Russia’s Polymetal beats guidance, produces 1.7Moz of gold in 2021
Russia’s gold mining company Polymetal, a top-10 global gold and silver producer, has reported that its gold equivalent production amounted to 1,677 Koz in 2021, a 2% increase y-o-y and 5% above the original production guidance of 1.6 Moz.
On an specific metal basis, Polymetal produced 1,422 Koz of gold (up 1% on 2020) and 20.4 Moz of silver (up 8% on 2020). Significantly, the company said that its Q4 2021 output grew by 24% y-o-y to 467 Koz of gold equivalent (“GE”), driven by concentrate stockpile release at Kyzyl, high grades at Dukat and first production from Nezhda.
The company expects its full-year 2021 total cash costs to be within the original guidance of US$ 700-750/GE oz, while all-in sustaining cash costs to be approximately 5% above the upper end of the guidance range of US$ 925-975/GE.
Polymetal added that revenue in 2021 was stable y-o-y at US$ 2.9 billion, while Q4 revenue was down 6% y-o-y to US$ 0.8 billion on the back of lower commodity prices. The lag between silver production and sales originating from very strong December production at Dukat will be closed in H1 2022.
The company said it reiterates its current production guidance of 1.7 Moz of GE for FY2022 and 1.75 Moz of GE for FY2023, and added that its operations in Kazakhstan have not been affected by recent events.
Polymetal also expects that total cash costs to be in the range of US$ 850-900/GE oz, an increase of approximately 20% versus 2021 primarily driven by inflationary pressures, whereas all-in sustaining costs in 2022 are expected to average US$ 1,100-1,200/GE oz.
Polymetal International is a top-10 global gold and silver producer with assets in Russia and Kazakhstan.
