DENVER—Newmont Mining Corp., one of the world’s largest gold producers, said Wednesday its third-quarter profit doubled on one-time gains while its revenue was driven by improvements in mining operations.
Newmont on Wednesday reported net income of $397 million, or 88 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with $198 million, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue totaled $1.65 billion up from $1.1 billion in the year-ago quarter.
The most recent results included an $84 million gain from foreign tax credits and a $54 million after-tax gain from a settlement on its Zarafshan-Newmont joint venture in Uzbekistan.
Chief Executive Officer Richard O’Brien said Newmont is addressing problems in its Nevada operations.
The company has struggled to process gold and copper from the Phoenix mine near Winnemucca. Its Midas mine in the same area was closed June 19 after a miner was killed during a cave-in.
Newmont resumed limited operations at Midas last month after the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration lifted a restrictive order.
“We continue to address the issues in Nevada, including challenges at Phoenix and the slower than anticipated reopening of our Midas mine,” O’Brien said in a statement.
Shares of the Denver-based company rose nearly 8 percent in afternoon trading.
Excluding the one-time gains, Newmont said it earned 57 cents a share compared with 34 cents a share after one-time items in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial on average had forecast a profit of 25 cents per share on revenue of $1.4 billion. Analyst estimates typically exclude one-time items.
“They obviously had a lot of good things happening at numerous operations, I thought, in terms of doing better than the market had expected,” said Patrick Chidley, analyst with Barnard Jacobs Mellet.
During the quarter, Newmont’s equity gold sales totaled 1.33 million ounces, down from 1.38 million ounces in the year-ago quarter. The average realized gold price was $681 an ounce up from $611 an ounce while costs applicable to sales rose to $388 an ounce from $318 an ounce.
For the full year, Newmont revised its forecast, predicting equity gold sales of between 5.2 million and 5.4 million ounces and costs applicable to sales of between $400 and $430 per ounce. Previously, it projected equity gold sales of 5.2 million to 5.6 million equity ounces with costs at $375 to $400 per ounce.
In the first nine months, Newmont reported a net loss of $1.6 billion, or $3.54 a share, compared with net income of $568 million, or $1.26 a share, in the comparable period of 2006. Revenue increased to $4.2 billion from $3.5 billion in the year-ago period.
Newmont’s stock rose about $4.46, or 9.6 percent, to close at $50.09 Wednesday.
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