VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - New Pacific Metals Corp. ("New Pacific" or the "Company") reports its financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2024. All figures are expressed in US dollars unless otherwise stated.
FISCAL 2025 Q1 HIGHLIGHT
The Company reported the results of its independent National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Carangas project (the "Carangas PEA") on October 1, 2024. The Carangas PEA is based on the Mineral Resource Estimate reported on September 5, 2023 for the Carangas Project (the "Carangas MRE"). Pursuant to NI 43-101, the Company is required to file the Carangas PEA under the Company's profile at sedarplus.com within 45 days of its news release dated October 1, 2024 disclosing the results of the Carangas PEA. Highlights of the Carangas PEA are as follows:
- Post-tax net present value ("NPV") (5%) of $501 million and internal rate of return ("IRR") of 26% at a base case price of $24.00 /ounce ("oz") silver, $1.25 /pound ("lb") zinc, and $0.95 /lb lead;
- 16-year life of mine ("LOM"), excluding 2-years of pre-production, producing approximately 106 million oz ("Moz") of payable silver, 620 million lbs ("Mlbs") of payable zinc and 382 Mlbs of payable lead;
- Initial capital costs of $324 million and a post-tax paybacks of 3.2 years;
- Average LOM all-in sustaining cost ("AISC") of $7.60 /oz silver, net of by-products; and
- Approximately 500 direct permanent jobs to be created from the Carangas Project.
FINANCIAL RESULTS
Net loss attributable to equity holders of the Company for the three months ended September 30, 2024 of $1.26 million or $0.01 (three months ended September 30, 2023 - net loss of $1.75 million or $0.01 per share). The Company's financial results were mainly impacted by the following items:
- Operating expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2024 of $1.61 million (three months ended September 30, 2023 - $1.87 million).
- Income from investments for the three months ended September 30, 2024 of $0.25 million (three months ended September 30, 2023 - $0.02 million).
- Gain on disposal of property, plant and equipment for the three months ended September 30, 2024 of $nil (three months ended September 30, 2023 - $0.05 million).
- Foreign exchange gain for the three months ended September 30, 2024 of $0.10 million (three months ended September 30, 2023 - $0.05 million).
- Working Capital: As of September 30, 2024, the Company had working capital of $20.36 million.
PROJECT EXPENDITURE
The following schedule summarized the expenditure incurred by category for each of the Company's projects for relevant periods:
Cost | Silver Sand | Carangas | Silverstrike | Total |
Balance, July 1, 2023 | 86,135,820 | 18,137,910 | 4,862,942 | 109,136,672 |
Capitalized exploration expenditures | ||||
Reporting and assessment | 999,402 | 408,874 | - | 1,408,276 |
Drilling and assaying | 47,217 | 23,894 | - | 71,111 |
Project management and support | 1,765,297 | 1,079,177 | 63,919 | 2,908,393 |
Camp service | 249,764 | 241,945 | 36,754 | 528,463 |
Permit and license | 33,073 | 9,308 | - | 42,381 |
Value added tax receivable | 112,332 | 31,061 | 979 | 144,372 |
Foreign currency impact | (365,571) | (78,127) | (30,039) | (473,737) |
Balance, June 30, 2024 | 88,977,334 | 19,854,042 | 4,934,555 | 113,765,931 |
Capitalized exploration expenditures | ||||
Reporting and assessment | 88,956.00 | 62,031.00 | - | 150,987.00 |
Project management and support | 387,787.00 | 241,909.00 | 20,168.00 | 649,864.00 |
Camp service | 16,006.00 | 29,383.00 | 5,072.00 | 50,461.00 |
Permit and license | 3,175.00 | 26,788.00 | - | 29,963.00 |
Value added tax receivable | 21,183.00 | 3,110.00 | 903.00 | 25,196.00 |
Foreign currency impact | 173,240.00 | 45,813.00 | 12,494.00 | 231,547.00 |
Balance, September 30, 2024 | 89,667,681 | 20,263,076 | 4,973,192 | 114,903,949 |
SILVER SAND PROJECT
For the three months ended September 30, 2024, total expenditures of $0.52 million (three months ended September 30, 2023 - $0.97 million) were capitalized under the project.
CARANGAS PROJECT
For the three months ended September 30, 2024, total expenditures of $0.36 million (three months ended September 30, 2023 - $0.61 million) were capitalized under the project.
SILVERSTRIKE PROJECT
For the three months ended September 30, 2024, total expenditures of $0.03 million (three months ended September 30, 2023 - $0.07 million) were capitalized under the project.
MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
This news release should be read in conjunction with the Company's management discussion and analysis and the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the corresponding period, which have been filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca,on EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on the Company's website at www.newpacificmetals.com.
ABOUT NEW PACIFIC
New Pacific is a Canadian exploration and development company with three precious metal projects in Bolivia. The Company's flagship Silver Sand project has the potential to be developed into one of the world's largest silver mines. The Company is also advancing its robust, high-margin silver-lead-zinc Carangas project. Additionally a discovery drill program was completed at Silverstrike in 2022.
