Kinross Gold shares rise on Q3 earnings surge

Kinross Gold (TSX: K, NYSE: KGC) shares rose more than 5% on Thursday morning session after the Canadian miner reported strong earnings for the third quarter of 2023.

Kinross recorded net earnings of $109.7 million or 9¢ per share for the period, up from $65.9 million or 5¢ per share in the same quarter last year. This represents an over 66% increase in net earnings, or about 80% on a per-share basis.

At the end of the quarter, Kinross held cash and equivalents of $464.9 million, with total liquidity of $2 billion.

The financials were backed by solid production across the company’s precious metals operations across the world, namely Tasiast in Mauritania, which had record gold-equivalent production of 171,140 oz., significantly exceeding the previous record. Its Paracatu mine in Brazil also delivered higher production, as did La Coipa in Chile.

The company’s U.S. operations also saw higher production, with more ounces recovered from the heap leach pads at Fort Knox. During the quarter, Kinross approved mining of the optimized Phase S open pit at Round Mountain, which is expected to add 750,000 oz. to life-of-mine production.

Overall, Kinross’ six operating mines produced 585,449 gold-equivalent oz., for an 11% year-over-year increase. The production cost for the quarter was $520.6 million, about $55 million or 12% higher over last year.

“Our production profile has been solid and generated significant cash flow. We continue to reduce the debt on our investment grade balance sheet and have completed our expansion projects at Tasiast and La Coipa,” Paul Rollinson, Kinross CEO, said in a release.

Building on the robust results year-to-date, Rollinson said his company is well positioned to meet its annual guidance of 2.1 million oz. gold-equivalent.

Kinross shares rose as high as $7.68 (or 5.4%) in morning trading on the news. The company has a market capitalization of $9.4 billion.