Elemental Altus Royalties Announces Record Q3 2022 Results
Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – November 29, 2022) – Elemental Altus Royalties Corp. (TSXV: ELE) (OTCQX: ELEMF) (“Elemental Altus” or “the Company“) announces its operating and financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022. For complete details please refer to the Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, available on SEDAR (http://www.sedar.com) or the Company’s website (www.elementalaltus.com).
Highlights
- Record Q3 Adjusted Revenue1 of US$3.4 million attributable to Elemental Altus, up approximately 81% from US$1.9 million a year earlier and up approximately 65% from Q2 2022
- Including partial Altus Strategies plc (“Altus”) revenue from August 16, this comprised:
- US$2.1 million attributable royalty revenue
- US$0.7 million streaming revenue
- US$0.7 million attributable revenue1 on Caserones
- Attributable guidance for 2022 updated to 6,400 to 7,000 GEOs, following completion of merger with Altus
- Maiden royalty revenue from Mercedes gold mine (Mexico) and Bonikro gold mine (Cote d’Ivoire)
- Maiden gold stream revenue from Ming mine (Newfoundland)
- Significant Reserve and Resource increase at the Karlawinda gold mine (Australia)
- Sixteen new royalties generated in Morocco through the divestment of assets to LSE listed Aterian Resources plc (“Aterian”), with US$2.9 million in Aterian equity also received
- Cash and cash equivalents of US$11.2 million
- Q3 2022 gold production from Karlawinda was 31,005 ounces (Q2 2022: 32,018 ounces).
- Capricorn expects to continue its strong operational performance in FY2023 with unchanged gold production guidance of 115,000 – 125,000 ounces and AISC of A$1,160 to A$1,166 per ounce.
- Capricorn has replaced depletion of gold reserves by 201%, with the declaration on October 27, 2022, of an updated JORC 2012 compliant Ore Reserve of 53.0 million tonnes at a grade of 0.8 g/t for 1,344,000 ounces of contained gold. This represents a 12% increase from the Ore Reserve declared in March 2020 and a 24% increase once depletion through mining is taken into account. Between March and August this year, Capricorn drilled 30,518 meters as part of a resource definition program. As a result of this and a further 187,068 meters of grade control drilling, Capricorn announced on October 27, 2022, an increase in the Mineral Resource at Karlawinda to 82.3 million tonnes in the Indicated category grading 0.7 g/t for 1,945,000 ounces of contained gold plus a further 16.9 million tonnes in the Inferred category grading 0.6 g/t for 346,000 ounces of contained gold. This represents a 7% increase on the March 2020 estimate and a 13% increase after depletion from mining.
- On November 3, 2022, Capricorn resumed load and haul mining operations following a temporary suspension since October 13, 2022, when an employee of a mining contractor was fatally injured in a significant incident at the mine.
- Production increased from 27,000 ounces in Q2 2022 to 32,000 ounces in Q3 2022 primarily due to the higher average grade milled, which was partially offset by slightly lower tonnes milled.
- Total tonnes mined decreased due to the usual impact of the wet season and the completion of mining in the current phase of the Fourkoura pits during the quarter. Tonnes of ore mined increased as a result of the commencement of mining at the Samavogo satellite deposit in September.
- Wahgnion’s performance is expected to improve in Q4 2022 due to the benefit of a full quarter of production from the higher grade Samavogo pit. Due however to its year to date performance, Wahgnion’s FY 2022 production is expected to be below the guided 140-150,000 ounces range and its FY 2022 AISC is expected to be above its $1,050-1,150 per ounce range.
- An exploration program of $9.0 million is planned for 2022, of which $7.0 million has been spent in 2022 to date with $2.2 million spent in Q3 2022 consisting of 9,800 meters of drilling across 90 drill holes.
- In Q3 2022, Rambler delivered 408 ounces of gold to Elemental Altus attributable to the stream.
- Mining progressed in all four of the main production areas in the mine. Development was strategically reduced to keep pace with production in all zones through the Quarter, providing sustainable access to production tonnes going forward while preserving cash.
- On November 1, 2022, Rambler announced that operations continue as normal at its wholly-owned Ming copper-gold mine in Canada. This follows an event of default under the US$16.4 million loan agreement with Newgen Resources Lending Inc (“Newgen”) after Rambler failed to make a first principal repayment due to Newgen on October 31, 2022. Rambler stated that it remains in constructive discussions with Newgen to find a solution to the refinancing or restructuring.
- Elemental Altus received first royalty revenue of US$137,000 in the quarter.
- Royalty revenue was due to the Company after the earlier of: (a) the date on which 450,000 ounces of gold equivalent have been produced after July 28, 2016 or (b) the sixth anniversary of that date (July 28, 2022). On July 28, 2022, Elemental Altus announced that the Mercedes royalty became payable.
- Q3 2022 gold production from Mercedes was 11,169 ounces (Q2 2022: 9,801 ounces). Tonnages, gold production and development meters trended higher as Bear Creek’s improvement program started to deliver positive results. In addition, recent development work will provide access to higher grade deposits at Rey de Oro and Marianas during Q4 2022, which is expected to contribute to further improvements in production.
- On September 6, 2022, Bear Creek announced plans to design and implement a 32 week performance improvement program at the Mercedes mine. The program will cost US$2.15 million and will be completed by January 2023. The planned improvements are to re-open closed mining areas to achieve gold production rates of over 70,000 ounces per year and reduce costs.
- Guanaco/Amancaya gold and silver production during the September 2022 quarter totalled 5,883 GEOs (or 5,679 gold ounces and 18,260 silver ounces), an 8% decrease from the June 2022 quarter and a 38% decrease from the September 2021 quarter. Total production for the first nine months of the year ended September 2022 was 19,752 GEOs, a 14% decrease from the 9-month period ended June 2022.
- Q3 2022 production at Amancaya was lower than Austral forecasted mainly due to the robbery of 423 GEOs of gold precipitate from the Guanaco refinery in Taltal, Chile. In addition, production was impacted by lower throughput, lower gold grades, and reduced availability of equipment and certain spare parts such as filter press plate’s fabrics. Austral has issued revised production guidance for 2022 of 27,000-28,000 GEOs, down from 30,000-35,000 GEOs guided to in the Q2 2022 quarterly report.
- On August 12, 2022, Austral announced a thorough review of security at its Guanaco-Amancaya mine complex.
- During Q3 2022, Austral continued reviewing exploration opportunities to increase mineral reserves at Amancaya with a drilling campaign at the Veta Oeste vein planned from Q1 2023.

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