The Toronto-based company entered a series of zero-cost collar hedges for 96,000oz of gold sales over the next 12 months. The floor price of the monthly collars has been set at US$1,400/oz with a ceiling range of $1,666/oz to $1,768/oz.

"We are currently in a debt repayment phase and after this is complete, we will be building cash to fund the construction of Media Luna, and other initiatives. Given these uses for near-term cash flow, it is a prudent business decision to lock in some price protection for our primary product," CEO Fred Stanford said.

As at the end of June, the company reported total debt of $298.2 million. It completed a debt refinancing last month to give it more flexibility, with a revised repayment schedule and lower interest rate, that it said provided for development of Media Luna, the Muckahi mining system, and "other existing and future projects".

"The market conditions for collar hedges are favourable, with the collar range skewed to the upside. We have taken advantage of this opportunity," Stanford said.

The company has completed infull drilling at Media Luna and expects to update its resource estimate before year-end.

Testing of its innovative Muckahi mining system is said to be progressing well. Torex said a team was pulling together designs to mine, with Muckahi, the portions of El Limón Deep that were below current infrastructure. Trade-off studies for mining Media Luna with Muckahi were also advancing. "Confidence is increasing," Torex said.

The company has guided for 2019 output of 430,000oz.

Torex shares (TSX:TXG) have gained 130% in the past 12 months. At C$19.55 Thursday they weren't far from a 12-month high of $20.23.

Torex is capitalised at $1.67 billion.