Galena to remain in suspension

Galena Mining has announced it will remain in suspension until the strategic review to tweak its capital restructure and enhance shareholder value has concluded.

Friday's development comes after the West Perth-based company requested to enter voluntary suspension on January 11, citing its intent to complete the review before returning to trade on the Australian Securities Exchange.

In light of this, Taurus Funds Management, which set up a $110 million debt facility agreement with Galena in 2020, has agreed to defer an upcoming principal debt repayment from March 31 to April 30. 

The base metals company also provided production and processing updates for the first two calendar months of 2024 at its flagship Abra base metals mine, located in Western Australia's Gascoyne region - which were affected by weather conditions, equipment issues and mill downtime.

Galena told the market ore mill processing was disrupted in January due to 95 hours of mill downtime, which was a mixture of planned and unplanned circumstances.

Additionally, processing was also partially suspended twice in February due to localised flooding, coupled by the need for a major crusher conveyor to be replaced.

Galena managing director Tony James said he was confident the company's fortunes would improve in coming months.

“In January, a new monthly record was set for underground mine production, with the mine achieving an annual equivalent of 1.53 million tonnes per annum," he said. 

"In doing this, stoping achieved a new monthly record of 91,000 tonnes, which is very rewarding for everyone involved in the project.

"The mined and processed grade was below what was planned at 6.5 per cent lead grade due to some modelling and operational variances to the plan during the month. We anticipate this to improve in the coming months as we continue to revise our plans using updated drilling information collected over the last six months."

Abra was also impacted by weather-induced delays last year, shortly after Galena had raised $20 million to accelerate the ramp-up period at the site.