Unknown, but incredibly successful! Aura Minerals was able to double its gold and copper production within five years by the end of 2023. It now aims to double again by the end of 2025. Despite this dynamic growth, the company has very solid finances and has so far been under the radar of many investors.
Target: 450,000 ounces of gold by the end of 2025Rodrigo Barbosa, CEO of Aura Minerals (C$8.50; $ORA), outlined his company's ambitious growth plans at the Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek (Colorado) in September 2023. He wants to produce 450,000 ounces of gold equivalent per year by the end of 2025. To achieve these 450,000 gold equivalent ounces (GEO), three new mines are being built. All three are located in Brazil. Almas, an open-cast mine, has already started production and is scheduled to ramp up in 2024. Borborema is under construction and the investment costs (CapEx) of USD 188 million are largely covered under a royalty agreement. A feasibility study has been carried out for Matupa. Although some approvals are still pending, construction is scheduled to start this year. Aura Minerals already owns three producing mines in Mexico, Honduras and Brazil.
Aura Minerals: stabilization on the cost sideRodrigo Barbosa is confident that production costs have stabilized in the meantime. In 2021 and 2022, these had increased significantly - as in the industry as a whole. For the new projects, he expects an increase of 15% to 20%: "Nevertheless, we managed to build Almas without exceeding the planned budget." It was not only the local team's cost savings that contributed to this. A generous safety buffer was already built in when calculating the construction costs. Aura Minerals expects all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of USD 1,290-1,459 per ounce for 2024. The AISCs of the new projects are expected to be below USD 1,000 per ounce.
Synergies from three new minesThe CEO primarily sees technical synergies at the new mines. What was learned during the construction of Almas will be applied at Borborema. And then the construction of the Matupa mine will follow. The company itself sees Brazil as a good location for a mining ...
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