PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Newcrest Mining has hedged an additional 200 000 oz of gold sales from its Telfer gold mine, in Western Australia.
The company said on Thursday that the gold sales for the 2018 and 2019 financial years were hedged at an average price of A$1 773/oz.
In March, Newcrest hedged 64 714 oz of gold for the 2016 financial year, also from the Telfer mine, at a price of A$1 707/oz, as well as 300 694 oz for the 2017 financial year, at a price of A$1 730/oz, and 165 341 oz of gold for the 2018 financial year, at a price of A$1 761/oz.
The Telfer mine, which produced 520 309 oz of gold in 2015, was expected to produce between 460 000 oz and 490 000 oz of gold in 2016.
Meanwhile, Newcrest on Thursday also signed agreements to extend the term of its unsecured bilateral bank lending facilities on improved terms and conditions.
The miner pointed out that, over the past 22 months, Newcrest had strengthened its balance sheet by using free cash flow to reduce net debt by $1.33-billion, with $227-million of this net debt reduction occurring since the start of this year.
The company’s strong free cash flow performance also enabled Newcrest to reduce its committed bank facilities from $3.15-billion to $2.4-billion.
The renewed facility agreement was with 12 bank lenders, which would each commit to $200-million.
The facilities would have tenors of between three and five years; drawdown under the renewed bilateral bank lending facilities was subject to conditions precedent.
Edited by: Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor
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