Miner Petropavlovsk strikes gold despite challenges at the top
Petropavlovsk produced 548.1koz of gold last year, a six per cent increase on the previous year, despite a difficult period that saw a bloody boardroom battle and new CEO.
The miner saw an 18 per cent decline to 385.6koz of own gold produced, but a 256 per cent increase to 162.5koz of gold produced from the processing of third-party refractory gold concentrates at its POX Hub, a processing plant.
Total gold sales were up six per cent for the year, while the average realised gold price increased 30 per cent.
Group revenue was up 33 per cent to $988.5m, while underlying EBITDA increased 32 per cent to $350.7m.
However profit for the period decreased to a loss of $48.9m, which the group said was primarily due to the impact of non-cash items, including an impairment of mining, exploration and evaluation assets.
CEO Denis Alexandrov said: “Petropavlovsk delivered a solid financial performance in 2020 despite numerous challenges, with revenue and EBITDA improving substantially year-on-year on the back of a 6 per cent increase in production and higher gold prices.
“Looking ahead, there is much to be addressed to drive improvement across the business in 2021 and beyond. From a cash flow perspective, one of our immediate opportunities is maximising utilisation of the POX Hub using our own refractory gold concentrates to reduce reliance on lower-margin third-party material via the successful on-schedule delivery of two major projects – the Pioneer flotation plant later this year and the Malomir flotation plant expansion next year.”