Monday, 25th July 2005 (2587 views)

Australia's largest gold producer Newcrest Gold has announced that gold production for the 2004/05 year was 1.158 million ounces.

The company said it had turned a corner at its troubled Telfer mine and expects to meet a downgraded earnings forecast for the 2005 fiscal year of between AS$130 million and AS$145 million.

The Sydney-based firm has suffered delays over the Telfer project, started in November last year, and suffered concentrate quality problems.

Managing Director Tony Palmer told Dow Jones Newswires: "When you start a big, new mine like Telfer, obviously there are a lot of issues getting a new team together, (and) with a big new plant like this you're never quite sure, for example, where the wear will turn up.

"We've gotten to a stage where the plant is now running quite solidly - at plus 90 per cent availabilities - and the team up there seems to be coming together quite well," he added. "At the end of the day we're pretty happy with where we are."

The company's fourth quarter production results show that Telfer's output rose to 117,308 ounces in its fiscal fourth quarter, up from 68,891 ounces in the previous three months. The AS$1.4 billion mine is on track to reach an annual 800,000 ounces later this financial year and will become Australia's biggest gold mine later this decade, Newcrest predicts.

 

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