Alacer Gold Announces 2014 Year-end Operating & Financial Results

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2015 /CNW/ - Alacer Gold Corp. ("Alacer" or the "Corporation") [TSX: ASR and ASX: AQG] announced today that it has filed its operating, financial results and related management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the year ended December 31, 2014. The corresponding financial statements and MD&A are available on www.AlacerGold.com and on www.SEDAR.com. All currencies referenced herein are denominated in USD unless otherwise stated.

Rod Antal, Alacer's President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "2014 was a pivotal year for Alacer as we remained focused on realigning the business and daylighting the full value of our world-class asset, the Çöpler Gold Mine. Emphasis was on improving operating efficiencies at Çöpler and achieving key milestones necessary for the construction and delivery of the Çöpler Sulfide Project in 2017. As we ramp up our investment, particularly in the Sulfide Project, our Board of Directors has decided to suspend the dividend policy in order to allocate capital resources to delivering the growth strategy and the value it creates.

The Çöpler Gold Mine exceeded guidance for the year, with annual gold production of 227,927 ounces at $694 All-in Sustaining Costs[1], a 15% decrease in costs from 2013. Çöpler's performance will remain strong in 2015 with a gold production forecast of 180,000 to 200,000 ounces at All-in Sustaining Costs¹ of $775 to $825 an ounce.

Alacer is in a strong financial position, ending the year with cash of $347 million, a 20% increase over 2013, and no debt." 

2014 Highlights 

Strategic

• The heap leach pad expansion study was completed which resulted in a 14% increase in ultimate capacity to 56 million tonnes. Expansion work commenced in Q4 and re-optimization of the mine plan to take advantage of the new capacity is underway.
• The Corporation completed the DFS for the processing of the sulfide ore reserves through whole ore pressure oxidation at the Çöpler Gold Mine.
• The Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") for the Çöpler Sulfide Project was approved on December 25, 2014.
• Basic engineering commenced for the Sulfide Project while the permitting process continued to advance to plan.
• Exploration drilling results were announced in September indicating continued positive trends at the Dursunbey project in western Turkey.

Operational

• At December 31, the Çöpler Gold Mine reached 4.9 million hours worked and 675 days without a lost-time injury ("LTI"). The mine achieved 5 million hours without a LTI on January 8, 2015.
• Total gold production was 227,927 ounces and attributable gold production[2] was 182,342 ounces.
• Total Cash Costs¹ per ounce (C2) were $524 and All-in Sustaining Costs¹ per ounce were $694.
• An additional 1.8 million tonnes of sulfide ore was stockpiled at an average grade of 3.72 g/t gold.
• Finalized chemical commissioning of the SART plant in Q3 with the first shipment of copper concentrate occurring in December.
• Full commissioning of the second Carbon-in-Column ("CIC") circuit was achieved in Q3, which is now operating at designed throughput.
• Processing improvements were realized with the addition of the clay-handling circuit, new agglomerator, and grasshopper stacking system.

Financial

• The Corporation ended 2014 with cash and cash equivalents of $346.6 million, and had no external debt. The cash and cash equivalents balance increased by $57.0 million for the full year.
• Working capital increased $64.1 million to $379.4 million.
• Attributable net profit was $65.3 million, or $0.23 per share.
• Cash flow from operating activities totaled $142.7 million.

Conference Call / Webcast Details

Alacer, will host a conference call on Thursday, February 12 at 4:00 p.m. (North America Eastern Standard Time) and Friday, February 13 at 8:00 a.m. (Australian Eastern Daylight Time).

You may listen to the call via webcast at http://services.choruscall.ca/links/alacer150218.html. The conference call presentation will also be available at the link provided prior to the call commencing.

You may participate in the conference call by dialing:

1-800-319-4610 for U.S. and Canada

1-800-423-528 for Australia

800-930-470 for Hong Kong

800-101-2425 for Singapore

1-800-017-8660 for United Kingdom

1-604-638-5340 for International

Alacer Gold Call Conference ID

If you are unable to participate in the call, a webcast will be archived until May 12, 2015 and a recording of the call will be available on Alacer's website at www.AlacerGold.com or through replay until Thursday, March 12, 2015 by using passcode 8901# and calling:

1-800-319-6413 for U.S. and Canada

1-800-638-9854 for Australia

The corresponding financial statements and management's discussion and analysis will be posted on Alacer's website and on www.SEDAR.com.

