US markets fall during the Feb. 7-11 trading week

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 353.07 points or 1.01% to 34,738.06 and the S&P 500 fell 65.23 points or 1.47% to 4,418.64. Spot gold climbed US$17.60 per oz. or 0.96% to finish at US$1,831.15 per ounce.   

Shares of Peabody Energy jumped US$3.98 or 30% to US$17.02. Full-year 2021 revenues totaled US$3.32 billion, compared to US$2.88 billion in the prior year, primarily due to improved seaborne pricing in the second half of the year. Full-year 2021 income attributable to common shareholders totaled US$360.1 million and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at US$916.7 million compared to a loss attributable to common shareholders of US$1.87 billion and adjusted EBITDA of US$258.8 million in the prior year. For the full year, the company retired about US$420 million of senior secured debt, more than 26% of its debt outstanding at the start of the year. “Our diverse mine portfolio… continues to benefit from strong market fundamentals driven by the vital necessity for coal to produce reliable energy and steel,” Peabody CEO Jim Grech said in a February 10 press release.  

Yamana Gold’s shares increased by 41¢ to 4.40. The company announced updated reserve and resource estimates in support of its upcoming guidance on February 17. Yamana said it added 324,000 oz. of gold reserves at its Jacobina mine in Brazil, a 5% year-on-year increase above depletion. The company continued to grow its resources at the Odyssey project in Canada with 2.35 million oz. of indicated gold resources and 13.15 million oz. of inferred resources. The company’s El Peñón mine in Chile achieved a fourth consecutive year of adding mineral reserves in excess of depletion, with mineral reserves growing 23% to 1.3 million gold-equivalent oz. in 2021. El Peñón reserves added in 2021 were higher grade and increased the average gold and silver reserve grades by 3%, Yamana Gold said. 

Shares of Consol Energy climbed US$7.15 or 29.4% to US$31.49. The company, which produces metallurgical and thermal coal, produced a total of 23.9 million tons of coal in 2021, up from 18.8 million tons in 2020. The company said continued transportation delays limited production in the fourth quarter and impacted full-year production tonnage. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the year reached US$378.2 million and the company reported free cash flow of US$186.4 million. The company also made payments of more than US$100 million toward its legacy debt outstanding.  Looking ahead, the company said that it is “near fully-contracted” for 2022 and has entered into long-term coal supply agreements to multiple buyers for about seven million tons to be delivered through 2024, primarily in the industrial market.