Gold Fields reports it’s gold output to hit 3.49 million ounces

South Africa based Gold Fields said its gold output for the fiscal year ended December last year is expected to be 3.49 million gold equivalent ounces.

According to a company statement, Total cash cost for FY 2011 is expected to be approximately $800/oz (R185,000/kg) and notional cash expenditure (NCE) approximately $1,180/oz (R275,000/kg), both of which are lower than the guidance given on 10 November 2011 for total cash costs of $810/oz (R187,000/kg) and NCE of $1,200/oz (R277,000/kg).

Group attributable production for the December quarter (Q4 2011) is expected to be 883,000 gold equivalent ounces, which is 1.9% lower than the previous quarter (Q3 2011: 900,000 gold equivalent ounces).

The lower production for Q4 2011 is as a result of production disruptions in Ghana due to power outages and a slower milling rate at Tarkwa, due to harder material associated with a change in the blend of material fed to the plant.

In the South Africa region production was impacted by stop and fix interventions at Beatrix and a lower underground grade at South Deep due to changes in the mining mix needed to increase flexibility. Gold equivalent production at Cerro Corona, in Peru, was adversely impacted by the lower copper price relative to the gold price in Q4 2011.

Costs during the quarter were well contained with total cash cost expected to be approximately $770/oz (R200,000/kg) and NCE approximately $1,210/oz (R315,000/kg).

Gold Fields’ quarterly results as well as results for the financial year ended December 2011 will be released on Friday, 17 February 2012.

Gold Fields is one of the world’s largest unhedged producers of gold with attributable annualised production of 3.5 million gold equivalent ounces from eight operating mines in Australia, Ghana, Peru and South Africa. – BullionStreet

Tags: Gold, Gold Fields, Gold mining, Gold mining companies, Gold mining industry

Posted by admin on Jan 23 2012. Filed under Gold mining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry