Shares in Greatland Resources Ltd (ASX: GGP) were virtually unmoved on Wednesday morning after the company said it had built its cash pile to $948 million on a strong quarter of gold production.
Greatland also said its full-year production was likely to come in near the upper end of guidance of 260,000-310,000 ounces of gold.
The company said in a statement to the ASX that it had produced 86,273 ounces of gold during the December quarter, up 6.7% on the previous quarter, at an all-in sustaining cost of $2196 per ounce.
The company also produced 3528 tonnes of copper during the quarter.
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Strong cash build
Cash flow from operations came in at $406 million, and the company had a closing cash balance of $948 million at December 30, up from $750 million at the end of the September quarter.
Greatland Managing Director Shaun Day said it was a solid result.
We are pleased to have delivered another strong operational performance in the December quarter, with gold production of 86,273 ounces at an AISC of $2,196 per ounce. Key drivers included continued growth in open pit ore mined (a 32% increase in volume of mill feed mined) and maintained high gold recovery of 88.4%, continuing the strong trend from last quarter. "Based on the first half performance, we currently expect full-year production to trend towards the upper end of the guidance range of 260,000 – 310,000 ounces, and full-year AISC towards the lower end of the guidance range of $2,400 – $2,800 per ounce.
Mr Day said the company had "full upside" to the gold price rise during the quarter, and the company "achieved an average realised price of over $6,300 per ounce".
He added that the company had now been operating the Telfer mine in Western Australia for 12 months, during which "we produced over 335,000 ounces of gold and 14,000 tonnes of copper, generated ~$1.3 billion cash flow from operations, and built our net cash by ~$800 million''.
Mr Day said regarding the company's other major asset, the Havieron project:
An important milestone was achieved during the quarter with the completion and release of the results of the Havieron Feasibility Study which confirmed the pathway to a world-class, long-life, lowest quartile cost Australian gold-copper mine, leveraging existing Telfer infrastructure. Havieron's development is expected to be fully funded from cash together with a $500 million binding debt commitment with Tier-1 banks.
Greatland shares were 0.3% lower on Wednesday morning at $13.93.
