Titan Mining arranges US$10 million bridge loan
Titan Mining Corp. [TI-TSX] has announced a US$10 million bridge loan from its largest shareholder Augusta Investments Inc. It said proceeds of this loan have been used to repay part of the company’s credit facility with the National Bank of Canada, bringing the outstanding amount down from $27.2 million to $17.2 million following the payment to National Bank.
The company and Augusta Investments are in ongoing negotiations regarding the terms of this loan and of the US$5.0 million advance made by Augusta Investments earlier this year.
Titan is an Augusta Group company, which produces zinc concentrate at its 100%-owned Empire State Mine located in New York state.
Titan shares were unchanged Tuesday at 35.5 cents. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 65 cents and 24 cents.
Titan recently said its flagship Empire State Mine produced a record 61 million pounds of payable zinc in 2023, marking a 16% increase from 2022.
“As we enter 2024, our plans are to continue the upward trajectory on production while improving our safety performance,’’ said Titan Mining President and CEO Don Taylor.
In a press release containing the company’s results for the year ended December 31, 2023, Taylor said he was pleased that the Empire State mine posted the safest year of operations on record since reopening, with an injury frequency rate of 0.7, or 70% below the national average.
At Empire State, the underground mine and mill complex consists of a group of high-grade mines – ESM#4 which is in production, and six historic mines. ESM #4 restarted mining operations in January, 2018, and began producing zinc concentrate in March, 2018. The mining operation is targeting production from multiple zones, including Mahler, New Fold and Mud Pond.
The ESM #1, #2 and #3, Hyatt, Pierrepont and Edwards mines are all located within a 45-kilometre radius of the 5,000 tonnes per day mill.
Production guidance for 2024 is estimated at between 56-60 million pounds of payable zinc at an all-in-sustaining cost of between US$1.04 and US$1.10 a pound. However, the company said cost targets are highly dependent on treatment charges which won’t be known until the end of the first half of 2024.
Titan said it has begun work to further define the Kilbourne graphite trend, a graphite exploration target hosted within the same stratigraphic sequence as the Empire State Mine’s zinc mineralization. The company said mapping and drilling have documented 8.2 kilometres of strike length to a depth of one kilometre from surface. Approximately 2.5 kilometres of this strike length is within the affected area of the Empire State mine and is covered by current permitting. The remaining strike length is securely within mineral rights held by the mine.