The St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM) share price is having another tough session.
In afternoon trade, the struggling gold miner's shares are down almost 8% to 18 cents.
This means the company's shares are now down over 20% this week.
Why is the St Barbara share price getting hammered?
On Monday, the gold miner's shares were sold off after it released its production and cost guidance for FY 2024. Today, the selling has been driven by the release of its first quarter update.
As you might have guessed from the St Barbara share price performance, perfectly timed for Halloween, that update was a bit of a horror show.
According to the release, St Barbara delivered gold production of 16,859 ounces for the quarter, which was down 59% from the fourth quarter. This comprises 6,480 ounces production at Touquoy (in its final quarter of production) and 10,379 ounces from the Simberi operation.
As for sales, St Barbara reported 15,579 ounces of gold sold, down 12.9% quarter on quarter, with a relatively flat average realised price of A$2,920 per ounce.
However, while that's a very healthy price to command for its gold, it wasn't enough to offset significantly higher costs.
Alarmingly, St Barbara reported an all-in sustaining cost of A$4,548 per ounce. This is more than double the prior quarter. It means it was operating with a negative margin of $1,628 per ounce for the quarter. Management advised that this was primarily driven by lower gold production due to lower grade and recovery and two plant shutdowns.
Guidance reaffirmed
Management has unsurprisingly reaffirmed the guidance it provided the market yesterday.
For Simberi, it continues to expect gold production of 60,000 to 70,000 ounces with an AISC of A$2,750 to A$3,050 per ounce. Based on the middle of this range, this would make it almost breakeven based on the last quarter's realised gold price.
Though, judging by the St Barbara share price performance today, some investors don't appear confident management will deliver on its guidance.
