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Newmont Mining Posts Lower Profit

Newmont Mining Posts Lower Profit
Wed Apr 27, 2005 08:31 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , the world's largest gold producing company, on Wednesday posted a lower first-quarter profit, blaming rising raw material costs and some production disruptions in Indonesia.

Net income was $84 million, or 19 cents per share, compared with $87 million, or 20 cents per share a year ago, the Denver-based company reported.

Analysts on average were expecting earning of 30 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue in the first quarter fell to $961 million from $1.1 billion a year earlier.

For the first quarter of 2005, the company sold 1.99 million ounces of gold on a consolidated basis at an average realized price of $425 per ounce versus sales of 2.28 million ounces at $412 an ounce a year earlier.

But Chief Executive Wayne Murdy said the company was still expecting to perform significantly better in the second half of the year as it began to benefit from new stripping capacity and higher ore grades.

"Our project development efforts are ahead of schedule and we continue to see positive exploration results at Phoenix (Nevada), Minas Conga (Peru) and Ahafo (Ghana)," Murdy said in a statement.

Newmont expects consolidated gold sales in the range of 8.5 to 8.7 million ounces at consolidated costs applicable to sales of $225 to $235 per ounce in 2005.

In addition, it expects consolidated copper sales of 695 million pounds at consolidated costs applicable to sales of 48 cents a pound.

Newmont shares closed at $40.25 on Tuesday, down from a year high of $49.98 last November. In premarket dealings, the stock was down nearly 6 percent to $38.01.


LINK: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=8313583