A technician puts a gold 'button' into a furnace to be further refined to form gold dore bars at Newmont Mining's Carlin gold mine operation near Elko, Nev., May 21, 2014.Rick Wilking/Reuters
U.S. gold miner Newmont Mining Corp. beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit on Thursday, boosted by higher gold production in its Colorado and Ghana mines and lower costs.
The company is set to overtake Barrick Gold Corp. as the world’s largest gold producer after its acquisition of rival Goldcorp Inc., which is expected to close in the second quarter.
Newmont’s gold production rose nearly 8 per cent to 1.44 million ounces in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, while its all-in sustaining costs to produce an ounce of gold fell to US$835 from US$910.
This helped cushion the impact of a 3-per-cent drop in average realized gold prices to US$1,233 an ounce.
Newmont, which operates mines in the Americas, Africa and Australia, said copper production was largely flat at 11,000 tonnes.
The company’s net income attributable to shareholders was US$2-million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of US$542-million a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, Newmont earned 40 US cents a share, beating the average analyst estimate of 25 US cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.