Allied Nevada Gold : Reports Second Quarter 2014 Financial Results

RENO, NEVADA--(Marketwired - Aug 4, 2014) - Allied Nevada Gold Corp. ("Allied Nevada", "us", "we", "our" or the "Company") (TSX:ANV)(NYSE MKT:ANV) provides financial and operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014.

Second Quarter Highlights:

• As previously released, we achieved our second quarter 2014 production expectations with gold production of 56,864 ounces and silver production of 481,151 ounces, increases of 45% and 262%, respectively, compared with the second quarter of 2013.
  
  
• Gold sales of 57,050 ounces and silver sales of 474,832 ounces in the second quarter of 2014 representing a 37% and 225% increase over the same 2013 period sales, respectively.
  
  
• We maintain our original 2014 projections for full year production and sales of 230,000 to 250,000 ounces of gold and 1.7 to 2.0 million ounces of silver.
  
  
• Adjusted cash costs per ounce(1) of $806 in the second quarter of 2014 was as expected and below our annual guidance range. Adjusted cash costs per ounce¹ are expected to increase to between $825 and $850 for the second half primarily due to a higher anticipated strip ratio as we remove waste to open new areas of ore for 2015.
  
  
• Net income during the second quarter of 2014 was $4.4 million, or $0.04 per share, which is similar to net income of $4.2 million, or $0.04 per share, in the second quarter of 2013.
  
  
• Cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2014 were $13.6 million, excluding the $10 million in restricted cash held by our banks under our revolving credit agreement.
  
  
• In April, we completed the sale of a 75% controlling interest in the Hasbrouck and Three Hills properties to West Kirkland Mining for $20.0 million (including the US$0.5 million non-refundable deposit received in the first quarter of 2014) pursuant to the Letter Agreement signed by the companies in January 2014.
  
  
• In May, we executed the Third Amended and Restated Credit Agreement (the "Revolver") with the Bank of Nova Scotia and Wells Fargo Bank, which increased the available capacity of the Revolver from $40 million to $75 million. As of June 30, 2014, the full $75 million was available under the Revolver, which was reduced by $9.0 million for financial letters of credit issued collateralizing a cross currency swap, resulting in remaining availability of $66 million.
  
  
• In May, we completed the Hycroft mill expansion prefeasibility study and filed a National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report in Canada with those results. The prefeasibility study estimated an internal rate of return(2) of 26.5% and a net present value² of $1.7 billion and included a flow sheet that allowed us to create doré on site.
  
  

Hycroft Operations Update

We remained committed to our core values, health and safety, and operated in a safety-conscious and environmentally responsible manner with no lost-time incidents during the second quarter of 2014. We continued to implement programs designed to increase our employees' knowledge and awareness of mine-site health, safety and environmental responsibility.

Key operating statistics for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014, compared with the same periods in 2013, are as follows:

Gold production and sales were 51% and 69% higher in the first half of 2014 when compared with the same period in 2013. The 57,050 gold ounces sold during the second quarter of 2014 represented the fourth consecutive quarter we have met, or exceeded, our gold ounces sold targets as Hycroft continues to operate at its steady-state heap leach capacity. During the first six months of 2014, the number of silver ounces sold more than doubled from the same period of 2013 as a result of increased silver ore grades and decreased use of our carbon columns to process solution. During the first six months of 2014, approximately 85% of our gold ounces sold was from solution processed through our Merrill-Crowe plants which yield higher silver concentrations and recoveries than solution processed through our carbon columns, resulting in a silver to gold ounces sold ratio of 7.6:1.0, compared to 4.7:1.0 for the same period of 2013.

During the second quarter and first six months of 2014, our total tons mined slightly exceeded our planned tons and we crushed our first production ore tons. In mid-June, the temporary repairs were completed to the crushing system and it was placed back in operation at a capacity sufficient to support our heap leach operations. During the second half of 2014, we plan to selectively crush high-grade ore with the crushing system to improve metal recoveries.

Our adjusted cash costs per ounce¹ during the second quarter and first six months of 2014 were as expected, and below our annual guidance range, significantly benefiting from our increased silver to gold ounces sold ratio (discussed above). During the second quarter and first six months of 2014, we sold on average an additional 4.8 and 2.9 ounces of silver per gold ounce, respectively, which resulted in additional silver credits of $96 and $58, respectively, per gold ounce sold compared to the same periods of 2013. The increase in silver ounces sold helped to offset lower average realized silver prices.

Outlook

We continue to expect our 2014 full year metal sales will approximate 230,000 to 250,000 ounces of gold and 1.7 million to 2.0 million ounces of silver. Average adjusted cash costs per ounce(4) for first six months of 2014 were $807, and we expect an increase to within the guidance range of $825 to $850 per ounce for the second half of 2014, primarily due to increased stripping expected in the second half of the year to allow access to more ore in 2015.

