Resolute Mining Limited (ASX:RSG) Managing Director & CEO, John Welborn, discusses the company’s projects and transformation program.John Welborn: Resolute is an ASX listed gold producer. We have been an explorer, developer and operator of gold assets for more than 25 years and consistently been one of the largest gold producers on the ASX. We currently own and operate the Syama mine in Mali, the Ravenswood Mine in Queensland and we own the Bibiani Gold Project in Ghana.
The biggest highlight for shareholders is the share price is up 500 percent since the start of the year so it has been a fabulous year for Resolute, and that was most obviously represented by a record profit of $213 million, a fantastic result driven by our operating success. Revenues were up 30 percent to $555 million and that drove an increased operating profit which was up 130 percent to $167 million and we use that money to pay off debt. We started the year with more than $100 million in debt and ended the year with $100 million in cash, so a fantastic turnaround in 12 months. That was driven by on-budget production of 315,000 ounces and we actually sold 340,000 ounces. A very,very good strong cash-flow generation period for Resolute.
Resolute is going into a very interesting period of transformation. As Syamais an asset that we have been operating for more than ten years, we are going underground and have completed a very large open pit and we’ve announced an underground project that will be the focus of the next 18 months. Syamais an interesting asset; it’s in Mali and represents two mines on one site. We have a completely independent oxide processing service, where we are mining surface satellite ore bodies and we have the historic sulfide circuit which will be fed from stockpiles while we develop the underground. That’s going to be an exciting development opportunity for Resolute and it will take the total site production from Syama up to 250,000 ounces a year.
In Queensland we have announced we are going back to open pit mining, so it’s almost the opposite in our Ravenswood asset where we have been successful in mining underground and we’re going back to an open pit operation. That asset has 4 million ounces in reserves and resources within a four square kilometer radius of a mill that we have previously run at 5 million per annum, currently running at 1.3 and we’re in the closing stages of a feasibility study on what we target to be a ten year mine life extension.
So in our two existing producing assets in Syama and Ravenswood we’re working on long mine life extensions to continue the profitable production of gold from those two sites. The third project, the Bibianigold project in Ghana we have completed a feasibility study and had strong indications that will be our lowest cost mine. We haven’t made a development decision yet and we anticipate further work through the financial year and would see the growth prospects of Bibiani taking the total production for Resolute up towards 450,000 ounces when we develop that asset.
Resolute has had a very strong focus for the last 12 months of strengthening our balance sheet and preparing for development execution at Syama, at Ravenswood and in the future Bibiani. That transformation goes broader than just in our balance sheet and now moves into a very strong focus on bringing the overall cost of our operations down as we look to responsibly increase production and all across our company we are looking at ways we can actually be better. One of the interesting points about result is that we have a very long term history, we have been around for 30 years and producing gold for 25, but we are also very keen to be innovative and bringing in new ways of thinking to leverage our experience and our operating success at all of our assets and to bring in a new edge to our operations. Part of that has been demonstrated by our record profit over the last 12 months and we will look to continue to drive value with the ultimate ambition to providing excellent returns for our shareholders.
