Stuart McKinnon – The West Australian
Australia’s gold production is tipped to slump to a “generational low” by 2022 despite it being on track for a 26-year high of 10.2 million ounces next year.
S&P Global Market Intelligence attributed the rapidly slowing production to short mine lives of recent start-ups and other significant mines approaching the end of their lives.
“We are forecasting a 9 per cent fall year-over-year in 2020 and we expect the country’s production to reach a generational low of 6.8Moz by 2022, a 33 per cent drop within only three years,” S&P analyst Chris Galbraith said.
“Many smaller mines are also expected to start winding down, such as Cracow, Mungari, South Kalgoorlie and Paulsens.”
The prediction comes as a trio of Aussie gold miners yesterday reported stellar full-year results from their respective operations.
Saracen Mineral Holdings posted a 100 per cent surge in underlying profit to $67.3 million on the back of a 16 per cent rise in production to a record 316,453oz.
The Raleigh Finlayson-led miner said it would more than triple its exploration budget from $17 million last year to $60 million over the next five years.
St Barbara announced underlying profit of $202 million, up 26 per cent on the previous year, after producing a record 403,089oz in the period at record low all-in sustaining costs of $891/oz.
The Bob Vassie-headed company declared a final dividend of 8¢ a share fully franked, up from 6¢ last year.
Silver Lake Resources posted a net profit of $16.2 million, up from $2 million the previous year. The result was achieved on the back of a 16 per cent increase in gold production to 157,936oz and a 5 per cent reduction in all-in sustaining costs to $1289/oz.
Newcrest Mining’s underlying profit rose 16 per cent to $US459 million. Australia’s biggest gold miner declared a final fully franked dividend of US11¢, up from a partially franked US7.5¢ the previous year.
Find the original article by The West Australian here