TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold miner Agnico Eagle on Wednesday cut its quarterly dividend to $0.08 a share from $0.22, which it said reflected current market conditions as gold was trading about $100/oz lower than the company's realised price in 2013.

"Despite the strong operating results, and solid production growth ahead from our existing assets, we have decided to reduce our quarterly dividend to enhance our financial flexibility in the current lower gold price environment," added president and CEO Sean Boyd.

Toronto-based Agnico Eagle said that despite churning out more gold in the three months ended December 31, the average realised gold price was down 26% and that of silver was down 35% year-on-year, resulting in a fourth-quarter net loss of $453.3-million, or $2.61 a share. This compared with a net profit of $82.8-million, or 0.48 a share, in the comparable period a year earlier.

The miner said results for the period included an after-tax impairment charge of $436.3-million and other charges and expenses.

The company conducted impairment tests using an assumed price of $1 300/oz of gold. This resulted in an after-tax write-down of $194.5-million at the Meadowbank mine, in Nunavut, a $200.1-million goodwill impairment at the Meliadine project, also in Nunavut, and a $41.7-million after-tax charge at the Lapa mine, in the Abitibi region of north-west Quebec.

Revenue declined to $437.2-million, from $449.3-million a year ago.

Agnico reported a full-year net loss of $406.5-million, or $2.35 a share, compared with a net profit of $310.9-million, or $1.82 a share, in 2012.

For the fourth quarter, Agnico produced 322 443 oz of gold at a total cash cost of $623/oz.

All-in sustaining costs for 2013 were $952/oz, below third-quarter guidance of $1 025/oz.

In 2014, gold output was expected to be within the range of 1.18-million to 1.21-million ounces. Agnico said that it expected output to grow 16% through 2016 to about 1.28-million ounces.