13th May 2015 07:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - Centamin PLC Wednesday reported a year-on-year rise in revenue, earnings, pretax profit and production in the first quarter of 2015, although all the measures were down quarter-on-quarter.
The FTSE 250-listed miner reported a pretax profit of USD28.6 million in the three months to end-March, up from USD20.6 million a year earlier, whilst earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at USD53.0 million, up 55% from a year earlier when earnings totalled USD34.3 million. Basic earnings per share in the period was 2.50 cents, rising from 1.87 cents in the first quarter of 2014.
Revenue in the quarter rose to USD135.2 million from USD102.7 million as gold sales totalled 111,249 ounces compared with only 78,957 ounces a year earlier. Average gold prices dropped to USD1,216 per ounce compared with USD1,298 per ounce.
Although profit, earnings and revenue were all up year-on-year, all of these were down quarter on quarter.
Gold production fell 16% on the quarter to 108,233 ounces but this is 46% higher than a year earlier. Its cash cost sat at USD717 per ounce in the quarter, up from USD655 per ounce in the previous quarter but down from USD744 per ounce a year earlier.
Centamin said its full year production guidance is 420,000 ounces at a cash cost of USD700 per ounce. The miner is expecting production and grades to improve in the second half of the year, when it said annual production run-rate will reach between 450,000 and 500,000 ounces.
"The focus for 2015 is to continue production growth at Sukari whilst maintaining a strong control on costs, with the objective of generating substantial free cash flow even under challenging gold price assumptions. We intend to return 15-30% of this free cash flow to our shareholders, in line with our dividend policy, and to allocate the remainder towards our medium and long-term objective of organic growth aimed at realising incremental shareholder value and returns," said Centamin.
Centamin said it does not plan any expenditure on expanding or developing its projects in 2015 as it focuses on exploring Sukari, with a resource and reserve update expected in the third quarter of 2015. Outside of Sukari, exploration expenditure for 2015 is expected to total USD20 million, mainly in Burkina Faso.
"We will continue to evaluate potential opportunities to grow the business through the acquisition of projects offering the potential for the Company to deliver on its strategic objectives," it said.
Centamin shares were up 1.5% to 63.37 pence per share Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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