Hochschild Mining Plc (LON:HOC) have seen their shares jump on the back of a strong set of annual results.
The mining titan said that its’ profit doubled in 2019, as the firm looked to deliver further progress and developments.
Hochschild Mining said that revenue spiked 7% to $755.7 million, compared to $704.3 million in 2018. The growth will certainly please shareholders at a time where the mining industry has seen mixed results.
Notably, the FTSE 250 listed firm added that full year production was 477,400 ounces of gold equivalent, which smashed their initial guidance of 457,000 ounces.
Going forward, the firm said that it was targeting production around 422,000 ounces across 2020. The firm attributed their strong production figures to record numbers at the Inmaculada mine in Peru and San Jose mine in Argentina.
On the back of these strong results, Hochschild have lifted their final dividend to 2.335 US cents, which shows a 19% increase from 1.959 US cents a year ago.
Ignacio Bustamante, Chief Executive Officer said:
“In 2019, we have delivered some strong financial results which reflect another robust year of production including records at two of our operations and good cost control. Improved precious metals prices in the second half of the year combined with strong free cashflow generation saw us reduce leverage further and finish the year with net debt at $33 million. We have again discovered a significant amount of resource additions at Inmaculada and anticipate another year of ambitious exploration with exciting drill targets at all our current operations and projects throughout our entire southern Peru cluster. In addition, we can look forward to progressing our portfolio of greenfield opportunities and strategic alliances.”
Hochschild’s fourth quarter
Around a month ago, Hochschild released their fourth quarter results – where the firm noted a fall in production.
The firm said that its gold production totaled 78,050 in the three month period, however this saw a dip of 4.1% compared to the 81,370 total which was reported in the third quarter.
On a better note for shareholders, gold production figures were higher than a year ago where the fourth quarter figure in 208 was 73,100.
This was driven by a “better than expected” performance from the Inmaculada mine in Cusco, Peru.
Looking at silver production, fourth quarter production once again fell by 12% giving a total figure of 4.6 million ounces. In the third quarter, the figure delivered was 5.3 million and on a worse note, year on year silver output fell by over 20%.
On an overall basis, 2019 production for gold was 570,500 gold equivalent ounces and 46.2 million silver equivalent ounces, both down 3.0% year-on-year.
Despite the slip in the fourth quarter, Hochschild Mining have managed to see a very strong 2019. Shareholders should remain optimistic as the firm has set out clear expectations for the next year of trading.
Shares in Hochschild Mining trade at 171p (+7.04%). 19/2/20 10:28BST.
