Shares in Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX: BGL) briefly hit a 12-month high in early trade on Wednesday after the company released a quarterly production report indicating it was on track to meet its full-year guidance.
Shares in the gold miner traded as high as $1.82 in early trade before settling back to be 1.5% lower at $1.76 by mid-morning.
The value of the company has more than doubled over the past year, with the shares up from lows of 77.5 cents as recently as August.
Image source: Getty Images
Production steady despite disruptions
Bellevue stated in its update on Wednesday that it produced 32,000 ounces of gold, achieving gold recoveries of 96.1%, which outperformed the estimates used in setting its FY26 guidance.
The company said production was restricted at the end of the quarter by one-off factors, including the suspension of underground development in the last week of December due to a safety incident.
Underground development resumed on January 4, the company said.
The company said despite the delays, "the advance rate for the quarter was still above the 270m per jumbo per month rate used in the mine plan''.
A jumbo is a machine used in underground mine development
Bellevue said it remained on track to meet FY26 production guidance of 130,000 to 150,000 ounces of gold.
Hedging being unwound
The company said it was also continuing to work through its hedge book, which would give it increasing exposure to the spot gold price.
As the company said:
Bellevue continued pre-delivering gold and reducing near term hedge book commitments, which will increase future spot gold price exposure. Forward gold sales commitments have been reduced in total by a further 18,345 ounces, through a combination of 4,725 ounces of contractual December 2025 hedge deliveries and 13,620 ounces of additional voluntary pre-delivery against hedge commitments in the March 2026 and June 2026 quarters.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said the quarterly production results were broadly in line with their estimates, albeit "a slight miss to consensus'', and positioned the company well to meet its full-year guidance.
They went on to say:
Underlying free cash flow beat consensus and slightly missed us; however, hedge book pre-deliveries limited cash generation. However, we think this is a positive as it allows Bellevue more spot sales in a rising gold price environment. Overall, a neutral update given the small production miss.
RBC has a price target of $2 on Bellevue shares. Bellevue Gold was valued at $2.65 billion at the close of trade on Tuesday.
