Gold Fields may sell Damang, Cerro Corona after “unlocking value”
GOLD Fields may slim down its portfolio by selling smaller mines in Ghana and Peru, said Reuters.Citing CEO Mike Fraser, the newswire said Gold Fields could potentially sell its Damang mine in Ghana where it is only processing stockpiled ore after stopping mining operations last year. It could also seek buyers for its Cerro Corona mine in Peru – which has five years left on its lifespan.“We do want to set it up in a way that, if we keep it, we know we have unlocked the value,” Fraser told Reuters. “If we decide to sell it to someone else, we would have sold it with an embedded option for life extension.”Gold output at Damang, which has been mined since 1997, fell 11% to about 33,000 ounces in the three months to September, the company said. The Peru mine produced 20,800 oz compared to 16,800 oz the previous quarter.This is in the wake of buying control of Osisko Mining for $1.6bn, which owns Canada’s Windfall project, and starting the ramp up of production at Salares Norte, Gold Fields’s new mine in Chile.Gold Fields turned in a vastly improved production report for its third quarter registerting strong recoveries at all its assets, especially at South Deep in South Africa. The only major negative for the quarter was a year-on-year escalation in unit and all-in sustaining costs (AISC), the latter – which came in at $1,694/oz – was 23% higher.All in all, third quarter production totalled 510,000 oz, a 12% quarter-on-quarter improvement (6% lower y-o-y), and a 5% decrease in all-in sustaining costs which came in at $1,909/oz.This performance eases the pressure on Mike Fraser, Gold Fields CEO who saw a major drop off in company performance shortly after taking the reins almost a year ago, and at a time when the gold price began its 25% improvement this year.The post Gold Fields may sell Damang, Cerro Corona after “unlocking value” appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com
Quelle: Mining.com
