PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold major Newcrest Mining has reported a 23% fall in gold production between the quarter ended June and the quarter ended September, following planned maintenance work.

The company on Thursday reported that gold production for the September quarter had reached 512 000 oz, while copper production for the same period was also down by 14%, to 25 000 t.

“Consistent with past practice, Newcrest executed several major planned maintenance shutdowns across the group during the first quarter. Though this impacted production and all-in sustaining costs per ounce in the quarter, we expect improved performance in the coming quarters and our full-year guidance remains unchanged,” said Newcrest MD and CEO Sandeep Biswas.

Group all-in sustaining costs (AISC) for the quarter were also $179/oz higher than the June quarter, at $899/oz, while AISC margins reached $537/oz.

Gold production from the Cadia operation reached 171 730 oz in the quarter, with the Australian mine also delivering 18 945 t of copper, while the Telfer mine, in Western Australia, produced 79 309 oz of gold and 2 938 t of copper.

The Lihir project, in Papua New Guinea, produced 217 506 oz of gold, while the Gosowong mine, in Indonesia, contributed 40 305 oz.

The Red Chris operation, in Canada, also contributed 2 785 oz of gold and 2 981 t of copper.

“This is the first time we are reporting operational and financial results from our recently acquired interest in the Red Chris mine in Canada. We are in the early stages of applying our proven business improvement programme to the openpit operation while we continue to drill and study the opportunity for developing a block cave operation,” Biswas said.

Newcrest in August completed the $806.5-million acquisition of a 70% interest in Red Chris, with Imperial Metals Corporation retaining a 30% interest.

The openpit copper-gold porphyry project has a mineral resource of 20-million ounces of gold and 13-billion pounds of copper, covering 23 142 ha of land and consisting of 77 mineral tenures, five of which are mining leases.

With the addition of the Red Chris operation, Newcrest has now estimated full year gold production to be between 2.37-million ounces and 2.53-million ounces for the 12 months to June, while copper production has been estimated at between 130 000 t and 145 000 t.