About Alacer

Alacer is a leading intermediate gold mining company, with an 80% interest in the world-class Çöpler Gold Mine in Turkey. The Corporation's primary focus is to maximize portfolio value, maximize free cash flow, minimize project risk, and therefore create maximum value for shareholders.

Alacer is actively pursuing initiatives to enhance value beyond the current mine plan:

• Çöpler Oxide Production Optimization – expansion of the existing heap leach pad to 56 million tonnes has started, and the Corporation continues to evaluate opportunities to optimize and extend the oxide production beyond the current reserves.
• Çöpler Sulfide Project – the Environmental Impact Assessment has been approved and the project is progressing as planned. The Sulfide Project is forecast to produce a further 3.2 million ounces of gold at industry low All-in Sustaining Costs¹ averaging $597 per ounce over a 20 year life of the mine as detailed in the Definitive Feasibility Study.
• Alacer continues to pursue numerous high-potential exploration projects in Turkey in various joint ventures with our Turkish partner Lidya Mining.

Cautionary Statements

Except for statements of historical fact relating to Alacer, certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information, future oriented financial information, or financial outlooks (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information may be contained in this document and other public filings of Alacer. Forward-looking information often relates to statements concerning Alacer's future outlook and anticipated events or results and, in some cases, can be identified by terminology such as "may", "will", "could", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "projects", "predict", "potential", "continue" or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts.

Forward-looking information includes statements concerning, among other things, preliminary cost reporting in this press release, production, cost and capital expenditure guidance; ability to expand the current heap leach pad, development plans for processing sulfide ore at Çöpler; results of any gold reconciliations; ability to discover additional oxide gold ore, the generation of free cash flow and payment of dividends; matters relating to proposed exploration, communications with local stakeholders and community relations; negotiations of joint ventures, negotiation and completion of transactions; commodity prices; mineral resources, mineral reserves, realization of mineral reserves, existence or realization of mineral resource estimates; the development approach, the timing and amount of future production, timing of studies, announcements and analysis, the timing of construction and development of proposed mines and process facilities; capital and operating expenditures; economic conditions; availability of sufficient financing; exploration plans; receipt of regulatory approvals and any and all other timing, exploration, development, operational, financial, budgetary, economic, legal, social, regulatory and political matters that may influence or be influenced by future events or conditions.

Such forward-looking information and statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions, including, but not limited in any manner to, those disclosed in any other of Alacer's filings, and include the inherent speculative nature of exploration results; the ability to explore; communications with local stakeholders and community and governmental relations; status of negotiations of joint ventures; weather conditions at Alacer's operations, commodity prices; the ultimate determination of and realization of mineral reserves; existence or realization of mineral resources; the development approach; availability and final receipt of required approvals, titles, licenses and permits; sufficient working capital to develop and operate the mines and implement development plans; access to adequate services and supplies; foreign currency exchange rates; interest rates; access to capital markets and associated cost of funds; availability of a qualified work force; ability to negotiate, finalize and execute relevant agreements; lack of social opposition to the mines or facilities; lack of legal challenges with respect to the property of Alacer; the timing and amount of future production and ability to meet production, cost and capital expenditure targets; timing and ability to produce studies and analysis; capital and operating expenditures; economic conditions; availability of sufficient financing; the ultimate ability to mine, process and sell mineral products on economically favorable terms and any and all other timing, exploration, development, operational, financial, budgetary, economic, legal, social, regulatory and political factors that may influence future events or conditions. While we consider these factors and assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to us, they may prove to be incorrect.

You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information and statements. Forward-looking information and statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and our projections about future events. Actual results may vary from such forward-looking information for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties disclosed in Alacer's filings at www.sedar.com and other unforeseen events or circumstances. Other than as required by law, Alacer does not intend, and undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect, among other things, new information or future events.

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¹ Total Cash Costs and All-in Sustaining Costs are a non-IFRS financial performance measure with no standardized definition under IFRS. For further information and a detailed reconciliation, please see the "Non-IFRS Measures" section of the MD&A for December 31, 2014.
² Attributable gold production is reduced by the 20% non-controlling interest at the Çöpler Gold Mine

SOURCE Alacer Gold Corp.