TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The NYSE-listed stock of mining major Goldcorp trended in negative territory on Thursday following disappointing first-quarter earnings, which were compounded by higher taxes and costs that offset improved output.

The Vancouver-based company, the largest of its kind by market capitalisation, reported adjusted net earnings for the three months ended March 31 of $12-million, or $0.01 a share, compared with $209-million, or $0.26 a share, in the same quarter of 2014.

Goldcorp's earnings were well below 18 Wall Street analysts' average forecast of $0.10 a share, on revenue of $953.52-million. The decrease in adjusted net earnings was the result of lower realised margins on gold sales, higher depreciation and depletion expense, and a higher effective tax rate.

Goldcorp reported a net loss of $87-million, or $0.11 a share, compared with net earnings of $98-million, or $0.12 a share.

Revenues totalled $1.27-billion, a slight improvement on the comparable quarter last year.

Shares traded 6.6% lower on Thursday morning and were also impacted by a 2.4% slide in gold spot prices at $1 180/oz, after minutes from the US Federal Reserve's interest rate setting committee meeting pointed to some commitment to an interest rate hike in the second half of the year.

First-quarter gold sales were 827 500 oz, up 21% year-on-year, while production rose 7% to 724 800 oz. Sales also included 115 200 oz produced at Cerro Negro, in Argentina, which declared commercial production on January 1.  Goldcorp’s Éléonore mine, in Quebec, also declared commercial production on April 1.

Silver output was 8.5-million ounces in the quarter under review, down compared with the 9.6-million ounces mined in the previous year's first quarter.

All-in sustaining costs rose 5% year-over-year to $885/oz of gold.

Goldcorp reconfirmed its 2015 production guidance of between 3.3-million ounces and 3.6-million ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of between $875/oz and $950/oz of gold, driven mainly by new contributions from Cerro Negro and Éléonore.

Gold production was expected to increase over the course of 2015 as mining continued into the higher-grade portions of the Peñasco pit at Peñasquito, in Mexico, and as both Cerro Negro and Éléonore ramped-up through the year.

The company’s capital spending guidance remained unchanged at between $1.2-billion and $1.4-billion for the year.

Goldcorp now expected an annual effective tax rate of 45% in 2015 on adjusted net earnings and a 39% effective tax rate for each of the second, third and fourth quarters.

Depreciation, depletion and amortisation expenses were forecast at about $390/oz of gold sold for 2015, as first-quarter expenses of $444/oz declined over the year.