Mining Minutes
Yamana Gold Hedges Exposure To Brazilian Real
Yamana Gold Inc. (TSX: YRI; NYSE: AUY) announces that it has entered into option contracts for a portion of its exposure to the Brazilian real in 2019. Specifically, the company has entered into two sets of zero-cost collar contracts. “We manage our business holistically and recent, significant depreciation in several of the currencies for which we are exposed has provided a strategic entry to lock in the improving outlook for certain in-country operating costs relative to forecasts,” says Daniel Racine, president and chief executive officer. “Consistent with our prior practices, we have executed foreign-exchange options contracts that we expect to underpin cash flows and increase our confidence in delivering planned improvements to cash flows.” He also concedes Argentina’s planned export tax would impact the company’s operations there. “Our view is that the announced tax is not effective before being approved by the legislature,” the CEO says. “To date, no legislation has been introduced in the Federal Congress to make the proposed tax effective and give it constitutional sanction. We are also evaluating the impact of our fiscal stability pacts on the proposed tax as those pacts limit taxes to those set forth in the pacts.” The company is seeking a “constructive resolution” on the matter, Racine adds.
By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
Gran Colombia: Year-To-Date Gold Output Up 36% Year-On-Year
Wednesday September 12, 2018 08:40
Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM) announces output of 18,746 gold ounces of gold in August, bringing the total for the first eight months of 2018 to 143,621, up 36% from the same time period of 2017. This brings the company’s trailing 12-months gold production to 211,983 ounces, up 22% from 2017 annual production of 173,821 ounces. “We are continuing to see strong performance from our company mines at Segovia this year with head grades averaging close to 20 g/t [grams per tonne] through the first eight months of the year,” says Serafino Iacono, executive co-chairman. “In light of our production results to date, we now expect that our annual gold production for 2018 will range between 210,000 and 220,000 ounces.”
