Revenues up at Vane after high-grade production

Vane Minerals (VML) announced increased revenues from its Mexican operations on Monday.

It said the positive results were brought on by higher-than-expected grades of gold and silver being produced and improved recovery from its joint venture mine at La Colorada.

This has generated sufficient cash to cover all of the company's operational and exploration costs for the fourth quarter.

"These results are very encouraging and underpin the company's decision to switch its focus to ore produced at the La Colorada Mine,” commented Vane’s chief executive David Newton.

He added that whilst there can be no guarantee that these results will be replicated in the future, they demonstrate that if these production levels can be maintained then the company's Mexican operations will continue to make a significant cash contribution to the total running costs of the group.

Vane also confirmed that work has commenced to remove 3,200 tonnes of high grade iron ore from the Diablito mine. This follows its announcement to close the mine during the course of this year.

Of these 3,200 tonnes, it is expected that approximately 1,663 tonnes of high grade ore (17.9g/T Au and 1,801g/T Ag) will be processed through the Company's Merrill Crowe facility at the rate of 120 tonnes per month, with the remaining ore (2g/T Au and 200 g/T Ag) stockpiled.

Highlights from the firm’s Mexican operations include revenue of $2.69 million in the fourth quarter plus 7,802 tonnes of ore in total processed by SDA Mill during Q4 (Q3: 8,022 tonnes) with average grades 8.06 /T Au (Q3: 5.17g/T Au) and 127g/T Ag (Q3: 105g/T Ag).

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