[Timmins] Lake Shore Gold predicting a good year – by Len Gillis (Timmins Times – May 31, 2014)

http://www.timminstimes.com/

A dramatic forty-dollar drop in the price of gold during Mine Expo week in Timmins no doubt sent a shudder through those in the local gold mining community in the past few days.

But gold mining executives, much like prospectors, remain an optimistic group. That was evident this week when Lake Shore Gold’s Mark Utting spoke at the opening of the Mine Expo.

Utting, the Vice President of Investor Relations for LSG, said 2014 is going to be a good year for his company here in Timmins. In a nutshell, company performance is improving, costs are down and Lake Shore is confident they will be finding more ore zones.

“Things are going extremely well for us,” said Utting. He said the multi-year construction phase for LSG is completed and the company is in full production mode.

“And that allowed us to significantly increase our production. Last year we did 135-thousand ounces. This year we will get a full year of full production so we will be close to 160 to 180 thousand ounces,” Utting said. He added that the company’s production cost for an ounce of gold is down and “well below a thousand dollars.”

Utting said LSG is also in the cash generating mode.

“ Near the end of last year, we added cash to our balance sheet. And I can tell you, people will ask what’s the significance of building your cash, well it is extremely important because not only does it allow us to continue to pay down debt, it allows us to start looking to the future,” he said.

That means that aside from actively mining gold, Lake Shore is again moving forward on exploration, to find more gold.

“We have our Timmins West mine, one mine with two deposits. The key geology that is there, the key contact that both those deposits are on, runs along a six kilometre strike length, and runs into our 144 property. That’s a very exciting exploration prospect,” he said.

‘THIS IS NOT PIE-IN-THE-SKY’

“When I talk about us having a successful future, that’s not pie-in-the-sky we may find something … that’s base on operations, projects and properties that we own today, 100 per cent,” said Utting.

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