07:48 AM EST, 12/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Serabi Gold ( SRBIF ) was at last look down 0.7% in early afternoon UK trade on Thursday, although it earlier hit fresh 52 week highs after saying the classification plant for its Coringa Gold operation in Brazil is now fully commissioned, based on the operating progress achieved through December.

Mike Hodgson, CEO of Serabi, in a statement said the plant will be key to achieving Phase 1 of the company's growth strategy, which is to raise its annual production profile to 60,000 ounces by 2026. "This marks the culmination of 10 months of construction and commissioning and is a critical achievement for the company."

Hodgson added fourth quarter is, as predicted, shaping up to be the best quarter of the year, in part driven by the improvement in grades at Palito which have returned to the 6.0-7.0g/t Au range in recent months. Now with the commissioning of the Coringa plant, Serabi expects Q4-2024 to be its best operational quarter since 2020.

Serabi now plans to focus on Phase 2, which involves growing resources at both the Palito and Coringa operations, ultimately supporting an annual production profile of over 100,000 ounces. "An expected year end cash position to exceed US$21.0 million and in conjunction with our expected free cash flow generation, will allow us for the first time in a number of years to fund an extensive brownfield exploration programme to significantly grow the resource at Coringa and Palito, rather than simply replenishing our depleted ounces."

An exploration program is planned for up to 30,000 meters of drilling in 2025 with a budget of roughly US$8 million.

"Now with the commissioning of the Coringa plant, we expect Q4-2024 to be our best operational quarter since 2020," said Serabi CEO Mike Hodgson.