Following Centamin’s (LON:CEY) previous production announcement which showed a 6% QoQ and 41% YoY increase to 149koz the company has released strong Q3 2016 earnings. Revenue of US$201m was up 12% QoQ and 69% YoY. EBITDA of US$122m was up 21% QoQ and almost three times YoY while profit before tax was up 27% QoQ and 14x YoY to US$93m.
Favourable gold pricing as well as the robust production result benefitted the top line while cost performance was strong also. Cash costs were up 1% QoQ although down 39% YoY to US$466/oz. AISC were down 4% QoQ and 30% YoY to US$644/oz resulting in strong free cash flow generation.
Following the strong cost performance in the quarter as well as CEY’s expectation that production will likely be at the upper end of the 520-540koz guidance for 2016 CEY’s full year costs are likely to be towards the lower end of guidance of US$530-550/oz for operating cash costs and US$720-750/oz for AISC.