TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold miner B2Gold has swung to a net loss during the three months ended June 30, despite a 4% rise in output.

The TSX-, NYSE MKT- and Namibia-listed miner reported a quarterly net loss of $11.5-million, or $0.02 a share, compared with net income of $33.1-million, or $0.05 a share, in the same quarter of 2013, which included a $44.5-million gain related to a royalty sale.

Excluding special items, adjusted net income was $2.1-million, or nil a share, compared with $7.8-million, or $0.01 a share, in the same period of 2013.

Revenue from gold sales declined to $120.3-million on sales of 93 330 oz at an average realised price of $1 289/oz in the period, which compared with revenue of $122.6-million on sales of 86 239 oz at an average realised price of $1 422/oz in the year-earlier period.

The company, which has three operating mines, two in Nicaragua and one in the Philippines, and a portfolio of development and exploration assets in Nicaragua, Colombia, Namibia and Uruguay, expected another record year of gold output this year.

For the second-quarter, consolidated gold output was 85 704 oz, up from 82 083 oz a year earlier.

Company-wide output from the Masbate, Libertad and Limon mines was expected to be in the range of 395 000 oz to 420 000 oz of gold with consolidated cash operating costs from $667/oz to $695/oz. B2Gold said it expected to meet the lower end of its guidance range.

However, with the first full year of gold output from the Otjikoto gold project, in Namibia, scheduled for 2015, B2Gold was projecting 2015 gold output between 525 000 oz and 550 000 oz based on current assumptions.

During the second quarter, B2Gold announced that it would buy Australia’s Papillon Resources in an all-scrip deal worth about $570-million, which would give it access to Papillon’s (meaning butterfly in French) Fekola gold deposit, in Mali, lifting the company’s compliant measured and indicated resources by 25%.