Preliminary Results

Goldplat plc / Ticker: GDP / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining & Exploration
22 September 2014
Goldplat plc ('Goldplat' or 'the Company')
Preliminary Results

Goldplat plc, the AIM listed gold producer, announces its preliminary results for the year ended 30 June 2014.

Overview

• Focussed on growth of market-leading gold recovery operations in Africa
• South African gold recovery operation became the first secondary gold producer to be accredited as a "Responsible Gold" depositor, significantly enhancing competitive advantage - certification already positively impacting contracts, profits and cash flow
• Significant cost saving initiatives implemented across all operations through renegotiated contracts, upgraded infrastructure and improved efficiencies to mitigate effects of lower gold prices during the period
• Additional revenue streams identified in South Africa, including potential diversification into highly prospective recovery opportunities in Platinum Group Metals
• Evaluating new site location for Ghanaian CIL operations following decommissioning of previous site
• Opportunity to increase Ghanaian client reach and internationalise fine carbon operations - first consignment of material received from North Africa and opportunities identified in Australia and South America
• Continued progression of discussions with Joint Venture partners to advance the development of the Kilimapesa Gold Mine in Kenya

Financials

• Operating profits of £153,000 (2013: £2.64 million) - Company returned to profitability in H2 2014
• Loss before tax of £248,000 (2013: profit £207,000)
• Net cash position of £1.66 million as at 30 June 2014 (2013: £2.36 million)

Chairman's Statement
The year ended 30 June 2014 has been a challenging period for Goldplat, but one from which it has emerged strongly, having cemented its position as the leading gold recovery company in Africa. In particular Goldplat has obtained certification in South Africa as a producer of "Responsible Gold", a status not achieved by its competitors and one which has enhanced its competitive advantage.  The strong performances from the recovery operations in H2 2014 are expected to continue into the future.

In my statement last year I said that the first half of the period under review would be a difficult trading period, but that we expected improvements to show during the second half. That has been the case, and, at the operations level, the losses of the first half have been more than recovered in the second half, as the table below shows:

These results must be seen against the background of a substantial reduction in the gold price.  For the year ended 30 June 2013 this averaged approximately US$1,600/oz., while, for the current year the price averaged some US$1,300/oz.  It follows that the same volume of gold sales would result in income of some US$300/oz less than for FY 2013, and this difference is reflected in the reduction in turnover of £7.884m.

Goldplat's exposure to the gold price is mitigated by the fact that it can, and does, adjust the price of gold bearing material it purchases, thus putting it at an advantage compared with a mine reliant on a finite orebody.  However, the major part of Goldplat's costs are processing costs, which do not vary with the gold price, and as a result the main factor in the improving trading position has been the rigorous cost control measures introduced by management across all operations.  Together, the executive Directors have refocused the recovery operations resulting in a strong H2 2014 performance that eliminated the losses of H1 2014 and aligned the recovery operations for further growth in several key focus areas for the next financial year.

Net finance costs of £419,000 (2013: £59,000) comprise primarily exchange differences due to the weakening of the South African Rand.  They are non-cash items.  The loss before tax is therefore £248,000 (2013: profit £207,000) and the loss for the year is £356,000 (2013: £399,000).

Improving the performance of the Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya has proved more difficult. The plan is to eliminate losses at the mine prior to bringing in a joint venture partner to provide the funding required to increase production to a materially profitable level. To achieve this, production is being increased by means of low cost improvements to the processing and security systems. Management accounts for August 2014 indicate that this approach has resulted in better than break even for that month and the management team is confident that this will be sustainable going forward.  Assuming funding from a JV partner, it is planned that the plant will be relocated from its present position near the town of Lolgorien to a new site next to the mine itself. The Board believes that this approach is the best way of protecting and enhancing the value of Kilimapesa for shareholders.

The year ended 30 June 2014 saw substantial changes to the Board. In September 2013 the then CEO, Russell Lamming, resigned as CEO. Ian Visagie, formerly the Finance Director, assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer, and Hansie van Vreden joined the Board as an executive Director, becoming Chief Operating Officer when Dr Robert Pitts-Smith retired on 31 December 2013.  Nigel Wyatt, a mining engineer, joined the Board as a non-executive Director in November 2013 and I believe his expertise in the southern African mining arena will be invaluable to the Company. Since the end of the year Gerard Kisbey-Green has also joined the Board as a non-executive Director. While Gerard is a mining engineer by training, he brings with him wide experience in corporate finance.  It is intended that Gerard will take over as Chairman at the Annual General Meeting to be held in 2015.

