Wall Street Transcript Interview with Kye Abraham, President and Chairman of LKA Gold Incorporated (LKAI)
67 WALL STREET, New York - April 15, 2013 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Metals and Mining Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs and Equity Analysts. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Topics covered: Precious Metals, Global Iron Ore Production, Emerging Market Infrastructure Construction, Midcap and Small-Cap Consolidation Activity
Companies include: LKA Gold Incorporated (LKAI) and many more.
In the following excerpt from the Metals and Mining Report, the President and Chairman of LKA Gold Incorporated (LKAI) discusses company strategy and the outlook for this vital industry:
TWST: Have you done any of the factoring to see what your cost might be?
Mr. Abraham: Our cost of production, as I said earlier, was less than $80 an ounce when the mine was in commercial production. Today, if we were back in production, I'd guess that number would be about two times higher, around $150 to $160 per ounce, due to higher prices for diesel, labor, drill steel, etc., but you can't be sure until you get there. During exploration we incur a lot of expense that wouldn't ordinarily be part of a production model: extensive mapping, developing three-dimensional models of the mine, drilling both underground and on surface, and other exploratory activities that drive our costs per ounce way up. My point is, when we're conducting exploration versus commercial production, it really isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. The cost per ounce is always much higher.
Another interesting aspect of this project is that whether we're conducting exploration or commercial production, our objective is to avoid big tonnage. Moving dirt is expensive. What we do is surgically extract just the vein material and move as few tons of material as possible. In fact, even during our current exploration program, we produce more ounces of gold than tons of material. So many investors are conditioned to equate huge tonnage with a successful project. In our case it's just the opposite. The more material you move, the higher your capital costs and the bigger your environmental footprint.
For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
