Atico Mining Corporation  (TSX.V: ATY | OTCQX: ATCMF) announced its financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2023, posting a net gain of $0.1 million. Production for the period at Atico’s El Roble mine totaled 2.8 million pounds of copper and 2,294 ounces of gold in concentrate at a cash cost⁽¹⁾ of $2.22 per payable pound of copper⁽²⁾.

Fernando E. Ganoza, CEO and Director, commented, “As the overall production results improved over the previous quarter, the financial results followed the same trend. Now that the operation has again reached its intended steady state rate, we are anticipating further improvement in most financial metrics for the second half of the year” said Fernando E. Ganoza, CEO. “For the remainder of the year we will continue to put tremendous emphasis on the drill campaign at El Roble mine vicinity while at the same time working on the mine plan to access these same areas.”

Second Quarter Financial Highlights

• Net income for the quarter amounted to $0.1 million, compared with net loss of $2.7 million for the comparative quarter. The increase was primarily due to higher sales.
• Sales for the quarter increased 124% to $12.2 million when compared with $5.5 million in Q2-2022. Copper and gold accounted for 79% and 21% of the 6,597 (Q2-2022 – 4,472) dry metric tonnes sold during Q2-2023.
• The average realized price per metal was $3.92 per pound of copper and $1,938 per ounce of gold.
• Ending working capital was $13.3 million and the Company had $15.8 million in long-term loans payable.
• Cash costs ⁽¹⁾ were $125.05 per tonne of processed ore (Q2-2022 – $138.39) and $2.22 per pound of payable copper produced (Q2-2022 – $1.36). The increase in cash cost per pound of payable copper produced compared to the comparative period is due to lower copper production due to lower ore grade.
• Cash margin was $1.70 (Q2-2022 – $2.38) per pound of payable copper produced, which was a decrease of 29% over Q2-2022 due to lower copper price and higher cash cost per pound.
• All-in sustaining cash cost per payable pound of copper produced⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾ was $3.28 (Q2-2022 – $2.33).

Second Quarter Summary of Financial Results

Second Quarter Operational Review

In Q2-2023, the Company produced 2.8 million lbs of copper, 2,294 oz of gold, and 7,612 oz of silver. When compared to the same period in 2022, production decreased by 22% for copper and 18% for gold, due to lower ore grades. Average copper head-grades decreased by 36% and gold head-grades decreased by 28%, relative to the same period in 2022.

Second Quarter Operational Details

The financial statements and MD&A are available on SEDAR and have also been posted on the Company’s website at http://www.aticomining.com/s/FinancialStatements.asp

El Roble Mine

The El Roble mine is a high grade, underground copper and gold mine with nominal processing plant capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day, located in the Department of Choco in Colombia. Its commercial product is a copper-gold concentrate.

Since obtaining control of the mine on November 22, 2013, Atico has upgraded the operation from a historical nominal capacity of 400 tonnes per day.

El Roble has Proven and Probable reserves of 1.00 million tonnes grading 3.02% copper and 1.76 g/t gold, at a cut-off grade of 1.3% copper equivalent with an effective date of September 30, 2020. Mineralization is open at depth and along strike and the Company plans to further test the limits of the deposit. On the larger land package, the Company has identified a prospective stratigraphic contact between volcanic rocks and black and grey pelagic sediments and cherts that has been traced by Atico geologists for ten kilometers. This contact has been determined to be an important control on VMS mineralization on which Atico has identified numerous target areas prospective for VMS type mineralization occurrence, which is the focus of the current surface drill program at El Roble.

La Plata Overview

Atico’s wholly-owned La Plata project is a gold rich volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit that was the subject of small-scale mining from 1975-1981 by Outokumpu Finland. The project benefits from a modern drill and exploration database which was completed by Cambior Inc. from 1996-1999, Cornerstone Capital from 2006-2009 and Toachi from 2016-2019.

Toachi Mining completed a PEA estimating an inferred resource of 1.85 million tonnes grading 4.10 grams gold per tonne, 50.0 grams silver per tonne, 3.30% copper, 4.60% zinc and 0.60% lead per tonne.

The La Plata project consists two concessions covering a total area of 2,235 hectares along its 4-kilometer length, which contains known mineralization in two VMS lenses and nine priority exploration targets.

Qualified Person

Mr. Thomas Kelly (SME Registered Member 1696580), advisor to the Company and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 standards, is responsible for ensuring that the technical information contained in this news release is an accurate summary of the original reports and data provided to or developed by Atico.

About Atico Mining Corporation

Atico is a growth-oriented Company, focused on exploring, developing and mining copper and gold projects in Latin America. The Company generates significant cash flow through the operation of the El Roble mine and is developing it’s high-grade La Plata VMS project in Ecuador. The Company is also pursuing additional acquisition of advanced stage opportunities.