Fortuna Silver (FSM) Finishes Plant Performance Test at Seguela
Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. FSM announced that the processing plant performance test at its Séguéla Mine in Côte d´Ivoire was successfully completed in August. The completion of the performance test successfully closes Séguéla Mine’s construction and commissioning phase.
The completion of the test also concluded the company’s engineering, procurement and construction contract with Lycopodium. During the test period of 168 hours, the processing plant met the specified performance criteria.
The processing plant demonstrated notable design parameters at average head grades greater than 4.5 grams per ton during the performance test. It achieved crushing circuit throughput surpassing 190 tons per hour with an average availability of more than 75% and milling circuit throughput reaching 156 dry tons per hour with an availability of over 94% on average.
The Séguéla Mine poured first gold on May 24, 2023. Since the first gold pour, the mine has produced 21,716 ounces of gold in doré. During August, mill throughput averaged 172 tons per hour, which was 14% higher than nameplate capacity.
Fortuna Silver reaffirms its expectation of Séguéla Mine to produce 60,000 to 75,000 ounces of gold in 2023.
In the second quarter of 2023, silver and gold production was 1,262,561 ounces and 64,348 ounces, respectively. Gold-equivalent production for the quarter was 93,454 ounces.
The company reported second-quarter 2023 adjusted earnings per share of 1 cent, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 5 cents. The bottom line was flat year over year. Results were affected by the lower volume of metal sold at San Jose and the lower volume at Lindero. This was partially offset by the lower cost of sales per ounce of gold at Yaramoko.
Price Performance
Shares of Fortuna Silver have gained 12.1% in a year against the industry’s decline of 1.8%.
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Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Fortuna Silver currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks from the basic materials space are Hawkins, Inc. HWKN, Carpenter Technology Corporation CRS and L.B. Foster Company FSTR. HWKN and CRS sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each and FSTR carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Hawkins has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 25.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HWKN’s fiscal 2024 earnings is pegged at $3.40 per share. The consensus estimate for 2024 earnings has moved 38% north in the past 60 days. Its shares have gained 62.7% in the last year.
Carpenter Technology has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 10%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRS’ fiscal 2024 earnings is pegged at $3.48 per share. The consensus estimate for 2023 earnings has moved 8% north in the past 60 days. Its shares have rallied 72.9% in the last year.
L.B. Foster has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 134.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FSTR’s 2023 earnings is pegged at 53 cents per share. Earnings estimates have been unchanged in the past 60 days. Shares of FSTR have surged 50.4% in the last year.
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