By Seher Dareen
(Reuters) -Newmont Corp beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Thursday, as the world’s largest gold miner benefited from robust production, higher prices and lower operating expenses.
Shares rose 11.2% to a nine-month high of $43.07 as the company also disclosed strong interest in its asset sale plans.
Quarterly attributable gold production rose to 1.7 million ounces from 1.3 million ounces a year earlier.
The company has disclosed plans to divest non-core assets and trim its workforce to reduce debt as it completed the about $17 billion purchase of Australian miner Newcrest in November.
“We have started the formal process on each of the six non-core assets, there’s a high level of interest across those processes,” Newmont CEO Tom Palmer said in a post-earnings call.
National Bank of Canada Financial Markets analysts said, “Given the strong gold price environment, we believe that future asset sales may prove well timed with respect to maximizing value received for these assets.”
Spot prices of the precious metal rose about 8.2% in the January-March quarter, helping the miner realize higher prices at $2,090 per ounce from $1,906 a year earlier. [GOL/]
Sales rose to $4.02 billion from $2.68 billion.
Separately, Newmont said operations at its Cerro Negro mine in Argentina have been suspended for an investigation following the death of two workers on April 9.
On an adjusted basis, the Denver, Colorado-based company posted a net income of 55 cents per share, compared with estimates of 36 cents, according to LSEG data.
Newmont also got a lift from easing contractor, diesel and energy costs.
All-in-sustaining cost for gold, an industry metric that reflects total expenses associated with production, rose to $1,439 per ounce of gold from $1,376 a year earlier.
The company maintained its 2024 forecasts of production of 6.9 million ounces of gold at an AISC of $1,400.
($1 = 1.5375 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Sriraj Kalluvila)
