LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Brazil-focussed gold miner and developer Serabi reported total first quarter production of 8,055 ounces on Wednesday.
The AIM-traded firm also recorded a significant increase in cash reserves, with $13.9m held at the end of March, compared to $7.2m at the end of December.

Its EBITDA for the three-month period reached $2.3m, which was a slight improvement from the $2.1m it recorded in the same period in 2022.

Similarly, the post-tax profit for the first quarter was reported at $1.5m - slightly lower than the $1.7m reported a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, Serabi reported a profit of 1.94 cents for the first quarter of 2023, compared to 2.28 cents for the same period in 2022.

Serabi's net cash inflow from operations, after accounting for mine development expenditure of $0.4m, was $2.7m for the quarter, swinging from a $2.5m outflow in the same period last year.

During the quarter, Serabi achieved an average gold price of $1,892 per ounce in gold sales, which was slightly higher than the average price of $1,844 per ounce recorded in 2022.

In terms of costs, the company's cash cost for the period was reported at $1,281 per ounce, which was an 11% improvement quarter-on-quarter, and compared with $1,438 per ounce in the first quarter of last year.

The firm's all-in sustaining cost for the quarter was $1,516 per ounce, representing a 16% improvement compared to the $1,810 per ounce it reported for the first three months of 2022.

"The first quarter of 2023 has benefitted from continued gold price strength and increasing levels of gold production generated from the Coringa operation," said chief financial officer Clive Line.

"Gold production for the quarter of 8,005 ounces means that the group is on schedule for its annual 2023 production guidance of between 33,500 and 35,000 ounces of gold.

"Subsequent to the quarter end, we were very pleased to conclude the signing of an exciting exploration alliance with Vale focused on the Matilda prospect and other large regional targets in the Tapajos region of Para, Brazil."

Line said the discovery of the Matilda porphyry prospect in 2022 was a major milestone for Serabi, adding that its ability to jointly develop the prospect and other non-gold related opportunities with Vale was a "hugely exciting opportunity" for Serabi and its shareholders

"During the first quarter we took advantage of the offer of an additional export backed 12-month loan facility with Santander Bank in Brazil for $5m.

"This provided the group with adequate liquidity to allow the repayment of a similar arrangement with Itau BBA Bank which was repaid on 12 May.

"The facility with Santander is repayable as a bullet payment in February 2024 and carries a fixed interest rate of 7.96%."

At 1258 BST, shares in Serabi Gold were down 1.06% at 27.01p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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