Hochschild reaffirms production outlook on 'solid' Q2

(Sharecast News) - Hochschild Mining reaffirmed full-year production guidance on Wednesday following a "solid" quarterly performance. Updating on second-quarter trading, the South America-focused miner said attributable gold equivalent production was 76,231 oz in the three months to 30 June, while silver equivalent production was 5.87m oz.

That compares to gold and silver production of 83,530 oz and 6.43m oz respectively in the same period a year earlier.

The company also flagged higher costs, with attributable all-in sustainable costs now running 5% to 10% above the guided range of $2,157 to $2,320 per gold equivalent oz.

Hochschild blamed the increase on higher prices on royalties, workers profit sharing and selling expenses as well as stronger-than-expected local currencies. Hochschild's main projects are in three countries: two underground epithermal vein mines, Immaculada and San Jose, in southern Peru and southern Argentina, and the Brazilian open-pit gold mine Mara Rosa.

However, the London-listed company confirmed it remained on track to meet its annual attributable production target of between 300,000 and 328,000 gold equivalent oz.

Eduardo Landin, chief executive, said: "We have delivered a solid operational performance during the second quarter, with Immaculada and San Jose generating robust operating cash flow, while Mara Rosa continue to make good progress as we executive our operational turnaround.

"We also continued to advance our growth pipeline."

As at 1100 BST, the FTSE 250 stock was trading 2% higher at 455.92p.

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