(Alliance News) - Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk PLC on Friday said profit in the first half soared on an increase in gold production, as well as a higher average realised gold price.
Pretax profit more-than-doubled to USD16.5 million in the six months to June 30 from USD7.2 million a year before. Revenue of USD522.7 million was up 71% from USD305.3 million a year prior.
Chair James Cameron said this was due to increased gold production and higher prices.
Gold production in the first half jumped 42% year-on-year to 320,600 ounces from 225,000 ounces. The average realised gold price for the half was USD1,640 per ounce, up 38% from USD1,286 a year before.
Gold sales were up 39% to 312,200 ounces from 225,000 a year prior.
Total group production guidance for the full year has been lowered to between 560,000 ounces and 600,000 ounces from the previous forecasts of between 620,000 ounces and 720,000 ounces. The company said the previous figures "proved to be overly optimistic", particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new production guidance assumes that there will be no further significant disruption arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Going forward, Petropavlovsk will focus on "delivering greater value for all shareholders" by reducing costs, improving controls and raising standards of governance across the company, Cameron said.
Petropavlovsk has not declared a dividend for eight years.
He added that the company is making good progress on strengthening its governance and reiterated its commitment to the UK corporate governance code.
This follows accusations in late June by JSC Uzhuralzoloto group of companies, a 22% stakeholder in Petropavlovsk and mining rival, that Petropavlovsk's interim board did not meet the criteria for independence as set out in the UK corporate governance code.
In late June, Petropavlovsk announced the election of a new chair, chief executive and two directors, but said it believed the voting outcome was engineered by UGC in a bid to gain control of the company.
Maksim Meshcheryakov joined as interim head of Petropavlovsk after the removal of seven Petropavlovsk directors, including chief executive and co-founder Pavel Maslovskiy. More recently, Petropavlovsk said last week that Russian police were investigating Meshcheryakov over an incident of forced entry into the company's Moscow office, which some employees and ex-employees were preventing him from accessing.
Petropavlovsk shares were down 4.7% at 26.15 pence each in London on Friday morning.
By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com
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