22nd Jul 2016 06:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Acacia Mining PLC on Friday said revenue, earnings and pretax profit all soared in the first half of the year after selling more gold for a higher price and at a lower cost, but said it ultimately suffered a small net loss after tax.
The miner operating in Tanzania said pretax profit rose to USD101.6 million in the first six months of the year compared to USD25.0 million a year earlier, more than a four-fold increase, as revenue for the half rose to USD504.9 million from USD446.8 million.
Lower costs of production and higher gold prices led to an improvement in the gross margin, with gross profit rising to USD149.5 million from USD83.2 million.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased to USD184.9 million from USD96.9 million. With exceptional items excluded, Ebitda totalled USD180.5 million compared to USD101.9 million a year before.
Although pretax profit was significantly higher in the period, a USD107.7 million tax bill completely wiped that profit out and pushed Acacia to a net loss of USD6.1 million, swinging from a USD14.8 million profit a year earlier.
The interim dividend was increased by 43% to 2.0 cents per share.
The significant improvement in the underlying results came after the miner achieved higher gold prices, higher gold sales and lower operating costs. Acacia sold 400,963 ounces of gold in the first half compared to 355,470 ounces a year earlier, with production for the year slightly higher.
The average price in the period was USD1,209 per ounce compared to USD1,200 per ounce a year ago, whilst the all-in-sustaining cost dropped to USD941 per ounce from USD1,133 per ounce.
"We are pleased with performance in the first half and are now expecting to deliver at or above the upper end of full year production guidance of 750,000 to 780,000 ounces, and at the lower end of all-in-sustaining cash cost guidance of USD950 to USD980 per ounce," said Acacia.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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