LIHIR Gold recorded an operating profit before tax of US$195.9 million (K577 million) last year, up 25% from the previous year.
Record gold productions of 701,091 tonnes, up 8% from the previous year, and higher realised gold prices resulted in the 25% increase, managing director Arthur Hood said.
Revenues for the year rose by 29% to a record US$498.4 million (K1.5 billion), driven by a combination of higher production (12%) and a higher gold prices (17%), and the contribution of carbon credits added around US$5 million (K14.7 million) to revenue.
“The result reflects an improvement in underlying operating performance, with mining tonnages and process plant throughputs running at record levels.
“During the year, a major financial restructuring of the company was successfully completed through an A$1.2 billion (K2.9 billion) capital raising,” Mr Hood said.
The funds, he said, were used on a variety of purposes, including the close-out of the company’s hedge book and the early repayment of a 480,000-ounce gold loan.
“These transactions leave LGL in a strong financial position and fully leveraged to increases in the gold price.
“The restructuring led to a number of one-off costs in the year, in particular a US$117.9 million (K347.28 million) pre-tax charge associated with the early repayment of the gold loan.
“These contributed to a reduction in the bottom line result to a net loss of US$24.1 million (K70.99 million),” Mr Hood said.
“Gold grade into the autoclaves improved from 5.14 grams per tonne (gm/t) to 5.51 with approximately 0.26gm/t attributable to the operation of the flotation plant in the second half of the year.