albidon rebirth on track

Revenue from mine production for March 2011 came to over $US7 million - 79% higher than the average sales revenue in 2010.
Albidon chief financial officer David Round told HighGrade that as with all mines on care and maintenance for some time, Munali took until the last two months or so to ramp up fully after its restart. However, the company believed the strong production and revenues would continue.

?We actually expect our budget revenue to be significantly higher than $US7 million in comings months again,? he said.

It has also taken this long for the company?s mining contractor, Byrnecut, to reach the higher grade areas of the orebody, which will be a critical part of Munali?s success in the future and was also one of the reasons why the previous incarnation of the mine suffered such high costs.


?Albidon only really just scratched the surface when the mine was open before,? Round said.

The previous issues with mine planning and cash costs are firmly in the past, according to Round. ?I think, without any disrespect to the previous people involved, that they took their eyes off a few things.

We?re predicting cash costs per pound will be $US4-5 per pound over the life of the mine and that?s a pretty good result to bring them down to that level ongoing,? he said.
?We?ve also done a deal with Byrnecut which gave us a $4 million saving on last year?s contract, reducing mine development costs by 15%, which make up 30-40% of our total costs.?
Round also said Albidon now understood the project?s costs and there was not a need for additional capex. Rather, making Munali a success was a matter of getting the right tonnage through and getting the grades and recoveries right.

Recovery levels had been just under 60%
and Round said bringing the recoveries up to nearer 70% was vital.

?We anticipate recoveries of 73-74% in the next few months,? he said. The company will also release a life of mine study this week detailing the ever-important question
of ?what next??