Conference Call Information

Allied Nevada will host a conference call to discuss these results on Tuesday, August 5, 2014, at 8:00 am PT (11:00 am ET), which will be followed by a question and answer session. To listen in to the audio webcast, visit www.alliednevada.com.

To access the call, please dial:

Toll‐free in North America - 1‐866-233-4585

Outside of Canada & US - 1‐416-640-5946

An audio recording of the call will be archived on our website following the meeting.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act") (and the equivalent under Canadian securities laws) and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (the "PSLRA") or in releases made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), all as may be amended from time to time. This cautionary statement is being made pursuant to the Securities Act, the Exchange Act and the PSLRA with the intention of obtaining the benefit of the "safe harbor" provisions of such laws.

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein or incorporated by reference, that address activities, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will or may occur in the future, are forward-looking statements. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "intend", "believe", "project", "target", "budget", "may", "can", "will", "would", "could", "should", "seeks", or "scheduled to", or other similar words, or negatives of these terms or other variations of these terms or comparable language or any discussion of strategy or intentions. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding our future business strategy, plans and goals; risks relating to fluctuations in the price of gold and silver; uncertainties concerning restarting the crushing system; uncertainties concerning reserve, resource and grade estimates; the availability and timing of capital for financing the Company's exploration, development and expansion activities; anticipated costs, anticipated production, anticipated sales, anticipated capital expenditures, project economics, net present values and expected rates of return; the realization of expansion and construction activities and the timing thereof; production estimates and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements address activities, events or developments that Allied Nevada expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, and are based on current expectations and assumptions.

These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, among others, risks relating to fluctuations in the price of gold and silver; uncertainties concerning restarting the crushing system; uncertainties concerning reserve, resource and grade estimates; the availability and timing of capital for financing the Company's exploration, development and expansion activities; anticipated costs, anticipated production, anticipated sales, anticipated capital expenditures, project economics, net present values and expected rates of return; the realization of expansion and construction activities and the timing thereof; production estimates; as well as those factors discussed in Allied Nevada's filings with the SEC including Allied Nevada's latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other SEC filings (and Canadian filings) including, without limitation, its latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (which may be secured from us, either directly or from our website at www.alliednevada.com or at the SEC website www.sec.gov). Although Allied Nevada has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results, performance and achievements and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

The technical contents of this news release have been prepared under the supervision of Daniel Roth, Project Manager at M3 Engineering and Technology, and Tony Peterson, Corporate Mine Engineer at Allied Nevada Gold Corp., a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado #43867 who are Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101. For further information regarding the quality assurance program and the quality control measures applied, as well as other relevant technical information, please see the Hycroft Technical Report dated May 21, 2014, which is filed www.sedar.com and available on our website.

Non-GAAP Financial Measure

Adjusted Cash Costs Per Ounce

Adjusted cash costs per ounce is a non-GAAP financial measure, calculated on a per ounce of gold sold basis, and includes all direct and indirect operating cash costs related to the physical activities of producing gold, including mining, processing, cash portions of production costs written-down, the effective portion of any cash flow hedges, third party refining expenses, on-site administrative and support costs, royalties, and mining production taxes, net of revenue earned from silver sales. Because we are a primary gold producer and our operations focus on maximizing profits and cash flows from the extraction and sale of gold, we believe that silver revenue is peripheral and not material to our key performance measures or our Hycroft Mine operating segment and, as such, adjusted cash costs per ounce is reduced by the benefit received from silver sales.

Adjusted cash costs per ounce provides management and investors with a further measure, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, to assess the performance of our mining operations and ability to generate cash flows over multiple periods from the sale of gold. Non-GAAP financial measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and, therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other mining companies. Accordingly, the above measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The table below presents a reconciliation between non-GAAP adjusted cash costs, which is the numerator used to calculate non-GAAP adjusted cash costs per ounce, to Production costs (GAAP) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014 and 2013 (in thousands, except ounces sold):

ALLIED NEVADA GOLD CORP.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(US dollars in thousands)

ALLIED NEVADA GOLD CORP.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME AND COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (Unaudited)

(US dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)

ALLIED NEVADA GOLD CORP.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited)

(US dollars in thousands)

¹ The term "adjusted cash costs per ounce" is a non-GAAP financial measure. Non-GAAP financial measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and, therefore, should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See the section at the end of this press release and in the most recently filed Quarterly report on Form 10-Q titled "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for further information regarding this measure.

² Net Present Value ("NPV") and Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") are calculated using $1,300 per gold ounce and $21.67 per silver ounce and additional assumptions set forth in the NI 43-101 Technical Report dated May 21, 2014 and filed with SEDAR and available on our website at www.alliednevada.com. No assurance or guarantee is provided that the calculated IRR or NPV values will be achieved. Actual results may differ materially.