Maritana Minerals has clocked up a solid March quarter, significantly bulking up its cash position and nudging its Black Swan processing hub closer to the starting line as it pivots from a developer to a long-term producer.
The company, formerly Horizon Minerals, changed its name to Maritana Minerals and its ASX ticker from HRZ to MRT in April, a move it said would reduce confusion with similarly named companies.
Maritana finished the quarter with $120.6M in cash, up from $37.5M at December quarter-end. The lift was driven by a $5.6M net cash inflow from operating activities, a $20.7M net inflow from asset sales and $56.8M net cash from fresh equity.
The quarterly cash flow logged $4.6M in receipts from gold sales for the three months to March and $74.7M in customer receipts year-to-date, alongside a $10M advance from a joint venture partner.
Maritana also completed the divestment of its Lake Johnston nickel asset for total consideration of $35M, comprising $30M in cash and $5M in Forrestania Resources shares. The company also sold down part of its listed investments during the quarter.
Notably, management said the second tranche of its $175M capital raise was received after quarter-end, bringing its cash position to $233.5M as of 28 April.
Operationally, the March quarter kept a spotlight on Black Swan, where scoping work has outlined a 2.2 million tonnes-per-annum processing hub. Early works are underway, including front-end engineering and ordering of critical long-lead items.
Maritana also has 460,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled at Boorara, containing 14,200 ounces of gold, which it expects will help de-risk commissioning once the refurbished Black Swan plant is ready.
During the quarter, Boorara milling totalled 19,786 tonnes at 1.198 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, producing 687 ounces, while gold sales notched up $4.1M at an average price of $6910 per ounce.
At its Phillips Find gold project, 45km north-northwest of Coolgardie, toll treatment campaigns continued. The company says it anticipates a final joint venture cash distribution with BML Ventures by the end of June, once final reconciliations are wrapped up.
With the completion of mining and all five toll treatment campaigns, Phillips Find has processed 225,988 tonnes at 2.02g/t gold for 14,095 ounces of high-grade ore.
That result could improve further, with an additional 30,000 tonnes of lower-grade ore grading 0.8 grams per tonne already processed and still awaiting final reconciliation.
With a much fatter cash buffer and key groundwork now underway, Maritana looks well placed to keep pushing its Goldfields pipeline of projects forward as its Black Swan project transitions from plans to plant.
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By Doug Bright
