CAPE TOWN: Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO) reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue as the world’s fifth biggest gold miner struggled with lower realized gold prices. Average realized gold price in the first quarter fell 3.2 percent to $1,179 per ounce.
Kinross produced 687,463 equivalent ounces of gold during the quarter at its 10 mines in North and South America, Africa and Russia at an all-in sustaining cost of $963 per ounce. This was up from the 629,360 ounces it produced in the same period last year when the costs were $964 an ounce as production in the latest quarter was boosted by the acquisitions of Round Mountain and Bald Mountain mines in Nevada.
Kinross maintained its 2016 production outlook, but raised its capital expenditure forecast by $160 million to $755 million to include spending on the Tasiast Phase One expansion. The company said in March it plans to invest $300 million to expand its Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania, West Africa, that will nearly double the mine’s production and slash costs. The Toronto-based miner’s net loss attributable to shareholders rose to $13.9 million in the first quarter ended March 31 from $6.7 million.
On a per-share basis, its loss was little changed at 1 cent per share. Excluding items, the company broke even, while analysts’ were expecting a loss of 1 cent a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose marginally to $782.6 million, but fell short of the $799 million that analysts had estimated.