The Group produces both bullion and high grade concentrates, which are sold to a local South African refinery in Johannesburg.  While the cash receipt from bullion sales is rapid, lengthy delays in analysing and processing the concentrates have been experienced over recent months, resulting in both stocks and receivables of the Group increasing without the Board being able to control such increases. This in turn has put strains on cash flow and has resulted in the management team seeking other solutions that will add value and also grow the business.  The Board has therefore decided to invest in additional processing equipment in South Africa and Ghana that will enable Goldplat to increase bullion production and lower the concentrates output.  In Ghana, in particular, this will have a number of advantages; we will comply in advance with specific permit requirements to export metal rather than concentrates and mitigate environmental concerns. Importantly, this will enable us to internationalise the fine carbon business in the free port of Tema by bringing in material from around the world for processing.  Additionally, we have received approval, since the end of the year, to set up a recovery business in Burkina Faso. These projects will require substantial capital investment, and, given the delays with the current South African refinery as well as the capex requirement, the Directors have resolved not to recommend a dividend in respect of the current year. In the longer term, the Board intends to resume dividend payments as soon as it is prudent to do so.

I would like to end by thanking the executives, management and workforce for their efforts during this year of substantial change.

B Moritz
Chairman
19 September 2014

Operations Report

Gold Recovery Operations

Our gold recovery operations in South Africa and Ghana recover gold from by-products of the mining process, such as woodchips, mill liners, fine carbon, slags, sludges and waste grease.  As noted earlier, in addition to generating revenues from gold sales from concentrates produced for the Group, our recovery services also provide our mining clients an economic method to dispose of waste materials while at the same time adhering to a mine's environmental obligations.  In this regard, a major focus on environmental management is underway in the mining industry as a whole and Goldplat believes the recovery operations will play an instrumental role in assisting the various mines to achieve the milestones set out in their respective environmental management plans. 

We are proud to report that we maintain a substantial blue-chip supplier base, from which we purchase mining by-products, and also work with a mix of local producers and artisanal miners, primarily in Ghana, West Africa where there is an active presence.

Goldplat Recovery (Pty) Limited - South Africa ('GPL')

Goldplat's GPL recovery plant in Benoni, South Africa, continued to generate revenues and operated profitably for FY 2014 following the successful implementation of various initiatives to improve the efficiency of the gold recovery operations and reduce the operating cost.  This, combined with a stronger gold price and a weaker South African Rand versus US dollar exchange rates, has resulted in GPL making a positive contribution to the Group's revenues during the period.  Furthermore, at GPL we have flexible contracts for mining by-products and during the past 12 months we have enjoyed an increase in clients, seeing our client list almost double over the period.  We remain confident that this growth trend will continue.

We were delighted to announce in December 2013 that our South African operation had been accredited as a Responsible Gold depositor in line with international guidelines.  The accreditation was a major achievement for Goldplat as it directly accounts for gold produced, that follows the 'Chain of Custody' requirements consistent with the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and also adheres to the London Bullion Market Association's 'Responsible Gold Guidance' and the World Gold Council certification of 'Conflict-Free' gold.   Notably, we were the first secondary gold producer in South Africa to obtain this status, and we have seen during H2 2014 that with this accreditation in hand we offer a unique selling proposition that significantly differentiates us from competitors.  As a Responsible Gold depositor and gold recovery services business, our business offering has been enhanced and has already impacted positively on contracts, profits and cash flows for GPL. 

In terms of operational initiatives as previously highlighted we implemented a number of changes during FY 2014 focussed on boosting operating margins whilst adapting to the suppressed gold price environment.  As part of this, we installed a second rotary kiln in July 2013 to increase the processing of high grade wood chips; introduced a 24 hour shift system for our by-product processing section at GPL; increased the throughput of lower grade material which resulted in an overall higher gold production rate; revised our by-product and procurement contracts in terms of pricing; secured new contracts for high grade fine carbon; and reduced our cyanide consumption through the implementation of an automated dosing system.  The conversion of cyanide from briquette to liquid is also progressing well, which will unlock further cost saving opportunities going forward.  Looking to the future we are focussed on maintaining and improving these lower operating costs, and securing additional revenue streams at GPL.  

In this vein, following positive results from initial in-house testwork on our stockpiled tailings, we have engaged with a local South African University to design a process system for the re-treatment of tailings with the objective of recovering additional gold during the re-processing phase. The initial results are very encouraging and indicate that a new process can be developed and introduced that will improve the current plant recovery significantly and allow the retreatment of tailings at GPL and other similar tailings.  This project will add significant life of mine to the operation and we look forward to providing updates on this in due course.

Additionally, during the second and third quarters of 2014, the Company signed an agreement and commenced the clean-up of two liquidated mining operations that give GPL access to higher grade surface material.  This will increase the production output in the various cyanide-in-leach ('CIL') sections of the operation. 

