TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Precious metals producer Primero Mining reported a strong start to the year, as better-than-expected performance by the company’s cornerstone San Dimas mine, in Mexico, underpinned a significant production and cost improvement.
The TSX- and NYSE-listed miner on Wednesday said it’s headline earnings for the three months ended March 31 were back in the black at $1.14-million, or $0.01 a share, up from a loss of 2.05-million in the comparable period a year earlier.
Net earnings came in at $11.47-million, or $0.02 a diluted share, up 21% year-on-year.
Primero’s revenues for the period rose 52% to 73.3-million, boosted by selling 66% more gold-equivalent ounces at 61 651 oz.
The strong first-quarter performance included producing 61 073 oz of gold equivalent, comprising combined production of 54 365 oz of gold and 1.93-million ounces of silver, from San Dimas and the Black Fox mine, near Timmins, in Ontario, compared with 39 758 gold-equivalent ounces produced in the same period of 2014.
San Dimas achieved record quarterly output of 46 569 gold equivalent ounces, comprising 39 861 oz of gold and 1.93-million ounces of silver, compared with 35 662 gold equivalent ounces produced in the first quarter last year, representing a 31% increase.
Primero advised that the mine achieved the industry’s lowest quartile total cash costs at $582/oz of gold equivalent, or $659/oz on an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) basis.
Underground development at Black Fox continued to progress on schedule and the underground mine remained on track to achieve production rates of 1 000 t/d during the third quarter.
Primero had improved its high-quality, high-margin underground reserve ounces by 4% to 5.7 g/t at San Dimas, as well as achieved a 19% increase in the underground gold reserve grade of 7.5 g/t at Black Fox.
As at the end of the quarter, the company had $132.6-million in cash in the bank.
Primero remained on-track to achieve its full-year production guidance of between 250 000 oz and 270 000 oz of gold equivalent, at total cash costs of between $650/oz and $700/oz of gold equivalent, or $1 000/oz and $1 100/oz on an AISC basis.