New Zealand gold miner continues shining runNew Zealand gold miner continues shining run (OGC.T~OCANF)
Thestellar run by OceanaGold, which continues to find more ore at its two NewZealand mining sites was well illustrated in the September quarter.
Ross Louthean
Friday , 29 Oct 2010
PERTH - -
OceanaGold Corporation (ASX, TSX, NZX: OGC), which is domiciled inMelbourne but has the Toronto Stock Exchange as its home bourse had a netearnings for the September quarter of US$13.7 million (NZ$18.28 million) and, at$42.6 million (NZ$56.8 million), a 9% improvement in EBITDA over the previousquarter.
Gold production for the quarter totalled 68,763 ounces,realising a year-to-date total of 201,595 -- in line with company projections.
There have been improved mining and milling rates at the Fraesers opencut and Frasers underground operations at Macraes, north of Dunedin on the SouthIsland, resulting in a 20% increase in production when compared to the previousquarter.
A New Zealand exploration program added 3,600 metres ofunderground drilling completed at Frasers Underground at Macraes and 7,600m ofdrilling at Globe Deeps at its Globe-Progress mine at Reefton on the SouthIsland's West Coast.
Mill throughput of Macraes ore for the Septemberquarter was 1.48 million tonnes, compared to June quarter's 1.34 Mt and thegrades treated were generally higher. Cash operating costs were $US568/ounce(NZ$758/oz) compared to June quarter $US564/oz. A key factor for this was theprogressively weakening American dollar, as the company pointed out that sinceJune the $US had declined 10% to the $NZ.
The operating margin grew toUS$664/oz (NZ$885/oz) compared to US$627/oz (NZ$836/oz) for June.
TheGlobe-Progress mine, which delivers a concentrate to the Macraes pressureoxidation plant, mined 14% less ore in the quarter due mainly to wet conditionson the West Coast that gave mining equipment poor access to the pit floor.
Gold production attributable to Reefton was 19,031 oz, 7,000 oz lessthan the June quarter.
OceanaGold's executive chairman, Jim Askew, saidthe company's third quarter results demonstrated higher cash operating marginsand solid cash flows from our NZ operations.
With the resumption ofdevelopment of the Didipio gold-copper project in the Philippines "the companywill be well positioned for ongoing earnings growth and expansion".
"Didipio represents a long life mine with robust economics that, afterallowing for copper by-product credits, will create a cash cost profile thataims to put the company within the lowest quartile amongst its peer group," hesaid
Since releasing the quarterly results, OceanaGold separatelyreleased a new technical report that provides positive signs for lifting themothballs of this project and have it contributing to group production withintwo years. This year's group production from NZ operations was estimated to bebetween 270,000-300,000 oz