Commodities, Copper, Gold, News, Production

Newcrest drops Cadia costs to new low

Newcrest Mining

Newcrest Mining has confirmed that a seismic event at the Cadia gold-copper mine in New South Wales this month will not impact production at the site, which continues to set cost records for the company.

The company achieved a record low all-in-sustaining-cost (AISC) of negative $US377 ($512) per ounce at Cadia during the June quarter thanks to higher gold and copper sales.

Newcrest delivered record mined ore volumes from Cadia East of 38.1 million tonnes per annum and record mill throughput rate of 34.3 million tonnes per annum.

This pushed Cadia above its 760,000 ounce guidance for the 2021 financial year with 764,895 ounces.

The company’s total gold production in the June quarter was 6 per cent higher than the previous period partially due to Cadia’s performance.

Newcrest’s AISC for the June quarter was $US797 per ounce of gold under a margin of 55 per cent ($US983 per ounce).

The company’s ASIC was $US96 per ounce lower than the previous period due to higher gold and copper sales.

Newcrest produced 2.09 million ounces of gold in the 2021 financial year, which is at the upper end of its 1.95 million to 2.15 million guidance range.

Biswas said this month’s seismic event at Cadia was not expected to impact the company’s gold and copper production in the 2022 financial year.

“Following the localised seismic event at Cadia earlier this month, the prohibition notice has been lifted and we are currently rehabilitating the affected area,” Biswas said.

“As previously disclosed, we do not expect this event to impact gold and copper production in the 2022 financial year and our development and expansion works continue uninterrupted.”

Cadia produced 96,042 tonnes of copper for the 2021 financial year against a guidance of 95,000 to 105,000 tonnes.

Newcrest stated its SAG (semi-autogenous grinding) mill motor at Cadia commenced in early July and expected it to be completed within 19 weeks.

The miner is also on track to commission Cadia’s molybdenum plant, which will achieve first production by the end of September 2021 and will be used as another revenue stream for the mine.

Newcrest’s Telfer gold mine in Western Australia produced 126,000 ounces in the June quarter, marking a 19 per cent higher result than the previous period, and produced 393,164 ounces of gold for the financial year.

Telfer’s AISC of $1203 per ounce was 19 per cent lower than the previous period due to strong gold and copper sales.

The mine also produced 16,278 tonnes of copper in the 2021 financial year.

Previous ArticleNext Article
Send this to a friend