Photo by: Iamgold Corp
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The NYSE- and TSX-listed stocks of Vancouver-based gold miner Iamgold on Wednesday lost some ground after the company reported narrower first-quarter earnings, mainly the result of lower revenue and lower realised prices.
The midtier gold producer, with five operating mines in Canada, South America and Africa and a significant niobium mine in Quebec, reported net earnings of $3.7-million, or $0.01 a share, $7.2-million lower than the first quarter of 2013.
Excluding special items, the adjusted net earnings totalled $12.2-million, or $0.03 a share, $45.5-million, or $0.12 a share, lower than the same period a year earlier, but on par with average analyst expectations.
Iamgold’s attributable gold sales for the first quarter ended March 31, including joint venture (JV) operations, were 176 000 oz, compared with 171 000 oz a year earlier.
The company’s revenues declined $26-million to $279.3-million, mainly owing to a 21% year-over-year lower average realised gold price of 1 286/oz, which was partially offset by the higher gold sales volume and higher niobium sales.
Iamgold said that the cost of sales for the period rose $39.9-million to $224.3-million.
All-in sustaining costs for its gold mines edged lower 7% to $1 198/oz sold, as a result of lower sustaining capital expenditures at Rosebel, in Suriname, and Essakane, in Burkina Faso, which was partially offset by higher total cash costs.
Sustaining capital expenditures were higher in the same prior year period owing to significant spending on mining equipment at Rosebel.
All-in sustaining costs for the whole company fell 15% to $1 038/oz sold, demonstrating the impact of the Quebec-based Niobec mine's operating margin.
Iamgold reported company-wide attributable gold output, including JV operations, totalling 172 000 oz, down 16 000 oz.
The company said that in order to achieve economies of scale, ore mined from its Quebec gold mines Mouska and Westwood, containing about 20 000 oz of gold, was stockpiled for batch processing slated to start in the current quarter, when a larger quantity of ore was expected to be available.
Niobium output, used to make high-grade steel, rose 8% year-over-year to 1.3-million kilograms, while the operating margin rose 25% to $20/kg.
Iamgold expects to produce between 835 000 oz and 900 000 oz of gold this year.
In New York, the company’s stock fell 3.42% to close at $3.39, while the TSX-listed stock gave back 3.4% to close at C$3.69 apiece.