Boston, MA 02/03/2014 (wallstreetpr) – On Jan 30, Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) announced gold production this year met the company’s higher end estimates. In the fourth quarter, it produced 1.5 million ounces of gold which makes 5.1 million ounces of gold production this year, in line with the company’s year forecast between 5 million and 5.3 million ounces of the metal.
Copper output falls short of forecast
The Denver based miner also reported copper production of 38 million pounds in the fourth quarter. With this, the copper produced in this full year amounts to 144 million pounds. Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) had earlier announced copper production estimates within the range of 160,000 and 170,000 tonnes this year along with consolidated gold output of 5 million to 5.3 million ounces in 2014.
Gold price
While announcing its quarterly production estimates, the world’s third biggest gold company according to its market value had also said that this year it will apply lower gold price as compared to last year. While it had applied $1,400 per ounce the previous year, this year it will stick to $1,300 per ounce of the metal. This is the price it will use for all asset damage testing as also in reckoning its gold reserves. The company expects its all-in upholding expenses to be within $1,075 to $1,175 an ounce of gold, and for copper it estimates this amount to be between $2.75 and $2.95 per pound. Newmont forecasts a drop in overhead expenses of around 20%.
In 2013, Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) had estimated gold production to be between 4.8 million and 5.1 million ounces. However, later in October, the company had to cut down its year copper production estimate and had forecasted output to be within 135 million and 145 million pounds. This was on account of the lower than expected output at its Australian and Indonesian mines. This year, Newmont forecasts a capital spending budget within $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion, of which 90% will be the sustaining capital.
