The Aurelia Metals Ltd (ASX: AMI) share price has taken off today after the small-cap ASX miner released a production update.
Aurelia Metals is a mining and exploration company with a strategic landholding in the polymetallic Cobar Basin in New South Wales. The company operates 2 wholly-owned gold and base metal operations, Peak Mine and Hera Mine, along with 2 processing plants.
Aurelia is a gold-dominant business and in FY19, produced 117,521 ounces of gold at a group all-in sustaining cost of $1,045 per ounce.
Why the Aurelia Metals share price is charging higher
This morning, Aurelia provided an update on group production for the June 2020 quarter to date.
The company decided to provide these interim figures in light of the current absence of guidance due to COVID-19. Aurelia withdrew its guidance back in March given the uncertainty surrounding the spread, duration and impact of the pandemic.
Preliminary group production figures for the June quarter to 31 May 2020 are:
- Gold: 16,300 ounces
- Copper: 1,250 tonnes
- Lead: 3,300 tonnes
- Zinc: 2,300 tonnes
This represents a significant boost to the production figures announced for the March 2020 quarter.
Gold production in the entire March quarter came in at 14,304 ounces, while copper production was 871 tonnes. So in the first 2 months of the current quarter, Aurelia is already beating these production figures by 14% and 44%, respectively.
Lead is tracking along relatively in line with March figures of 4,657 ounces. However, zinc production in the current quarter is notably down from the 5,921 tonnes posted last quarter.
Nonetheless, on the whole, Aurelia is on track for a significantly improved quarter-on-quarter production result.
At the time of writing, the Aurelia share price has jumped 21.69% today to 43.2 cents. This takes the company's market capitalisation to around $378 million.
