Goldplat plc / Ticker: GDP / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining & Exploration

5 May 2023

Goldplat plc

('Goldplat' or the 'Company')

3^rd Quarter Operating Results update for period ended 31 March 2023

Goldplat Plc, (AIM:GDP) the AIM listed Mining Services Group, with international gold recovery operations located in South Africa and Ghana, servicing the African and South American Mining Industry, is pleased to announce an operational update for the 3^rd quarter ended 31 March 2023 ("Q3"), of the current financial year.

The two recovery operations achieved a combined operating profit for the quarter of £1,470,000 which represents a 36% decrease against Q3 in the previous period (Q3 2022 - £2,286,000) (excluding listing and head office costs and foreign exchange losses).

The combined operating profit for the operating entities for 9 months ending 31 March 2023 decreased by 20% to £4,840,000 (Q3 2022 - £6,045,000).       

This quarter's results were a consequence of reduced operating performances in South Africa of £1,175,000 (Q3 2022 - £1,627,000) and in Ghana of £295,000 (Q3 2022 - £659,000).

Despite the reduced operating performance in Q3, the Company still expects to meet current market expectations for the current financial year.

The following events have contributed to the reduced Q3 operating results:

Gold Recovery Ghana ("GRG")

·      During Q3, GRG production remained in line with previous quarters, however, we have experienced delays to the export of product as a result of the finalisation of the renewal of our Gold Licence, which is required for export. Although the licence has been approved by the Minerals Commission of Ghana, the final signature from the regulated authorities has taken longer than expected. As a result, production is currently locked up in inventory on site since the previous licence expired at the end of January 2023. This situation has not been resolved as of the date of this announcement. Once the new license is signed, accumulated inventory will be sold which is expected to lead to non-recurring higher sales volumes in Q4.

·      The supply of material from South America and Ghana has remained steady and we continue to have positive engagements with clients in South America and West Africa.

Goldplat Recovery (Pty) Ltd

·      The operating profit for the period did improve from the previous quarter by £356,000 to £1,175,000 as a result of good supply from by-products towards the end of Q2 and during Q3. However, production in our lower grade circuits was impacted by electricity cuts from the electricity provider in South Africa. The South African operation lost a total of 19 operating days, 20% of the total days available in the quarter, due to electricity cuts and infrastructure related issues during Q3. We expect that the current electricity situation will continue during the next 12 months. We continue to explore mitigating actions and viable power generation solutions to minimize the impact on the business. The most viable solutions involve additional connections to the local Municipality Grid or a new direct connection to Eskom (South Africa Electricity Generator and Supplier), however the timelines of these options is uncertain and unclear. As a result, we are re-evaluating options of securing diesel generators to run all or part of the operations in South Africa, whilst we continue to explore options mentioned above. We will update the market on the cost and impact of the solution once a decision has been made.  

·      The construction of the new tailings storage facility ('TSF') continued in Q3. The capital spent during Q3 on the TSF was £250,000 and we estimate we will need to spend a further £250,000 to completion. This is £200,000 higher than we expected and is the result of the Company gaining clarity on the requirement to install specific monitoring equipment. We continue to discuss and confirm certain detail with the regulator on this requirement.

·      Apart from the capital incurred on the TSF, we incurred an additional £100,000 capital expenditure during Q3, of which £80,000 was spent on the refurbishment of one of our circuits.

·      We estimate that we will require a further £1,150,000 (including £250,000 for TSF) during the next 9 to 15 months to be spent on repairing and maintaining current operations, on completing the TSF and improving the environmental impacts of our current operations.

·      We do not have any further update on the processing of our TSF which has a JORC Resource of 81,959 ounces (Table 1) at a DRD Gold process facility.

We continue to assess the economic and environmental feasibility of the fine coal recovery technology company we invested in, which is in line with our strategy to diversify our recovery operations into other commodities.

Our cash balances in the group remained strong at £2,750,000 at the end of Q3, with significant balances invested in inventory and debtors with our main exposures to smelters in Europe and South Africa. We have been experiencing longer than expected delays at one of the smelters but remain comfortable of the outturn. We are dealing with delays on a daily basis and expect the situation to improve in the last quarter of the current financial year.

Werner Klingenberg, CEO of Goldplat commented: "I am pleased with the operating results achieved by the group, considering some of the difficult circumstances we've experienced during the third quarter in South Africa and delays of the gold licence in Ghana. The impact of the gold licence should be in a position to be reversed out once we can export the material produced on site, however the electricity supply issues in South Africa will continue to have a significant impact into the fourth quarter."

For further information visit www.goldplat.com, follow on Twitter @GoldplatGDP or contact:

Table 1

Mineral Resource Estimate of the TSF, South Africa

The Tailings Mineral Resource Estimate was announced in accordance with the JORC Code (2012) in a press release on 29 January 2016. Mark Austin of Applied Geology & Mining (Pty) Ltd was the Competent Person responsible for that announcement. The Company confirms that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the Resource Estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the retained EU law version of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (the "UK MAR") which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The information is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of the UK MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.