China Gold cranks gold, copper production in Q1

Author: Paul Ploumis18 May 2015 Last updated at 04:40:03 GMT

Beijing : A doubling of mill processing capacity at the CSH Gold Mine in Inner Mongolia is credited for a 51 percent increase in gold production at China Gold International Resources Corp. (TSX:CGG) in the first quarter. Copper production was also up a whopping 475 percent from the year-ago quarter.

The Vancouver-based gold and copper company, with an operation in Inner Mongolia and another in Tibet, the Jiama Copper Gold Polymetallic Mine, said the doubling of mine capacity from 30,000 tonnes per day to 60,000 tpd resulted in an increase in gold production from 27,118 ounces in the first quarter of 2014, to 41,033 ounces in Q1 2015. Copper production from the Jiama mine went from 771 tonnes during the first three months of 2014 to 4,089 tonnes during the same period this year, largely due to a stable power supply, according to the company.

Net income for the quarter increased by US$4.8 million, from $1.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014, to US$6.2 million for the first three months of 2015. Two thirds of revenues came from the CSH mine, with the other third coming from Jiama.

"We are off to a great start for 2015. During the first quarter of 2015 we increased both gold and copper production without any technological difficulties. This translated into higher revenues and net income despite the 15% decrease in the realized average price of copper per pound and a 7% decrease in the realized average price of gold per ounce," CEO Bing Liu said in a statement. "Expansion at Jiama is progressing as we anticipated and CSH is fully utilizing its increased capacity. At this stage, we are very confident about achieving our 2015 guidance."

China Gold was off half-a-percent to $1.97 a share on Friday, with a market value of $782.6 million.

Courtesy : www.mining.com