Newcrest Mining stuck with its production guidance for despite a drop in gold output for the first quarter.
Newcrest produced almost 523,000 ounces in the three months through September, a drop of 5.2 per cent on the previous quarter, but said it expected production to increase over the coming quarters.
The miner in August warned that output for the quarter would be lower than the average implied by its guidance for the year, after a plant shutdown at its Lihir mine in Papua New Guinea in July and a planned shutdown at the Telfer operation in Western Australia.
At the time, it forecast gold production of between 2.4 and 2.65 million ounces for the year, after slipping to 2.44 million ounces the year before.
Production at part of the Cadia mine in NSW resumed in July after operations were disrupted, and the company said with the continued ramp-up of Cadia and fewer shutdowns for Lihir it expected overall production would be stronger in the second half of the year.
Copper production for the quarter hit 17,000 tonnes, up 29 per cent on the previous quarter. It has forecast copper output of 80,000-90,000 tonnes this year.
