TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Toronto-based gold-miner Iamgold earned $52,5-million in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 53% over net earnings of $34,4-million a year earlier, after the company sold 73 705 oz of gold bullion held on its balance sheet.

Excluding once-off items, including a $29,4-million after-tax gain on the sale of gold bullion and a $5,3-million foreign exchange loss, adjusted net earnings were $29,9-million.

Iamgold reported attributable gold production of 212 000 oz, compared with production of 234 000 oz in the same period a year earlier, after the company stopped mining at the Sleeping Giant operation, in Quebec, and sold the asset last year.

The total cash cost, including royalties, improved to $464/oz, compared with $476/oz in the first three months of 2008, mainly due to lower royalty payments.

Revenue declined to $188,6-million, from $208-million a year earlier, also because of the closure of Sleeping Giant.

In the first quarter of this year, Iamgold completed the acquisition of Orezone Resources, which owned the large Essakane gold project, in Burkina Faso.

The firm also raised $282-million in an equity sale.

“The equity financing and overall capital availability of over $550-million provides financial flexibility to not only meet our near term capital requirements but also to ensure we have funds available to pursue other accretive opportunities during this period of financial instability,” CEO Joseph Conway said in a statement on Thursday.

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