Century Mining Expands Gold Production Rapidly

Century Mining Inc.

TSX.V - CMM

With the goldrums afoot and many investors packing suitcases for holidays, those sticking it out for the summer will be left scratching their heads looking for promising stocks rebounding from gold's recent correction.

Perhaps the correct approach at this time is to seek out the buys that those investors who are presently fondling cool Cuba Libres with tacky paper umbrellas will be clamoring for on their return from their summer getaway of choice.

Century Mining (CMM.V - TSX) has all the makings of a great buy, not just now, but with every cent gold reclaims on its way back toward $600 an ounce. With two producing mines and a total of more than 5 million ounces of inferred gold in the ground - along with several other promising plays in the pipeline - Century, one could argue, has confidently staked its way into a very rosy picture.

In 2004, Century bought the Sigma-Lamaque gold mine in Quebec from McWatters Mining Inc., which was at the time suffering a bout of the bankruptcy blues. McWatters had invested more than C$150 million into the project, including $20 million to expand the mill to a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day. With an estimated resource of 4 million ounces in the ground, this open pit deposit also has excellent tunnel mining opportunities (at Lamaque). And here's the kicker: Century picked this property up for $25.8 million. If Century can reduce cash costs per ounce to US$325, as they have set out to do, the ROE will be noteworthy, to put it mildly.

By all accounts, Century has been proactive in this goal. At its last shareholders meeting the company addressed the obstacles in the way of improving productivity at Simga-Lamaque. Most pressing were the outmoded trucks at the facility, which suffered chronic mechanical failures resulting in a slowed pace of stripping. Century recently purchased four new 100 tonne trucks, two of which are scheduled to arrive July 8th, followed by two more later this summer.

At Sigma, Century produced 19,000 ounces of gold in the first quarter of 2006 and has an estimated production of 90,000 ounces for the year. Tom Thomsen, Century's Investor Relations Officer, commented, "In the first quarter, our truck availability was 33% when it should have been 80%. Now we've got four 100-tonne trucks coming, so we immediately get a 15% increase in carriage, plus a reduction of 10% in operating costs."

In seeking other ways to expand production, Century looked south of the equator to Peru and found another promising production-ready deal. Last week the company announced that San Juan Gold Mines S.A.A granted Century's Peruvian subsidiary a 50-year mining and operating lease covering all of the San Juan claims, totaling 16,300 hectares.

Although some 35 mineralized structures have structures have been identified on the eleven contiguous concessions that comprise this purchase, only two (Mercedes and San Juan veins) have been mined. At the time of purchase, the existing mill at San Juan was producing 150 tonnes per day averaging in the neighborhood of 8 g/t gold.

The price tag on this deal was no less remarkable than Century's Sigma-Lamaque purchase, and once again involved extricating a project from the brink of bankruptcy. In this case, however, it wasn't poor production equipment but poor security and management that brought the mine's proprietors to its knees.

Thomsen explained that the previous proprietor had little or no budget for security. "The conclusion we came to was that these informal miners were going out onto the property in this valley and basically mining on their own. Our estimates - and these are conservative estimates - determined that anywhere from twenty to twenty five million dollars a year had been going off the property."

Century hired a local security firm to put an end to the flagrant theft of ore from the property, but also invited the informal crews to continue bringing the ore to Century, and negotiated a competitive price for their work.

There is little shortage of work to be had at San Juan. The mill on site has a capacity of 700 tonnes per day and in recent memory has scratched out only a fraction of that. Century plans to bring gold production from 5,000 ounces this year to 80,000 ounces two years from now.

A 2000 report commissioned by the previous owners and verified by an independent consultant stated an estimated resource of 4.4 million tonnes at a grade of 8.68 g/t gold containing 1.23 million ounces. Clearly the more promising of the as yet unmined surveys is Golden Champune with an historical estimate of 185 million historical estimate of grading 1 to 3 grams per tonne tonne, though not yet 43-101 compliant.

So, what does a production ready mine with a historical resource of 1.23 million ounces go for these days? Well, if you're Peggy Kent (more on Ms Kent in a minute), about $7 dollars an ounce in the ground. Century purchased US$9.9 million of debt (from Banco Wiese Sudameris) for US$2.5 million, paid $1 million to the previous owner and paid off outstanding wages to local miners, in return for 60% ownership of the mine. The final price tag was US$5.1 million plus the issuance of 1,000,000 common shares of Century.

At the helm of Century is none other than Peggy Kent, who in 1990 founded Royal Oak Mines and was later named "Woman of the Year" by Chatelaine magazine and "Newsmaker of the Year" by Canada's National Post newspaper. A fierce negotiator, Kent was created a stir when she went head to head with Barrick in a $2.4 billion bidding war for Lac Minerals Ltd., a company that dwarfed her Royal Oak Mines.

Ms Kent's pedigree as a shrewd negotiator is largely what landed Century the San Juan deal back in 2004. After coming to an agreement with the previous owner of the property - a widowed Peruvian businesswoman - Mr Kent approached the mine's creditors directly and stuck a deal that essentially gave Century 60% ownership of the mine.

Recent negotiations with San Juan Gold Mines S.A.A shareholders - largely local residents at or near the mine - increased that percentage to 90%. And in a final stroke of business acumen, Kent's team won consideration for investment and further capital expenditure, which reduced SJGM's take home to 4%.

Now that's what I call negotiating.
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