Rambler cuts costs as it redoubles focus on Ming mine expansion

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canada-focused maritime copper producer Rambler Metals and Mining has managed to lower costs by more than 18% for the year ended July 31, but booked another sizeable writedown on its flagship Ming mine, in Newfoundland.

The London, England-based company reported that C1 cash costs fell on average to $1.72/lb from $2.11/lb, but the anaemic copper market eclipsed this operational improvement, falling to $2.20/lb from $2.87/lb in fiscal 2015.

Revenues for the twelve months to July totalled $30.4-million, down 12% year-on-year, as cash flow from operations fell 34% year-on-year to $4.8-million.

Rambler reported an operating loss of $1.06-million, compared with profit of $938 000 a year earlier and a wider pre-tax loss of $15.2-million, after booking an impairment charge of $11.3-million on the carrying value of the Ming mine.

"With the project financing we will continue to focus on accelerating the Phase II development, allowing the mine to deliver increased tonnage to surface. We are targeting our first expansion milestone of 1 250 metric tonnes per day (mtpd) from the mine by mid calendar 2017,” stated president and CEO Norman Williams.

“With the operation team focused on delivering the production increase, we look forward to further engineering and evaluation of two very exciting opportunities around shaft rehabilitation and ore pre-concentration,” he added.

Rambler had milled 241 080 dry metric tonnes in the year with copper grades of 2.12% and gold grades of 1.4 g/t.

Recoveries for copper and gold averaged 95.6% and 68.7% respectively, with production of 4 508 t of copper, which was slightly lower than the 4 622 t produced a year earlier, and 7 129 oz of gold representing a significant improvement over 4 926 oz a year earlier.

Rambler’s immediate plans are to increase mine and mill output to 1 250 mtpd by this time next year. This initial expansion has been fully funded through a £10.45-million investment made by CE Mining II earlier this year, giving the financier majority control (63%). Rambler will also continue advancing engineering studies on ore preconcentration and shaft rehabilitation work, with a view to further increase production to 2 000 mtpd at the Ming mine.

Rambler reported first production from the mine on November 28, 2011, from the 1806 gold zone. Production from this zone continued up to early May 2012, having produced 14 918 oz of gold doré at Nugget Pond mill. Live ore commissioning of the copper concentrator began on May 14, 2012.

Rambler is also conducting a detailed study at the mill, with a goal to increase gold recovery and production rates in the copper concentrator.