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(Wallace Refiners) – Australia’s Newcrest, one of the largest gold mining companies worldwide, today announced that its gold production of 512 thousand ounces in March quarter 2021 was 4% lower than the prior period, reflecting the impact of planned shutdown events at Cadia and Lihir mines.
The company said that this decline was partially offset by a 6% increase in gold production at Telfer operation driven by higher throughput rates and gold recovery improvements.
Newcrest’s AISC for the March quarter of $891/oz was $72/oz lower than the prior period. The 7% improvement includes the benefit of a higher realised copper price, higher gold sales volumes at Lihir and Telfer mines, and the timing of sustaining capital expenditure at Lihir and Red Chris mines.
Managing director and CEO Sandeep Biswas said, “Our world-class Cadia asset set a new record during the March 2021 quarter, reporting its lowest ever quarterly all-in sustaining cost of negative $160/oz. This record, along with unit cost reductions at all other sites, delivered a 7% reduction in our all-in sustaining cost per ounce for the quarter and a strong all-in sustaining cost margin of $854/oz.”
Newcrest noted that it continues to progress multiple organic growth options across its gold and copper assets with a number of key project milestones delivered during the period. At Red Chris and Havieron, box cut and surface infrastructure construction is progressing to plan, while at Lihir, the company is on target to deliver the findings of Phase 14A Pre-Feasibility Study in the June 2021 quarter.
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