SAGUENAY, Nov. 26, 2019 - Arianne Phosphate (the "Company" or "Arianne") (TSXV: DAN) (OTC: DRRSF) (FRANKFURT: JE9N), a development-stage phosphate mining company, advancing the Lac à Paul project in Quebec's Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, reported its financial results for the three-month and nine-month period ended September 30, 2019. All amounts are in Canadian dollars unless noted.
"Despite a very challenging fertilizer macro, Arianne continues to execute on the advancement of its Lac à Paul project," said Brian Ostroff, CEO of Arianne Phosphate. "Over the last quarter, we have advanced our project on several fronts including, the improvement of transportation logistics, the receipt of positive initial findings surrounding a downstream phosacid plant and, the ability to attract additional key personnel to the Arianne team. Discussions with potential financiers and partners are also ongoing and, we believe, the work the Company is doing now places it in a very good position to take advantage of a turn in the fertilizer market."
Q3 2019 Financial and Operational Highlights
- In September 2019, the Company has extended on a $4.1 Million loan with various third-party lenders (the "Loan"). The extended loan will have a maturity of September 28, 2021. The loan bears interest at 8%, paid semi-annually. As part of the loan extension, the Company issued 7,453,800 non-transferable warrants with each warrant entitling the holder to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of $0.55 per share for a term of 2 years expiring on September 28, 2021.
- In August 2019, Arianne has closed on a $691,050 financing. Under the terms of the financing, Arianne has issued 1,256,455 units at a price of $0.55 per unit. Each unit is comprised of one common share and a half warrant. Each full warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at a price of $0.75 until August 21, 2021.
- In July 2019, the Company announced efforts surrounding transportation logistics have significantly progressed. Arianne partnered with several parties to look at greater integration of aluminum into the truck trailer design. Through this initiative over the past year, Arianne and its partners have advanced a design that will be able to reduce the weight of the transport trucks and allow for a greater payload per run. Once integrated, this will result in fewer trucks on the road, increasing safety and reducing the overall environmental impact. As well, this design will bring about greater economies of scale, resulting in a reduction in the cost of transporting Arianne's phosphate concentrate to port and thus, the overall operating cost for its project.
- In July 2019, Arianne announced the addition of Raphael Gaudreault to its team. Raphael will be assuming the position of Director of the mining sector and comes to Arianne after most recently serving as Manager Planning and Mining Performance at Arcelor.
Highlights Subsequent to Quarter-End
- In October 2019, Arianne has announced that it has received its initial findings back from a study regarding a downstream phosphoric acid facility. The Company's phosphate concentrate responded extremely well to the beneficiation process and resulted in the production of up to a 60% P2O5 Merchant Grade Acid ("MGA") compared to the market typical 52% MGA grade. Furthermore, due to the high-quality nature of the phosphate concentrate input, the gypsum by-product produced during the process appears to have commercial value, whereas traditional phosphate concentrates will produce contaminated waste.
Financial Summary
Arianne is a development-stage company and, as such, did not generate revenue or positive cash flow in Q3 2019. In the third quarter ended September 30, 2019, the Company incurred net losses of $0.4 million (M) for the three-month period and $1.7 M for the nine-month period. For the same period in 2018, the net loss incurred was $0.5M for the three-months and $1.4M for the nine-month period of 2018.
Liquidity
At September 30, 2019, the Company had $1.1M cash on hand. These funds will be allocated towards general working capital and advancing development of Lac a Paul in 2019.
Outlook
Through the rest of 2019 and into the new year, Arianne will be focused on the ongoing advancement and development of its Lac à Paul project, namely:
- Complete partnership and financing arrangements;
- Continue to enhance the value of the project through project optimization;
- Continue our ongoing dialogue with Stakeholders.
Arianne's Management Discussion and Analysis and condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the nine?month period ended September 30, 2019 are available on the Company's website and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Qualified Person
Jean-Sébastien David, P.Geo., Qualified Person by NI 43-101, has approved this release. Mr. David is also the Company's Chief Operating Officer.
About Arianne Phosphate
Arianne Phosphate ("Arianne Phosphate Inc.") (www.arianne-inc.com) is developing the Lac à Paul phosphate deposits located approximately 200 km north of the Saguenay/Lac St. Jean area of Quebec, Canada. These deposits will produce a high-quality igneous apatite concentrate grading 39% P2O5 with little or no contaminants (Feasibility Study released in 2013). The Company has 111,458,250 shares outstanding.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Follow Arianne on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ariannephosphate
Twitter: http://twitter.com/arianne_dan
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ArianneResources
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arianneresources
Resource Investing News: http://resourceinvestingnews.com/?s=Arianne
Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities regulations in Canada and the United States (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, anticipated quality and production of the apatite concentrate at the Lac à Paul project. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects, "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or the negatives thereof or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: volatile stock price; risks related to changes in commodity prices; sources and cost of power facilities; the estimation of initial and sustaining capital requirements; the estimation of labour and operating costs; the general global markets and economic conditions; the risk associated with exploration, development and operations of mineral deposits; the estimation of mineral reserves and resources; the risks associated with uninsurable risks arising during the course of exploration, development and production; risks associated with currency fluctuations; environmental risks; competition faced in securing experienced personnel; access to adequate infrastructure to support mining, processing, development and exploration activities; the risks associated with changes in the mining regulatory regime governing the Company; completion of the environmental assessment process; risks related to regulatory and permitting delays; risks related to potential conflicts of interest; the reliance on key personnel; financing, capitalization and liquidity risks including the risk that the financing necessary to fund continued exploration and development activities at Lac à Paul project may not be available on satisfactory terms, or at all; the risk of potential dilution through the issue of common shares; the risk of litigation. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to, continued exploration activities, no material adverse change in commodity prices, exploration and development plans proceeding in accordance with plans and such plans achieving their stated expected outcomes, receipt of required regulatory approvals, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update such forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
SOURCE Arianne Phosphate Inc.
Contact
Source: Jean-Sébastien David, C.O.O., Tel. : 418-549-7316, j.s.david@arianne-inc.com; Info: Brian Ostroff, C.E.O., Tel. : 514-908-4202, brian.ostroff@arianne-inc.com
