Solid output by Silver Lake, Red 5

Gold producers Silver Lake Resources and Red 5 Resources have continued to deliver ahead of their likely merger in June, with both mid-tier companies performing strongly throughout the March 2024 quarter.

On February 5, it was announced Silver Lake and Red 5 would merge, subject to the approval of Silver Lake shareholders in May, with the new combined company tipped to have a market cap of approximately $2.2 billion.

This news followed last year's decision by Silver Lake to acquire an 11 per cent stake in Red 5. 

South Perth-based Silver Lake produced 64,463 ounces of gold for the quarter, up from 56,629oz during December 2023. As it stands, the Luke Tonkin-led mid-tier producer has produced 187,244oz for the 2024 financial year.

Having successfully met its annual production guidance for nine successive years, it appears Silver Lake will meet its 210,000-230,000oz target for the 2024 financial year.

Despite several planned and unplanned stoppages throughout its March 2024 quarter, Red 5 still produced 50,132oz, down from 53,087oz in December, which marked its fourth successive quarter of producing more than 50,000oz.

"Production was impacted by the combination of a planned SAG mill reline in March and unplanned downtime in February relating to a SAG mill lube system fault, reducing overall mill utilisation," the company said.

"Mining and processing operations also experienced minor impacts from short outages due to both extreme heat and rainfall events during the quarter."

Red 5 also said it had $58.3 million cash and liquid assets in the till, up from $53.3 million as of December 31 2023. 

Having produced 158,158oz so far during the 2024 financial year, the West Perth-based gold miner said it would likely reach its 195,000-215,000oz annual production guidance. 

Silver Lake closed trade at $1.32 per share, up 4 per cent, while Red 5 ended Monday at 39 cents per share, up 1 per cent.