17th Oct 2018 09:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - Hochschild Mining PLC on Wednesday increased its annual gold and silver production targets, following a "robust" third quarter.
The FTSE 250-listed miner said production at all of its mines was in line with expectations in the three months ended September, resulting in a "record nine months" for the company.
Hochschild Mining raised its annual gold production target to 520,000 gold equivalent ounces from 514,000 and raised its silver production target to 38.5 million silver equivalent ounces from 38.0 million.
The miner also lowered its all-in sustaining cost guidance to between USD940 and USD970 per gold equivalent ounce from between USD960 and USD990.
"We are continuing to see strong results from our ambitious brownfield exploration plan and in particular drilling at Inmaculada is expected to increase the estimated inferred resource figure we disclosed in August," said Ignacio Bustamante, chief executive officer.
In the third quarter, Hochschild delivered a "strong" quarter of attributable production with 130,685 gold equivalent ounces and 9.7 million silver equivalent ounces, both down from the previous quarter and in the same period last year.
In the second quarter of 2018, Hochschild's attributable production of gold equivalent ounces was 136,200 but higher still in the third quarter of 2017 at 139,390.
The company's year-to-date production of silver equivalent ounces, however, is a record 29.5 million, up from 28.2 million the year before.
Hochschild said production has been driven by the ramp-up of production from the Pablo vein at Pallancata in Peru and a "consistent" performance at San Jose in Argentina partially offsetting a scheduled period of lower output at Inmaculada in Peru.
The miner's total gold ounces sold in the period decreased from the previous quarter to 74,270 from 81,100 but increased over the previous year's 73,990 ounces.
The average realised price in the quarter was USD1,187 per ounce, down from USD1,293 per ounce the year before.
Shares in Hochschild Mining were up 0.6% Wednesday at 167.20 pence each.
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