Northland Announces First Quarter Results and AGM
Luxembourg, May 10, 2012 - Northland Resources S.A. (TSX: NAU, OSE: NAUR and NAUR R, Frankfurt: NPK - "Northland" or the "Company") announced today its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012.
The President and CEO of Northland Resources S.A., Karl-Axel Waplan, made the following comments on the report for the first quarter of 2012: "A major de-risking of the Kaunisvaara project was completed in the first quarter and in early April with the conclusion of the USD 675 million financing and the signing of all the major agreements for a Company-controlled logistics solution. Now, with all the necessary funding in place to start production, the focus is to complete the construction of the project on time and enable production to start as planned, at the end of 2012.
During the first quarter of 2012, the operational management team in Kaunisvaara reviewed the work carried out on the Pellivuoma DFS. The analysis showed a potential for further cost efficiencies and increased operating benefits including possible increase of production. A task force team has been allocated to reassess the potential benefits. The Hannukainen DFS is ongoing and the report is expected in the latter part of 2012. The Pellivuoma DFS is now expected towards the end of 2012."
Selected Quarterly and Annual Information, USD m | Q1 (3 months) ended Mar 31, 2012 | Q1 (3 months) ended Mar 31, 2011 | 12 months ended Dec 31, 2011 |
Net Profit / (Loss) | (1.3) | 8.9 | (38.1) |
- per share, USD | (0.00) | 0.04 | (0.17) |
Mineral properties expenditures, Sweden | 0.5 | 0.6 | 2.7 |
Mines under construction expenditures, Sweden and Norway | 93.3 | 12.9 | 180.2 |
Mineral properties expenditures, Finland | 4.4 | 2.9 | 20.1 |
Cash, end of period balance | 221.7 | 245.0 | 38.3 |
Number of Common shares | 514,178,899 | 225,183,899 | 226,628,899 |
Outlook
2012 is an important year for Northland as it aims to transition from a developing company to a producer of iron ore. The Company aims to accomplish the following:
1. Complete the construction of the Kaunisvaara project on time
2. Complete the DFSs for Hannukainen and the Pellivuoma deposit
The Hannukainen and Pellivuoma DFSs are expected to be published during the second half of 2012. Following a review of the ongoing DFS work at Pellivuoma, the Kaunisvaara management has resolved to change the scope of the DFS with the objective to ensure that Pellivuoma is linked in an optimal way to other parts of the Kaunisvaara mining site including the possible increase of the output of high grade concentrate or extending the life of the Kaunisvaara operation in combination with an increase of the production.
3. Start production at Kaunisvaara in the fourth quarter of 2012
The Company expects to start production at the Tapuli Mine in the fourth quarter of 2012, with first concentrate produced early 2013 and ramping up to 4 million dry metric tonnes per annum ("dmtpa") of concentrate by 2015, with both process lines in production. Ore from the Sahavaara Mine is expected to come on stream in 2016, replacing ore from Tapuli in the second process line. This will enable an increased production to 4.4 million dmtpa of high-quality concentrate as of 2017.
A full version of the first quarter 2012 Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") and the Unaudited Interim Financial Statements has been posted on the Company's website, http://www.northland.eu/en-us/investor-relations/financials today, May 10, 2012 and they will be available on www.sedar.com. Readers should be advised that the summarized communication presented in this press release is limited in its disclosure. It is not a suitable source of information for readers who are unfamiliar with the Northland, and it is not in any way a substitute for reading the Unaudited Interim Financial Statements and MD&A because a reader relying on this summary alone might overlook decision critical information.
Annual General Meeting 2012
Date: May 16, 2012 at 10 a.m. CET
Location: 7A, rue Robert Stümper, L-2557 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Shareholders' Meetings in Oslo and Stockholm
Shareholders' Meetings will be held in Oslo (May 23, 5 p.m. CET) and in Stockholm (May 24, 6 p.m. CET). At the respective meeting the Executive Chairman, Mr. Anders Hvide, and the President and CEO, Mr. Karl-Axel Waplan, will comment on the latest Company developments. The presentation will be in the Norwegian and Swedish. Please contact the Northland IR department for further venue information for these meetings.
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Certain statements contained in this MD&A and elsewhere constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made, and readers are advised to consider such forward-looking statements in light of the risks set forth below.
"Karl-Axel Waplan"
President & CEO, Northland Resources S.A.
For more information, please contact:
Karl-Axel Waplan, President and CEO: +46 705 104 239
Peder Zetterberg, Acting CFO, +46 708 652 120
Anders Antonsson, Vice President - Investor Relations: +46 709 994 970
Marguerite Manshreck-Head, Investors Relations, Canada: +1 647 224 7882
Or visit our website: www.northland.eu
Northland is a development-stage mining company with a portfolio of iron ore projects in northern Sweden and Finland. The Company's Kaunisvaara Project will initially exploit two magnetite iron ore deposits in Sweden. The process will yield a high-grade, high-quality magnetite iron concentrate. The construction of the Kaunisvaara project in Sweden is well underway and mining is planned to start in the fourth quarter of 2012. Northland has entered into off-take contracts for the entire production from Kaunisvaara. The Company is also preparing a Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") for its Hannukainen Iron Oxide Copper Gold ("IOCG") Project in Kolari, northern Finland and for its Pellivuoma deposit 15 km from the Kaunisvaara process plant.