A little publicity won't hurt
The Northern Miner Volume 84
Number 36 November 2-8, 1998
Wheaton River keeps head above water
Junior producer Wheaton River Minerals
(WRM-T) remains in the black, thanks to higher
output and lower costs at its seasonal Golden Bear
mine in northern British Columbia.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company
earned $2.2 million (or 6 cents per share) on gold sales
of $15 million, compared with $1.8 million on sales of
$14.3 million in the year-ago period. The 1997 earnings
included a gain of $2.2 million from the sale of former
subsidiary YGC Resources (YGC-V).
Wheaton sold its production for US$341 per oz. -- $30
per oz. less than that realized in 1997.
Production at Golden Bear, which is 87%-owned and
operated by Wheaton, topped 35,100 oz. in the recent
9-month period, and another 800 oz. are expected to be
liberated from the leach pad in the remainder of the
season. Total cash costs in the period averaged
US$149 per oz., or $80 per oz. less than in the
comparable period in 1997, when 30,900 oz. were
produced. Wheaton says this year's operating results
reflect higher-than-expected gold grades in the Kodiak
A deposit and a 2.2% increase in recovery rates, to
89%. The company has stockpiled 200,000 tonnes
from that now-depleted deposit and will treat the
material when mining begins at the Ursa deposit next
June. Ursa hosts open-pit reserves of 519,400 tonnes
grading 6.9 grams gold per tonne.
Meanwhile, a feasibility study is in progress at
Wheaton's wholly owned Bellavista gold project in
Costa Rica. The study, which is due early in 1999, is
focusing on a portion of a deposit that hosts 9.6 million
tonnes grading 1.66 grams gold. Wheaton believes the
deposit is potentially minable by open-pit methods.
According to an independent prefeasibility study,
Bellavista is capable of producing 51,500 oz. gold per
year over 7.5 years. Total cash costs are pegged at
US$181 per oz., while capital costs are estimated at
US$21.8 million.
Wheaton is debt-free and has $10.1 million in cash.
Regulators recently approved a plan by Wheaton to
repurchase 2 million of its shares on the open market.
The company has one year to complete the transaction
and will cancel any shares acquired, which, if totalling
the maximum allowed, would reduce by 5% the number
of outstanding shares (currently 40.6 million). Each
share will be purchased at a price prevailing at the time
of acquisition.
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