South African gold miner Gold Fields said on Thursday its third-quarter adjusted earnings per share fell 23% to 83 cents, citing lower output and higher costs.
Adjusted EPS, excluding the effects of financial instruments and foreign debt, was expected to fall 8% to 99 cents, according to the average forecast of 10 analysts. Their estimates were in a range of 58 to 122 cents.
Gold Fields, the world’s fourth biggest gold producer, posted adjusted EPS of 108 cents in the second quarter.
Gold Fields said attributable gold production fell 3% to 989 000 ounces of gold in the quarter to end-March against the second quarter to end-December.
The company forecast output for the fourth quarter at just over one million ounces, saying cash costs would reduce with higher output, but it cited higher oil and steel prices as among the likely cost drivers in the coming quarters.
”This quarter has been extremely challenging,” said Ian Cockerill, chief executive officer of Gold Fields, saying cash costs had risen due to lower production, and staff costs at all levels were up due to demand for skills worldwide.
However, he saw the gold price increasing steadily.
”The gold price is moving steadily upwards. I see good upside in the gold price. Whether it will be good enough to counteract the costs increases, I don’t know,” he told a news teleconference.
”What we have to do is to increase our margins based on improved operations and not just on the gold price.”
The average quarterly United States dollar gold price increased by 7% to $652 per ounce in the quarter to end-March, while the average rand/US dollar exchange rate rose 2% quarter-on-quarter, averaging R7,21.
As a result, the rand gold price rose 5% to R151 184 per kilogramme, which more than offset the lower production and resulted in revenue increasing in rand terms to R4,994-billion from R4,854-billion quarter-on-quarter, Gold Fields said.
Shares in Gold Fields closed at R128 on Wednesday. – Reuters