also earning up to a 70% interest in two other NSW projects - gold at West Wyalong and base metals at Sunny Corner.
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