Fresnillo increases gold, silver production

Mexican miner Fresnillo said H1’s gold production was up 10.6% to 23.8M ounces and gold production was up 37% to 364,000 ounces compared to 2014’s H1.

The company has traded up 4.12% over the last four days to 645GBX (CAN$13.12). The company’s 52-week range is 616.50 to 1,037.

Fresnillo said it it was cutting its capital expenditures from US$700 million to US$570 million due to volatility in precious metal prices.

The company had other highlights:

• Significantly lower realised commodity prices (silver US$16.61 per oz, down 18.0%; gold US$1,206.10 per oz, down 7.4%) impacting financial performance
• Profit for the period of US$76.4m, a decrease of 44.3%
• Basic and diluted EPS US$10.4 cents per share, down 41.2%
• Cash generation from operations remains significant at US$314.9m, down 6.5%
• Strong balance sheet maintained – cash, cash equivalents and short term investments of US$475.7m
• Interim dividend of US$15.5m (2.1 US cents per share) declared reflecting Board’s confidence in the company’s financial position and outlook; no change to previously stated policy