TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold producer AuRico Gold has slightly widened its net loss for the three months ended December 31, as impairment charges on its Mexican operation weighed on its bottom line.

The Toronto-headquartered company reported $108.3-million, compared with a net loss of $106.4-million in the comparable period of 2013.

AuRico booked a $90-million impairment charge on the El Chanate mine, owing to a decrease in gold reserve estimates, an increase in the strip ratio, which indicated an increase in the amount of waste tonnes required to access a tonne of ore, and an increase in future processing costs on a per ounce basis.

The company’s consolidated revenue for the three-month period increased from $50.8-million to $71.2-million in 2014. The $20.4-million increase in revenue was mainly owing to more gold ounces sold during the period, which was partially offset by lower realised gold prices.

During the quarter, the company sold 58 649 oz produced at El Chanate and the Young-Davidson mine, in Ontario, Canada, a 47% increase over 39 855 gold ounces sold in the comparable quarter of 2013.

The company also sold 3 416 underground preproduction ounces from Young-Davidson during the fourth quarter of 2013; however, the related revenue from preproduction ounces sold was credited against capitalised costs.

In a separate statement on Thursday, AuRico stated that it expected 2015 company-wide output to be in the range of 225 000 oz to 255 000 oz of gold, an increase of up to 14% over the previous year. Output growth was expected to be underpinned by quarter-over-quarter output increases from the cornerstone Young-Davidson mine.

Company-wide cash costs were expected to decline by up to 13% to between $675/oz and $775/oz, while all-in sustaining costs were expected to decrease by up to 17% to between $1 000/oz and $1 100/oz.

Capital investment requirements at the company’s operations were expected to decline by up to 36% over 2014 and were estimated to be between $102.5-million and $115-million.

Further, AuRico had updated the reserve for Young-Davidson, lifting the proven and probable reserves for underground mine by 6% to 3.76-million ounces, while the surface mines reserves declined 57% to 61 000 oz. This resulted in an overall Young-Davidson reserve improvement of 3% to 3.82-million ounces of gold.

At El Chanate, the proven and probable reserves declined by 37% to 646 000 oz, owing to both mining depletion and a reduction in overall slope angles, while reserve grades increased by 5%. The company noted that the reduction in planned slope angles came after a thorough external geotechnical review of geotechnical drilling, mapping and slope performance.