Kinross Gold Corp All Set at Round Mountain for Exploration
In the fourth quarter, Kinross Gold Corp. reported adjusted net earnings of $101.8 million, or 8 cents per share, and attributable gold equivalent production of 487,621 ounces, as well as the announcement of an underground exploratory drift at the Round Mountain Mine in Nevada.
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The adjusted net income for the period was $335.1 million, or 27 cents per share, comparable to $335.1 million, or 27 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2020.
For the entire year of 2021, adjusted net earnings were $541.3 million, or 43 cents per share, down from $966.8 million in 2020.
According to the company, a fire at Tasiast and a pit wall issue at Round Mountain impacted 2021 net earnings, as did a $106.1 million write-down at Bald Mountain in White Pine County due to a lower estimate of recoverable ounces from the Vantage heap leach pad after encountering carbonaceous ore on the leach pad that isn’t amenable to leaching.
Kinross, on the other hand, lost $2.7 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $783 million in the previous quarter.
For the entire year of 2021, reported net earnings were $221.2 million, or 18 cents per share, compared to $1.342.4 billion, or $1.07 per share, in 2020.
The average realized gold price in the fourth quarter and year 2021 was $1,797 per ounce, according to the business, while the average realized gold price in the fourth quarter of 2020 was $1,875, up from $1,774 per ounce in the year 2020.
40 per ounce, while Kinross shares were $5.81, down 5 cents.
Due to reduced production at Round Mountain and Tasiast in Mauritania, fourth-quarter 2021 production was down from 624,032 gold equivalent ounces in the previous quarter.
In sum, 2.068 million gold equivalent ounces were produced in 2021, down from 2.367 million ounces in 2020.
According to the Kinross report, all-in sustaining costs in the fourth quarter were $1,312 per gold equivalent ounce, up from $1,013 in the previous quarter and $1,138 for the year 2021, up from $987 in the previous year.
After falling short of guidance of 2.1 million ounces in 2021, when output was 2.07 million ounces, the Toronto-based business forecasts gold equivalent production of 2.65 million ounces this year.
“Our long-term production profile remains solid,” stated J. Paul Rollinson, president and chief executive officer of Kinross, “With planned production of 2.6 million ounces in 2024 and an annual average production estimate of at least 2.5 million ounces over the remainder of the decade.” “Kinross also successfully contributed to its mineral reserve estimations, which climbed by 2.7 million ounces to 32.6 million gold equivalent ounces by year-end 2021,” he said in a post-market earnings announcement on Feb. 16.
The company’s proven and probable mineral reserves grew due to a net increase of 792,000 ounces at Round Mountain in Nye County and a 3 million ounce addition at Udinsk in Russia.
“We now expect the optimization studies to be finished in the second half of the year rather than the first,” Tomory said, adding that a “Silver lining” at Round Mountain is that “We’ve now got inventory in front of us to push my life out into the 2030s.” At the conclusion of the year, 938,000 gold ounces at Phase S had been converted to reserves, according to the firm.
Kinross expects to spend $16 million this year on subsurface drift building and surface research at Gold Hill, north of Round Mountain, and in the Round Mountain district.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, Round Mountain produced 51,549 gold equivalent ounces, down from 89,422 ounces in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the mine produced 257,005 ounces in 2021, compared to 342,277 ounces in 2020.
Kinross reported that output at Bald Mountain rose over 2020, because of the timing of ounces recovered from heap leach pads, but was lower than planned due to the carbonaceous material discovered at Vantage.
Bald Mountain mine produced 61,036 gold equivalent ounces in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from 51,487 ounces in the fourth quarter of 2020, and 204,890 ounces for the year 2021, up from 191,282 ounces in 2020.
Rollinson stated in the Feb. 17 webinar that Kinross had donated $1 million to a relief fund established by the Ghanaian government in the aftermath of the truck explosion last month.
