Newcrest Grows Across the Board During December Quarter

Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) saw record quarterly gold production of 239,000 ounces at its Cadia gold-copper operation in New South Wales during the December 2018 quarter.

In addition to breaking records at Cadia, the major miner also reported quarterly growth at its Telfer, Lihir and Gosowong assets, helping Newcrest reach a 19-percent boost in gold production — reaching just less than 655,000 ounces — in the September 2018 quarter.

Meanwhile, copper production hit 26,847 ounces, up 8 percent from September.

According to Newcrest, growth at Lihir in Papua New Guinea reflected less downtime and higher head grades than September as the asset reached 251,156 ounces during the December quarter.

As for Telfer in Western Australia, higher productivity from its underground mine enabled boosted mill throughput and improved recovery, pushing gold production to 109,049 ounces and copper output to 4,009 tonnes.

Gosowong in Indonesia was a similar story as it also saw higher head grades and mill throughput, which pushed gold production to 55,175 ounces.

“Record production at Cadia and another sound performance from Lihir underpinned a strong start to the financial year, with a higher AISC margin than the same time last year despite lower gold and copper prices,” Newcrest Managing Director and CEO Sandeep Biswas said in a statement.

“Our first half production performance establishes a great platform from which to deliver strong results for the remainder of the financial year.”

Newcrest reached a record low quarterly all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $121 per ounce at Cadia, and saw a group AISC of $720 per ounce across its assets, making it 7 percent lower than the September quarter and 13 percent lower than the December 2017 quarter.

The company attributed the improvement to factors including higher production and sales.

The company is remaining firm on its 2019 production guidance of 2.35 to 2.6 million ounces of gold and 100,000 to 110,000 tonnes of copper across its operations. However, Newcrest acknowledged that gold production in the second half of the financial year will be higher on the basis of fewer planned shutdowns during that time.

Newcrest’s share price was up 3.57 percent at the end of trading on the ASX on Wednesday (January 30), closing the day at AU$24.34.

Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time updates!

Securities Disclosure: I, Olivia Da Silva, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.