Russia’s largest gold miner Polyus on Tuesday posted a 183% leap in first-half revenue to $1.58 billion regardless of Western sanctions, boosted by greater world costs for gold that hit successive document highs this yr.
Its adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 20% to $2.02 billion on income up 16% to $2.73 billion, Polyus mentioned, including the rise in EBITDA mirrored “greater common gold costs throughout the reporting interval”.
Gold has risen about 22% to date this yr, hanging a peak of $2,531.60 final week on expectations of imminent US rate of interest cuts and issues about battle within the Center East.
Polyus mentioned its gold output within the first half of the yr rose 2% to 1.47 million ounces. The corporate elevated its manufacturing steerage for 2024 to 2.75-2.85 million ounces from 2.7-2.8 million ounces beforehand.
The USA and Britain imposed sanctions in opposition to Polyus in 2023 over Russia’s actions in Ukraine, a step that performed some half within the firm delisting its depositary receipts from the London Inventory Change.
Polyus mentioned that it’s going to start pilot processing of ore from Sukhoi Log, the corporate’s new flagship undertaking in Jap Siberia, within the second half of the yr. Sukhoi Log is predicted to enter full operation in 2027, doubling Polyus’ gold output.
The ore will probably be processed on the close by Verninskoye plant whereas mining on the Verninskoye deposit will probably be suspended till 2027. Verninskoye’s deposit accounted for 8.3% of Polyus gold output within the first half of 2024.
Polyus sees reserves on the Sukhoi Log gold deposit at 540 million tonnes of ore, containing 40 million ounces of gold, however the prices of the $3.3 billion undertaking are presently beneath evaluation as a consequence of Western sanctions and the corporate is because of present an replace within the fourth quarter.
(By Anastasia Lyrchikova, Lucy Papachristou and Gleb Bryanski; Enhancing by Jason Neely, Mark Potter and Susan Fenton)