Serabi Gold PLC (LON:SRB) shares got off to a flyer on Friday after a well-received set of second-quarter numbers.
The mining and development company focused on Brazil saw an 89% improvement in second-quarter underlying earnings (EBITDA) to US$6.2mln from US$3.3mln in the same quarter of 2019.
Profit before tax shot up to US$4.3mln from US$575,523 the year before on revenue that rose to US$16.36mln from US$12.46mln.
Serabi said the cash for the year to date was US$961 per ounce while the all-in sustaining cost was US$1,265. During the same period, the company has achieved an average sale price of US$1,647 per ounce.
Production in the second quarter was hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the third-quarter performance is expected to be similar to that of the second quarter.
Serabi is targeting a return to full levels of production in the fourth quarter and should that be achieved it expects to produce between 34,000 and 37,000 ounces of gold over the whole of 2020.
The company has resumed some of the investment programmes that were put on hold when the pandemic took hold, such as underground drilling at Sao Chico.
Exploration programmes are expected to re-start in the fourth quarter.
“The second quarter of the year has proved, financially, to be one of our most successful ever and viewed in the context of the uncertainties that we were facing at the end of March, both from a financial and operational perspective, the workforce have produced an exceptional result in extremely challenging circumstances,” Clive Line, the chief financial officer of Serabi said in a statement.
“Since the end of the quarter we have seen continued improvement in the gold price, with record highs being reached in early August, and an average gold price for this current third quarter of approximately US$1,880 to date, compared with the average price achieved for the year to date of US$1,647 per ounce,” Line noted.
Shares in Serabi were up 6.9% at 96.75p in the first half-hour of trading.