The Company's project at Central Rand Gold's No.4 Shaft in Johannesburg is progressing well and contributing towards GPL's profits.  The sustainability of this project is still subject to securing a safe second outlet and access for the work force and material handling.  The second outlet is nearing completion and management remains optimistic that this project will deliver sustainable revenues in future.

Goldplat is also working towards potential diversification into the Platinum Group Metals (PGM's) as part of its long term growth strategy to capitalise on a more stable platinum price.  The various by-products from the platinum mining industry are currently being evaluated with a trial project to start in late Q4 2014.  The Board believes this strategy will expand the services Goldplat has to offer the mining industry, highlighting the significant flexibility and process routes the recovery operations have to offer to satisfy the ever continuing environmental needs of mining houses.

As required by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 2002, GPL is now compliant with South Africa's Black Economic Empowerment ('BEE') legislation following the signing of a binding Memorandum of Agreement in April 2013 with Goldplat's BEE partner Amabubesi Property Holdings (Pty) Ltd ('Amabubesi'), which increased Amabubesi's interest in GPL from 15% to 26%.  This means that GPL is in a position to access new clients and unlock economic value from their respective mineral by-products going forward.

The Company also continues to work closely with the Department of Mineral Resources to curb illegal mining activities on surface.  GPL intends to assist the Department of Mineral Resources by cleaning up surface areas that are currently threatening local communities and by processing the material removed from the illegal mining sites at GPL, which will in turn benefit from the gold recovery process.

Gold Recovery Ghana Limited ('GRG') - Ghana

GRG's gold recovery operation, which has a tax free status until 2016, is located in the free port of Tema in Ghana.  Its revenue generating business model mirrors that of our South African gold recovery operation in as much that it recovers gold from by-products of the mining process, however due to its locality in West Africa and the open-pit nature of mining in this region, our Ghanaian operation has additional upside potential through processing artisanal tailings due to West Africa's active artisanal mining presence.

For the first half of the year our Ghanaian operation sustained margin pressures due to the lower gold price environment, which impacted profitability during H1 2014.  In line with actions undertaken by the Board during the latter part of H1 2014, notwithstanding the temporary suspension of toll treatment activity relating to its agreement with Endeavour Resources ('Endeavour') in June 2014, and a delay in the sales of fine carbon contracts in H2 2014, GRG remained profitable.

The gold processing operations at our plant in Tema are split into two primary areas, one comprising spiral and incinerator sections which recover gold from high grade fine carbon and rubber mill liners, and the other a CIL section, which primarily processes artisanal tailings.

Of these two, the spiral and incinerator sections remain the most profitable business unit for GRG, accounting for 69.4% of GRG's total revenues for the year ending 30 June 2014, and as a result we have restructured our core business model in Ghana to increase the output of these operations.  During January 2014 we commissioned an additional spirals circuit to improve feed to the incinerator.  This led to an increased operating capacity, which together with the winning of new clients both locally and internationally, significantly boosted the gold recovery output in the second half of the year.  In terms of future outlook, we continue to focus on increasing these operations and have recently received new high-grade batches from a number of clients, which has already had a positive impact for the first three months of FY 2015. We purchased a rotary kiln in December 2012 to help process the low grade ashes and woodchips.  The plant will be shipped from South Africa shortly and is targeted to be installed late 2014/early 2015.

The CIL section, for the year ending 30 June 2014, contributed 10.1% of total revenues for GRG.  As part of the Ghanaian Government's effort to legalise all mining operations in Ghana, the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency ('EPA') is continuing to increase pressure to better regulate the mining industry.  As a result of this, our CIL section at Tema and also our long-standing toll processing agreement with Endeavour Resources, which processes some of our tailings purchased from artisanal and small scale miners, were affected. 

With regards to our CIL section, we received an enforcement notice on 18 July 2014 by the EPA for us to cease operations at the CIL treatment section due to the identification of certain operational and environmental breaches.  As a result, we have decommissioned our CIL operations at Tema, and are working with the EPA to find a new site for an engineered tailings facility and the CIL section.  This will enable us to restart the tailings processing arm of GRG, as Ghana has significant stockpiles of artisanal tailings to be processed, and will allow the Company to assist the EPA in the rehabilitation of artisanal mining sites. 

With regards to GRG's toll-processing agreement with Endeavour Resources ('Endeavour'), operations were temporarily suspended in June 2014 to allow GRG to obtain an additional permit from the EPA.  We are confident that this permit will be secured in the near term to allow the toll-treatment to re-commence and continue to operate at its standard capacity.  For the year ending 30 June 2014, our contract with Endeavour accounted for 20.5% of GRG's revenues.

