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CORPORATE HIGHLIGHTS

The year 2016 marked a major financial turnaround for USAC in spite of the lowest antimony prices in seven years. On a Company wide basis, USAC had a negative EBIDTA of $11,325 during 2016. Without a positive adjustment of $914,770, the EBIDTA for 2015 would have been a negative $820,515.  For 2016, the average price of antimony was $2.98 per pound, the lowest it has been in seven years. In 2015, the sale price was $3.97 per pound. Production of antimony increased from 2,487,321 pounds in 2015 to a new record of 2,936,886 pounds in 2016, and costs were reduced.

The smelting of custom concentrates from Australia was curtailed in late 2016, and the Company transitioned to smelter feed from its own mines at Wadley in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and Soyatal in Queretaro, Mexico. Production from the Sierra Guadalupe Mine in Zacetecas will resume later in 2017. Antimony metal from Madero will be shipped directly to customers. This will provide the company with the full benefit of price increases, rather than a small percentage under the custom smelting agreements. Further savings will be realized in processing and trucking.  This will reduce the “non-production Mexican” holding costs for all the Company’s mines that have been a cost factor in the past.

The North American supply of sodium antimonite contained 1,369,142 pounds of antimony which produced 1,592,359 pounds of finished oxide, and it contained significant precious metals.

The sale of precious metals from North America in 2016 was a net $672,871 compared to $491,426 in 2015, an increase of $181,445 or 36.9%.

During 2016, a caustic leach plant was installed in Mexico to recover gold and silver from the flotation concentrates from the Los Juarez gold-silver-antimony property in Queretaro, Mexico. Tests of the leach plant were completed in early 2017 and indicated a successful recovery. An application to add a cyanide leach circuit at the Puerto Blanco flotation mill was submitted, and is still being reviewed. The cyanide leach circuit will increase the gold and silver recovery. Further testing of the flotation circuit without the cyanide leach circuit will proceed in 2017 to determine whether the cyanide circuit is necessary.

The Bear River Zeolite (BRZ) in Preston, Idaho realized an EBIDTA of $447,775 in 2016 and a profit of $233,907 compared to an EBIDTA of $732,844 and a profit of $511,403 during 2015. The drop in profitability was a result of selling fewer tons of zeolite, the lack of sales to the oil and gas industry due to lower crude oil prices, and the increased expense of a sales program and product research.

The 2017 outlook for USAC is excellent due to the steady increase in antimony prices, the transition to our own properties in Mexico, and increasing zeolite production. The increased cash flow is expected to fund an increase in Mexican antimony production and the startup of production from the Los Juarez property on a pilot basis. USAC does not claim any reserves as defined by the SEC or Canadian Institute 43-101.

Click here for USAC SEC Filings         Click here for copy of USAC 2016 Brochure (.pdf)