Kinross lifts Q3 gold margin 36%

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian multinational miner Kinross Gold on Wednesday reported a 36% wider attributable margin on every gold-equivalent ounce sold, rising to $617/oz, compared with a third-quarter 2015 margin of $454/oz.

"Our portfolio of mines continued to deliver consistent and solid operational performance in the third quarter. Strong production, combined with a higher gold price, increased adjusted operating cash flow by 55% and adjusted net earnings by $153-million, year-over-year,” stated president and CEO Paul Rollinson.

Adjusted net earnings totalled $128.7-million, or $0.10 a share, compared with an adjusted net loss of $23.9-million, or $0.02 a share, in the comparable quarter a year earlier. The result beat analyst forecasts of earning $0.05 a share.

Kinross booked a noncash impairment charge of $68.3-million related to property, plant and equipment, and an inventory write-down of $71.3-million at Chile-based Maricunga, where a water shortage has halted operations.

Revenue in the quarter rallied 13% to $910.2-million, compared with $809.4-million a year earlier, as the average realised gold price increased 19% to $1 336/oz.

All-in sustaining costs rose to $1 001/oz gold equivalent, compared with $941/oz in the third quarter 2015.

Kinross recorded operating cash flow of $266.2-million, up 15% year-on-year, as higher margins boosted performance.

The company produced 684 129 attributable gold-equivalent ounces, flat year-on-year mainly on the back of the Bald Mountain acquisition, as well as the company's 50% acquisition of Round Mountain, in Nevada, offset by the temporary suspension of mining at Tasiast during the summer, the suspension of mining at Maricunga, and lower production at Paracatu, in Brazil.

Kinross warned that it was tracking towards the lower half of its 2016 production guidance range, which calls for 2.7-million to 2.9-million gold-equivalent ounces, and the upper half of its guidance range for production cost of sales at $735/oz, as well as all-in sustaining costs at $990/oz.

Kinross cut its capital expenditure forecast by $105-million, saying it had deferred part of the capital expenditures that was earmarked for 2016 to 2017, owing to the temporary suspension this past summer, but Tasiast, and development on Phase One, has been back on track since mid-August, with workers being remobilised in the end of July. The Phase 1 expansion is on schedule to be in full production in the second quarter of 2018.

The Toronto-based company dealt with a temporary suspension of activities earlier in the year when the West African country ordered expatriates whose work permits were invalid, to stop working.

Kinross noted that engineering for the Tasiast Phase 1 expansion was 80% complete and the majority of procurement for long lead packages has been concluded. Phase 1 of the Tasiast expansion is expected to increase mill throughput capacity from the current 8 000 t/d to 12 000 t/d, significantly reducing operating costs and increasing production. Plans are in the works to lift plant throughput to 30 000 t/d.

The company slashed capital expenditure to a range of $650-million to $675-million.