Newmont Corp. NGT-T beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit on Wednesday, as the world’s biggest gold miner benefited from robust production and higher prices.
The company also said it would sell the entity holding its deferred payment rights linked to the Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia for about US$153-million.
Newmont, which completed its US$17-billion acquisition of Australian miner Newcrest in November, has revealed plans to achieve at least US$2-billion in gross proceeds from the divestiture of high-quality, non-core asset sales.
Shares of the company were up 2.5 per cent after the bell.
Attributable gold production rose to 1.61 million ounces in the second quarter from 1.24 million ounces a year earlier. Analysts had expected production of 1.56 million ounces, according to LSEG data.
Average realized gold price was US$2,347 an ounce in the quarter ended June 30, compared with US$1,965 an ounce a year earlier.
Prices of the precious metal rose 4.2 per cent in the April-to-June quarter. The rally is also expected to help Canadian peer Barrick Gold Corp.
Newmont’s all-in-sustaining cost, an industry metric that reflects total expenses associated with production, rose to US$1,562 an ounce of gold from US$1,472 an ounce a year earlier.
The precious-metals miner continues to expect total annual attributable gold production of 6.9 million ounces. This compares with analysts’ estimates of 6.8 million ounces.
On an adjusted basis, Denver-based Newmont posted a profit of 72 US cents a share for the April-to-June quarter, compared with analysts’ estimates of 62 US cents, according to LSEG data.