London-listed gold miner Petropavlovsk Plc posted an IFRS net profit of $11 million in January-June 2012, down 90 percent on with the same period last year, the firm said on Thursday.
Petropavlovsk, Russia’s second-largest gold producer by output, attributed its net profit fall to an increase in debt servicing costs from $15.8 million in the first half of 2011 to $34.6 million in the first half of 2012, with the company’s debt burden doubling over this period to $1.12 billion.
The company’s revenues grew 15 percent year-on-year in January-June 2012 to $546.8 million, including revenues from Petropavlovsk’s iron ore unit IRC, while the average gold selling price rose 13 percent over this period to $1,639 per troy ounce.
Petropavlovsk’s production costs rose 12 percent in the first six months of 2012 to $740 per troy ounce.
The company confirmed its 2012 gold output forecast at 700,000 troy ounces of gold, including 420,000 ounces in the second half of the year.
Petropavlovsk, formerly known as Peter Hambro Mining, has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2002.