West Africa-focused gold producer Endeavour Mining Corporation (TSE:EDV) (OTCMKTS:EDVMF) boosted revenue, earnings and production in its latest quarter, thanks to its Ity mine in the Ivory Coast coming online.
Posting second quarter results for the three months to end June, the miner said it was well positioned to meet its full year 2019 output guidance of between 615,000 and 695,000 ounces and all in sustaining costs (AISC) of between US$760 and US810 per ounce.
READ: Endeavour Mining grows its high grade Le Plaque deposit at Ity mine to half a million ounces
Endeavour operates four mines across Côte d’Ivoire (Agbaou and Ity) and Burkina Faso (Houndé, Karma).
The Ity CIL project began processing ore in February and achieved its first gold pour on March 18.
Group production for the three months came in at 171,000 ounces gold, which was 42% higher than the first quarter this year, following the successful commissioning of the Ity CIL operation while AISC decreased by US$87 per ounce to US$790 per ounce.
That led to net earnings of US$1 million, from US$4 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue was US$219 million , up from US$190 million in the same quarter of 2018.
"With a solid performance in the first half of the year and the successful commissioning and ramp-up of the Ity CIL project, we are well on track to meet our full year guidance for 2019," said Endeavour's chief executive Sébastien de Montessus in a statement Thursday.
"Based on Ity’s strong operating results we believe that we have de-risked the project’s commissioning and ramp-up and we look forward to further near-term upside as we expect to increase its capacity from 4 to 5 million tonnes per annum in Q4-2019."
Recent high-grade discoveries
The company boss also highlighted recent high-grade discoveries at both the Ity and Houndé projects - the firm's flagship assets.
"These new discoveries are expected to bring non-capital-intensive growth in the short-term as we benefit from the commissioning of higher-grade deposits - with Le Plaque at Ity and Kari Pump at Houndé - both of which are over 1 g/t higher than current reserve grades being mined. Our greenfield exploration success is equally exciting, notably at Fetekro where we expect to announce a resource increase later in Q3-2019."
De Montessus said the group now aimed to focus on reducing debt driven by strong expected cash flow from its flagship assets.
As at the end of the quarter, Endeavour said its available sources of financing and liquidity stood at US$198 million.
Shares in Toronto gained 6.5%% to stand at $26.27.
---Adds share rise---
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow him on Twitter@Gile74