VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and ASX-listed gold producer OceanaGold has reported record profit for 2017, as record output and subsequent record revenues lifted the bottom line.
The Melbourne, Australia-based company reported a full-year net profit of $172-million, or $0.28 a share, up 26% year-on-year from $136-million, or $0.22 a share, in 2016. OceanaGold advised that the improved performance was in spite of a noncash impairment of $18-million booked in the second quarter.
Revenues for the 12-month period reached $724-million, a 15% improvement year-on-year, thanks in part to increased gold sales and prices.
During the fourth quarter, OceanaGold achieved record quarterly revenue of $246-million, resulting in record net profit of $89-million, or $0.14 a share. This compared with earnings of $42.6-million, or $0.07 a share, in the year-earlier period.
"On the back of the significant cash-flow generation from our suite of high-quality assets, the company continued to strengthen its balance sheet. In the fourth quarter alone, we increased our cash balance from $61-million to $73-million, while reducing our revolving credit facility from $273-million to $200-million," president and CEO Mick Wilkes said in a statement on Thursday.
OceanaGold reported a 38% increase in full-year output, at 574 606 oz of gold, and fourth-quarter production of 166 211 oz, which reflected a 22% rise over the same period a year earlier.
OceanaGold's TSX-listed equity rose 4.7% on Thursday to an intraday high of C$3.37 a share.