6th Nov 2013 09:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - Centamin PLC Wednesday said its pretax profit fell in its third quarter but said it is well placed to exceed full-year production and cost guidance.
The Egypt-focused gold mining company said its pretax profit halved to USD29.7 million for the three months ended September 30 from USD59.7 million in the same quarter the previous year.
The company said its sales were up 16% to USD120.1 million in its third quarter from USD103.1 million in the third quarter of the previous year, but in comparison to the second quarter its sales were down 11% due to a reduction in realised gold prices.
Centamin said its cost of sales increased to USD73.3 million from USD41.1 million the previous year, as higher unit costs and increases in underground ore production hit the company.
The company experienced positive gold production compared to the previous year of 84,757 ounces from 60,922 ounces but in comparison to the second quarter 2013 its production fell from 93,624 ounces.
Despite this, the company said its operations are well placed to potentially exceed its full-year production and cost guidance of 320,000 ounces at a cash cost of production of USD700 per ounce inclusive of fuel prepayments.
Centamin also said it prepaid USD15.1 million to its diesel fuel provider Chevron in order to ensure a flow of fuel during an ongoing dispute with the Egyptian government over the price of diesel fuel oil.
The company also said it wrote down USD11.9 million in relation to its investment in Nyota Minerals Limited during the period, after Nyota entered a sales agreement to sell the majority of its Tulu Kapi gold mine in Ethiopia to another company than Centamin.
Centamin shares were down 2.0% to 49.77 pence, putting it in the top ten FTSE250 losers in early trading Wednesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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