Hochschild Mining PLC (LON:HOC) expects newly discovered veins at its Inmaculada gold mine to keep the Peruvian mine producing at record levels for years.
Eduardo Hochschild, chairman, said “Drilling [at Inmaculada] yielded over one million gold equivalent ounces of inferred resources and also demonstrated that this rich district could continue to deliver economic resources and therefore mine life extensions for many years to come.”
This is also an extensive drill programme scheduled at another mine in Peru, Pallancata, later this year.
Total production in 2018 was 526,000 gold equivalent ounces, but this will fall to 457,000 oz in 2019 due to the closure of the Arcata mine.
READ: Hochschild Mining suspends operations at precious metal mine in south-west Peru due to low silver price
Financial numbers showed a drop in pre-tax profits to US$38.4mln from US$64.1 mln in 2017 as weak silver prices saw revenues eased to US$704mln from US$723mln a year earlier.
Ignacio Bustamante, chief executive, added: "2018 results reflect another strong year of record production and prudent cost control."
The final dividend is 1.959 cents per share, costing US$10mln.
Shares in the FTSE 250-listed firm were down 0.6% at 199.3p in morning trading.