(Reuters) -Canadian miner Barrick Gold said on Tuesday its gold production rose sequentially in the second quarter, helped by increased production at Turquoise Ridge in Nevada and expansion at the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea.
The Porgera mine was placed on care and maintenance in April 2020 following a dispute over benefit-sharing terms between the government, local people and Barrick during negotiations for renewal of the mining lease.
The company’s total preliminary output was 948,000 ounces of gold for the quarter ended June 30, up from 940,000 ounces in the first quarter.
Barrick said it expects all-in sustaining costs (AISC) per ounce of gold, an industry metric that reflects total expenses, to rise about 1% to 3% from the previous quarter’s $1,474 per ounce, but expects a drop in the second half of 2024 as production ramps up.
The Toronto-based miner said its quarterly copper production was also up at 43,000 tonnes, compared with 40,000 tonnes in the first quarter, helped by higher grades and recoveries at Lumwana in Zambia, following planned maintenance shut down in the previous quarter.
(Reporting by Tanay Dhumal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)