In light of the enforcement notice and the EPA's new regulations, we will submit a new Environmental Management Plan ('EMP') to the EPA to ensure that all operational activities at GRG are consistent with best practice, preserve the integrity of the environment and protect other adjacent land users.  The EMP will consider water treatment options and we are working with them to determine the best strategy going forward following the decommissioning of the CIL tailings facility onsite.  This includes identifying one or more third parties with engineered storage facilities so that we can process the current tailings onsite. GRG is confident that the grade of the Company's tailings will be attractive to potential third party processors to realise value from the tailings and subsequently fund the decommissioning and removal costs. We have built good relations with the EPA over the last few months and we look forward to continuing this relationship to ensure best practice at our Ghanaian operation.

In spite of these difficulties with our CIL operations, we remain very optimistic about future growth opportunities in Ghana.  Our spiral and incinerator sections have outperformed previous years' production rates and going forward we are looking to potentially expand our tax-free status to acquire material for processing from outside of West Africa.  In line with this, a first consignment of material from North Africa has already been received and processed and we have identified a number of prospective opportunities identified in South America and Australia.  We look forward to updating shareholders on these developments in due course.

Burkina Faso: Midas Gold SARL ('Midas')

As part of our longer-term growth strategy for expanding our gold recovery reach in Africa we have been actively pursuing an opportunity in Burkina Faso in West Africa to roll out our current gold recovery business model.

With this in mind, we created a subsidiary company called Midas Gold SARL ('Midas') and selected a potential site in Dano in west Burkina Faso. The Environmental Study for the site in Dano was completed at the end of August 2013 and we are pleased to report that the Government of Burkina Faso has awarded Midas an operating licence which covers artisanal semi-mechanised gold mining and gold reprocessing of by-products. The Board believes Burkina Faso has great potential to expand and build a sustainable gold recovery business and we look forward to reporting on these developments in due course.

Mining and Exploration

Whilst Goldplat's cash generative, niche, gold recovery businesses remains our primary focus, we continue to progress discussions with joint venture partners to advance the development of our Kilimapesa gold project in Kenya. 

Our Kilimapesa gold project is located in the historically productive Migori Archaean Greenstone Belt in western Kenya.  Kilimapesa has a mineral resource of 8,715,291 tonnes at 2.40 g/t Au for 671,446 oz Au at a cut-off of 1 g/t.

The continuing losses incurred at the Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya have negatively impacted the overall Group profitability. Since 1 July 2014, further plant improvements at a minimal cost have increased the recovery and gold production at Kilimapesa despite the limited milling capacity.  Indications are that the increased gold production will enable the mine to operate near breakeven despite the current plant design limitations.

Importantly, the Company has built very good relations with the Kenyan Government and assisted with the development of a New Mining Act to grow the mining industry in Kenya.  We appreciate the support received thus far from the Kenyan Government as we work towards a sustainable mining industry that will benefit all.

The Company also has interests in two greenfield gold exploration projects which have a total JORC compliant exploration mineral resource of 3,940,000 tonnes at 2.05g/t Au for 259koz; the 29 sq km Anumso Gold Exploration licence in the Ashanti region in Ghana and the 246 sq km Nyieme project in the Birimian Greenstone Belt in southern Burkina Faso.  We continue to evaluate opportunities to realise value or monetise these projects either through joint ventures of trade sales.

Outlook

Our two market leading gold recovery businesses remain our core focus as we continue to unlock the economic value of these operations.  In spite of the difficulties experienced during the period, we are now making positive progress to ensure the Group's profitability for FY 2015 and beyond.  We have implemented a number of cost saving initiatives across our gold recovery operations in South Africa and Ghana, which have already proven to be successful, with the second half of the year (H2 2014) eliminating the H1 2014 operating loss, resulting in an overall operating profit for FY 2014.  Going forward we remain focussed on seeking the most cost efficient and sustainable operational methods to maximise our profitability and will work with the respective Governments and regulatory bodies to ensure a standardised high level of compliance with all regulatory, legislative and environmental commitments.

I Visagie
CEO
19 September 2014

For further information visit www.goldplat.com or contact:

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF PROFIT OR LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2014

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
AS AT 30 JUNE 2014

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
AS AT 30 JUNE 2014

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
AS AT 30 JUNE 2013

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2014

1. The financial information contained in this announcement does not comprise full statutory accounts.
    
2. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU.  The financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis.
    
3. The Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held at the Mercure Bush Hotel, The Borough, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7NN on Wednesday 29 October 2014 at 11.00am.
    
4. The Company's auditor has not yet reported on the statutory accounts for the year ended 30 June 2014.
    
5. The report and accounts for the year ended 30 June 2014 will be posted to shareholders and will be available on the Company's website at www.goldplat.com in early October 2014.

**ENDS**