For further information, please contact:
Andrew Williams, CEO
New Pacific Metals Corp. Phone: (604) 633-1368 Ext. 236
1750 - 1066 Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3X1, Canada
U.S. & Canada toll-free: 1 (877) 631-0593
E-mail: [email protected]
For additional information and to receive the Company news by e-mail, please register using New Pacific's website at www.newpacificmetals.com.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING RESULTS OF PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT
The results of the Preliminary Economic Assessment prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 titled "Carangas Deposit - Preliminary Economic Assessment" with an anticipated effective date of October 1, 2024 and prepared by certain qualified persons associated with RPMGlobal are preliminary in nature and are intended to provide an initial assessment of the Project's economic potential and development options. The Carangas PEA mine schedule and economic assessment includes numerous assumptions and is based on both indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources. Inferred resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessments described herein will be achieved or that the Carangas PEA results will be realized. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by geology, environmental, permitting, legal, title, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues. Mineral resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Additional exploration will be required to potentially upgrade the classification of the Inferred Mineral Resources to be considered in future advanced studies. RPMGlobal (mineral resource, infrastructure, tailings, water management, environmental and financial analysis) was contracted to conduct the Carangas PEA in cooperation with Moose Mountain Technical Services (mining), and JJ Metallurgical Services (Metallurgy). The qualified persons for the Carangas PEA for the purposes of NI 43-101 are Mr. Marcelo del Giudice, FAusIMM, Principal Metallurgist with RPMGlobal, Mr. Pedro Repetto, SME, P.E., Principal Civil/Geotechnical Engineer with RPMGlobal, Mr. Gonzalo Rios, FAusIMM, Executive Consultant - ESG with RPMGlobal, Mr. Jinxing Ji, P.Eng., Metallurgist with JJ Metallurgical Services, and Mr. Marc Schulte, P.Eng., Mining Engineer with Moose Mountain Technical Services., in addition to Mr. Anderson Candido, FAusIMM, Principal Geologist with RPMGlobal who estimated the Mineral Resources. All qualified persons for the Carangas PEA have reviewed the disclosure of the Carangas PEA herein. The Carangas PEA is based on the Carangas MRE, which was reported on September 5, 2023. The effective date of the Carangas MRE is August 25, 2023. Mineral Resources are constrained by an optimized pit shell at a metal price of US$23.00 /oz Ag, US$1,900.00 /oz Au, US$0.95 /lb Pb, US$1.25 /lb Zn, recovery of 90% Ag, 98% Au, 83% Pb, 58% Zn and Cut-off grade of 40 g/t AgEq. Assumptions made to derive a cut-off grade included mining costs, processing costs, and recoveries were obtained from comparable industry situations.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Certain of the statements and information in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian provincial securities laws. Any statements or information that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategies", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "budgets", "schedules", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements or information. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: the Company's financial results; anticipated exploration, drilling, development, construction, and other activities or achievements of the Company; inferred, indicated or measured mineral resources or mineral reserves on the Company's projects, including, but not limited to, the Silver Sand PFS Technical Report; the anticipation that the Company will file a Preliminary Economic Assessment in respect of its Carangas project; the timing of receipt of permits and regulatory approvals; and estimates of the Company's revenues and capital expenditures.
Forward-looking statements or information are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information, including, without limitation, risks relating to: fluctuating equity prices, bond prices, commodity prices; calculation of resources, reserves and mineralization, general economic conditions, foreign exchange risks, interest rate risk, foreign investment risk; loss of key personnel; conflicts of interest; dependence on management, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, environmental risks, operations and political conditions, the regulatory environment in Bolivia and Canada, risks associated with community relations and corporate social responsibility, and other factors described under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form for the year ended June 30, 2023 and its other public filings. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements or information.
The forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates, assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date of this news release that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. These estimates, assumptions, beliefs, expectations and options include, but are not limited to, those related to the Company's ability to carry on current and future operations, including: development and exploration activities; the timing, extent, duration and economic viability of such operations; the accuracy and reliability of estimates, projections, forecasts, studies and assessments; the Company's ability to meet or achieve estimates, projections and forecasts; the stabilization of the political climate in Bolivia; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain social license at its mineral properties; the availability and cost of inputs; the price and market for outputs; foreign exchange rates; taxation levels; the timely receipt of necessary approvals or permits, including the ratification and approval of the Mining Production Contract with the Corporacion Minera de Bolivia by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia; the ability of the Company's Bolivian partner to convert the exploration licenses at its Carangas project to administrative mining contracts; the ability to meet current and future obligations; the ability to obtain timely financing on reasonable terms when required; the current and future social, economic and political conditions; and other assumptions and factors generally associated with the mining industry. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management believes are reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. Other than specifically required by applicable laws, the Company is under no obligation and expressly disclaims any such obligation to update or alter the forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as may be required by law. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release.
CAUTIONARY NOTE TO UNITED STATES INVESTORS
This news release has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. All mining terms used herein but not otherwise defined have the meanings set forth in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). Unless otherwise indicated, the technical and scientific disclosure herein has been prepared in accordance with NI 43-101, which differs significantly from the requirements adopted by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Accordingly, information contained in this news release containing descriptions of the Company's mineral deposits may not be comparable to similar information made public by United States companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Additional information relating to the Company, including the Company's annual information form, can be obtained under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, on EDGAR at www.sec.gov, and on the Company's website at www.newpacificmetals.com.
SOURCE New Pacific Metals Corp.
