Auric Mining banks 212% full year pre-tax
profit surge from WA gold mining
By James Pearson from Bulls n Bears
Auric Mining (ASX:AWJ) has delivered a knockout full-year result with a 212 per cent leap in pre-tax profit to $4.1 million for the year ending December 2024.
The West Australian gold junior’s other vital statistics were equally impressive, the company’s total revenue lifted by 76 per cent to $8.45M and its asset base grew by 62 per cent to $21.6M. Net profit after tax surged 105 per cent to $2.69M, up from $1.31M in 2023.
Auric also closed the year with a rock-solid $17.9M in equity, underpinned by $2.84M in cash, $5.85M in receivables and zero bank debt.
The star performer for the year was the stage two mining campaign at the company’s Jeffrey’s Find pit near Norseman, which delivered 11,579 ounces of gold that sold at an eye-opening average of $3900 per ounce.
The final production tally was then split after costs with joint venture partner BML Ventures. The net profit share flows through to Auric’s bottom line.
A final 60,000-tonne ore cut made from the pit in January is now sitting on the run-of-mine pad and will be processed at the nearby Three Mile Hill gold plant at the start of July to add an estimated 3000 ounces of gold to the total inventory.
Since almost all the costs from the project have now been dispersed, the remaining tonnes should provide an intense revenue sugar hit for the joint venture partners.
This has become increasingly apparent as the price of the yellow metal continues to soar. It is now up $760 per ounce since the beginning of the year.
Auric estimates that for every $100 added to the gold price, the joint venture’s total revenue will jump a further $300,000, with much of that dropping to the bottom line after processing costs.
Now that its Jeffrey’s Find project is mostly in the rear-view mirror, Auric is using its cash windfall to move onto a new development at the company’s Munda gold project, near Widgiemooltha in Western Australia.
Extensive drilling and groundwork are already underway at site with work expected to start shortly to mine a 125,000-tonne starter pit grading 1.8 grams per tonne (g/t) for 6100 ounces of the yellow metal, which should generate $5.3M in quick cash.
By taking a strategic approach of a starter pit to unlock Munda’s full potential the company expects to gain a deeper understanding of the geology at site and pave the way for a more efficient mining strategy to develop a bigger 140,000-ounce orebody.
By removing the costly overburden material during a high gold price environment, Auric hopes to lower its overall future mining costs, thereby putting the full-scale operation – due to start in 2026 - on a firmer footing, even in a fluctuating market.
Unlike the past two years where it has operated in partnership with BML, Auric now has the funding to go it alone and take full control of Munda, which means the company will have full exposure to the upside from operations going forward.
Auric has a “strike while the iron is hot” attitude to its development plans during these heady days of booming gold prices to push the production pipeline well past Jeffrey’s Find and Munda.
The company has just wrapped up due diligence on its acquisition of the Burbanks gold plant near Coolgardie - a 180,000 tonne-per-annum operation – having secured a deal for $4.4M.
Hot on the heels of that move, Auric also snapped up the Lindsay gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields for $4M in a mix of cash and shares. The acquisition includes the mine-ready Parrot Feathers deposit, which hosts 18,000 mine-ready ounces of gold.
Auric is not slowing down. The company sees exploration potential in its Loded Dog tenements, which offers a promising package of eight licences near Westgold Resources’ massive 2.8M-ounce Higginsville gold operation.
In a major win during the year, Auric signed an all-in-one landmark native title agreement with the Ngadju People covering 102,000 square kilometres and almost all the company’s exploration grounds. The deal streamlines future project approvals and will deliver tangible economic benefits for the Ngadju community.
With the company now free of its joint venture obligations and heavily leveraged by the booming gold price from its latest acquisitions – gold is at an all-time high of $4960 per ounce – Auric appears to be setting itself up for an exciting 2025 as one of WA’s next mid-tier gold success stories.
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