Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Shares in Goldcorp Inc (NYSE:GG)(TSX:G) turned higher Wednesday after the company reported third quarter results that showed huge jump in profitability despite a sharp decline in gold production.
Vancouver-based Goldcorp more than erased its losses during regular trading after hours for a market capitalization of $11.2 billion in New York after reporting a 88% jump in net earnings to $111m or $0.13 per share, above expectations.
Revenues declined by 5.4% compared to a year ago, but also beat Wall Street forecasts at $866m.
Goldcorp’s gold output declined from 715koz during Q3 2016 to 633koz in the same period this year, but the world’s number four gold miner in terms of output kept its outlook for the year the same at roughly 2.5 million ounces.
All-in sustaining capital costs for the third quarter came in at $827 per ounce, compared to $812 per ounce in the same quarter 2016. AISC of approximately $825 per ounce is forecast for the whole of 2017, down from an earlier forecast of $850.
The company also announced a 26% increase in mineral reserves to 53.5m ounces, primarily due to the conversion of 4.7m ounces into reserves at its Century project at its Porcupine mine in Ontario Canada following a positive pre-feasibility study and the acquisition of a net 8.4 million ounces of reserves.
Goldcorp said exploration drilling at Century and an “upcoming optimization study could continue to add value to this organic project with low execution risk in a proven mining district.” The company said it remains on track to achieve a targeted 60 million ounces of gold reserves by 2021.
Comments
miner49er
And this is why there is a shortage of gold ? I once upon a time had a placer claim and one of these big gold giants had some sort of surface rights over top which weren’t even hard rock dispositions. I couldn’t dig on this claim with a pick and shovel. Oh, that was unless I had a reclamation bond in place, compensation, and all the liability and so on. Would have cost a small fortune to shake a few pans of dirt. Now going back in history a little, it was the poor prospector who found a lot of these gold deposits only to be stepped on. So be it. I know one thing as a prospector and that is gold is worthless unless you get it out of the ground. So… just another poor prospector down the tubes.