Soma Gold, a gold mining and exploration company on track to produce 35,500 ounces of gold in 2023, recently reported excellent key output metrics for the first quarter of 2023 as its expansion efforts continue, keeping the company on track to meet its annual goal. The company sold 6,448 gold equivalent ounces, its second-highest quarterly sale figure on record, reflecting a 52% increase in sales from Q1 2022. Additional figures show Soma Gold excelling in revenue, earnings, and total cash costs.
With this excellent sales figure, Soma Gold achieved a quarterly revenue of $16 million, including a $6.6 million income from its mine operations and a $1.2 million net income. The quarterly revenue figure increased by 63% compared to this period last year, while the mine operations income increased by 59% and the net income skyrocketed by a whopping 377%.
Soma Gold’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) this quarter totaled at $6.8 million. In the first quarter of 2022, the figure was just half of what the company achieved this year. 2022’s EBITDA for Q1 reached $3.7 million.
The company’s total cash cost figure came to $893 per ounce of gold sold. In Q1 2022, the number totaled at $910 per ounce.
“It is gratifying to deliver the performance we anticipated in our 2023 plan and guidance. We are well on track to completing the year at or above expectations. The team has outperformed on most metrics as we see the effects of self-performing mechanized mining,” Javier Cordova, Soma Gold’s CEO and president, explained in the report.
The primary driving factor behind Soma Gold’s success this quarter might’ve been the Cordero Mine in Antioquia, Colombia, reaching commercial production on January 1, 2023. The company began developing the mine back in September 2020 with continual drilling efforts to expand its reserves. Cordero’s high-yielding resources grade at 6.9 indicated grams per ton and 7.9 inferred grams per ton compared to the company’s legacy La Ye and Mangos ores only averaging 4.5 grams per ton.
The Cordero Mine yielded a production rate of 84,000 tons in 2022 before reaching its full commercial production. The company expects the mine to yield 248,000 tons in 2024 with a mine life of around three years allowing it to last until early 2026. “However, it is anticipated that our current drill program, with both surface and underground drilling underway, will add new resources to materially extend Cordero’s mine life,” Soma Gold explains in a project overview on its website.
The excellent metrics from Q1 2023 were just the beginning of what we can expect to see from Soma Gold in the coming years.
“We are successfully transitioning from the 2022 challenges of managing the construction of the Cordero Mine and gold production to optimizing costs and recovery. During the balance of 2023, we will continue to ramp up gold production and further reduce the costs to produce those ounces,” Cordova continued.
Aside from the Cordero Mine, Soma Gold owns numerous high-yielding operations around Columbia with the potential to skyrocket the company’s production figures.
Soma’s El Bagre Gold Mining Complex in Antioquia, Colombia, produced 23,115 ounces of gold in 2022, depicting a 30% production increase from the year prior. The company currently forecasts an additional 50% increase in output from the mill for 2023, predicting 35,500 ounces produced.
Soma Gold also owns the El Limon Mill, just 47 kilometers south of El Bagre. The company currently has El Limon under care and maintenance until the Coldero Mine’s production exceeds El Bagre Mill’s capacity.
Along with the Nechí Project consisting of test mining deposits, Soma Gold operates numerous exploration targets across its Zara properties. “Soma has also planned a robust program of grass roots exploration to identify additional targets for future drilling. This work is to include an airborne magnetic, radiometric, and topographic survey, prospecting, mapping, and soil and stream sediment sampling,” the company reveals on its website.
Based on 2022’s production figures and Q1 2023’s stellar results, Soma Gold expects to yield 35,500 ounces in 2023 and 45,000 ounces in 2024. With demand for gold only increasing on a daily basis, Soma Gold has its mindset in the right place. Now is the time to capitalize on gold’s rising demand and price levels.
As Soma Gold continues ramping up its production, we can expect to see more quarterly reports similar to this one, especially with the Coldero Mine now in full commercial production.
