Newcrest Mining’s final quarterly report before being swallowed up by Newmont Corporation has delivered lower gold production and rising costs on the back of maintenance works.
The miner told the market on Tuesday it produced 454,312 ounces of gold for three months to September 30, a fall of 18.3 per cent from the prior quarter and a reduction of 13.8 per cent relative to the September quarter last year.
Its copper production also declined in a similar fashion, reaching 30,624 tonnes in the September quarter.
That’s down from nearly 35,000t in the June quarter and 32,459t in the September quarter last year.
Newcrest said the weak production result stemmed from “routine planned maintenance” across its operations.
Its all-in sustaining costs $1,098/oz for the September quarter were 23 per cent higher than the three months to June 30, with the miner pointing to maintenance-impacted throughput and a lower realised copper price as core reasons for the cost inflation.
Tuesday’s news comes as the Federal Court also approved Newmont’s $26 billion acquisition of Newmont.
The takeover will be formally finalised on November 6.
Newcrest’s shareholders last week gave the green light to Newmont’s takeover offer, making it the world’s biggest-ever gold mining acquisition.
At the scheme meeting in Melbourne, 92.6 per cent of votes cast were in favour of Newmont’s offer, comfortably above the 75 per cent approval required for the scheme of arrangement to go through.
Newmont operates the massive Boddington Gold Mine, about 120km south-east of Perth, which the company has spent more than $2b on as part of expansion efforts.
Newcrest’s WA operations encompass two assets in the remote Paterson Province, including the Telfer mine which produced nearly 350,000oz of gold for the 2023 financial year.