Photo by: Duane Daws
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Despite TSX- and NYSE-listed AuRico Gold reporting its eighth consecutive quarter of record output, the miner posted a net loss of $16.8-million, or $0.07 a share, for the three months ended June 30.
This compared with a net loss of $103-million, or 0.42 a share, in the second quarter last year.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, the company recorded a loss of $15.28-million, or $0.06 a share, compared with an adjusted profit of $6.12-million a year earlier.
Analysts had, on average, expected an adjusted loss of $0.04 a share on revenue of $72.58-million.
Revenue came in at $75.53-million, up 31% from the year-earlier period when it achieved sales of $57.66-million, boosted by significantly higher output from its Young-Davidson mine, in northern Ontario.
Cash flow was $12.26-million, or $0.05 a share, compared with $18.7-million, or $0.08 a share, in the second quarter last year.
The reason for the decline in earnings and cash flow was rising production costs. The company reported cash costs of $801/oz in the second quarter, compared with cash costs of $655/oz in the comparable period last year.
The company did not report all-in sustaining costs – a comparatively new metric formulated by the World Gold Council to enable mining companies to increase cost transparency by accounting for additional costs that did not reflect the day-to-day operations of mining.
During the quarter, output from both the Young-Davidson mine and the El Chanate mine, in Sonora State, Mexico, rose 17% to 56 198 oz of gold compared with 48 000 oz a year earlier.
AuRico declared commercial production from the Young-Davidson openpit mine on September 1, 2012, and from the underground operation on October 31, 2013.
"The company continues to take a longer-term view to position our operations for sustainable growth and shareholder value creation that will drive long-term success. As we begin the third quarter, the company is very well positioned to deliver the ninth consecutive quarter of production growth and we are increasingly confident that in the current gold price environment the Young-Davidson mine will be generating positive free cash flow by the end of the year,” president and CEO Scott Perry said.
AuRico’s NSYE-listed stock on Friday rose 5.4% to $4.49 a share, having lost more than 10% from the start of the year.