TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The world’s largest silver streaming firm Silver Wheaton’s second-quarter profit has halved to $71.1-million, or $0.20 a share, from the $141.4-million, or $0.40 a share, it earned in the same period a year earlier.
The Vancouver-based company, which published its results after market close on Wednesday, said it would reduce its quarterly dividend to $0.10 a share, down from $0.12 a share. The firm pays a dividend equal to 20% of the average cash generated by operating activities over the previous four quarters.
Revenues fell 17% year-on-year to $166.9-million in the June quarter, despite record attributable output of 8.6-million ounces, comprising 6.4-million ounces of silver and 35 600 oz of gold, which was a 28% year-on-year increase on 6.7-million ounces.
The average realised silver-equivalent price fell 21% to $23.05/oz, down from $29.07/oz. This was partially offset by a 4% increase in the number of silver-equivalent ounces (SOEs) sold at 7.2-million ounces.
The company expected to produce about 33.5-million SOEs this year.
"Given the current volatility in precious metal prices, it is important to have a strong portfolio of high-quality, low-cost assets. At Silver Wheaton, over 85% of the production from our 19 operating mines is in the lowest quartile of their respective cost curves. These mines have the capacity to stay operational even when commodity prices are weak, and should continue to deliver silver and gold to us in all phases of the commodity price cycle,” president and CEO Randy Smallwood said.
He added that in light of the asset write-downs recently seen across the mining industry, the company had performed a detailed evaluation of all of its silver and gold streams and determined that no impairments were necessary.
The company’s NYSE-listed share price was down $0.37, or 1.47%, in premarket trading on Thursday morning.