Lihir Gold Limited is a gold producer in the Australasian region. The Company’s principal activities consist of the exploration for, development of and mining, processing and sale of gold assets. The company operates gold mines and processing facilities on the island of Lihir, 900 kilometers northeast of Port Moresby in New Ireland province of Papua New Guinea. In March 2007, the Company completed a merger with Victorian gold mining company Ballarat Goldfields NL. Ballarat is building an underground mine and process plant at the historic gold mining centre of Ballarat, 110 kilometers north-west of Melbourne in Victoria. In March 2008, the Company and Equigold NL announced the merger of their businesses.
Tier 1 gold miner Lihir Gold joins ranks of 1 million oz/year producers
For an explorer, finding a 1 million ounce plus gold resource is almost the holy grail, but for top gold miner Lihir Gold (ASX: LGL) to produce 1 million ounces of gold a year puts it close to its Australasian rival Newcrest in the elite gold mining league.
While still well short of producers like Newmont and Barrick, it keeps Lihir well in among the world's top gold miners.
For 2009, Lihir produced 1.12 million ounces of gold, well up (27%) from the previous year's output - and the fourth successive year the Tier 1 gold miner had recorded record production.
With total cash costs of only US$397 an ounce Lihir remains one of the world's lowest cost gold miners, but this slipped in the third and fourth quarters and the projection for the current year is at ‘below' $450 an ounce - still a good margin at current gold prices.
Indeed the company is only conservatively estimating current year gold output at between 960,000 and 1.06 million ounces, but with some ambitious production enhancements in progress this figure could be comfortably exceed in 2012 when the flagship Lihir mine on Lihir island is projected to reach 1 million ounces of gold on its own.
Overall in 2009, the Lihir mine produced a record 853,000 ounces, while in Côte d'Ivoire, the Bonikro mine produced 150,000 ounces in its first full year of production and at Mt Rawdon, in Queensland, output reached 108,000 ounces, above the 90,000-100,000 ounces forecast for the year.
Lihir's acting Chief Executive following Arthur Hood's recent resignation, Phil Baker (not to be confused with Hecla's Phil Baker) said "Operationally the company performed very strongly in 2009, enabling us to meet market guidance for both gold production and unit cash costs," Mr Baker said.
"Going forward we aim to achieve consistent and reliable performance at all our operations, delivering on our guidance and keeping expansion projects on track."
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