Newmont Mining Corp. rode soaring gold prices to a 46 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit.
Greenwood Village-based Newmont (NYSE: NEM), the largest U.S. gold producer and the second-largest in the world, Thursday posted attributable net income for the most recent quarter of $812 million, or $1.61 a share, up from $558 million, or $1.13 a share, in the final quarter of 2009.
Absent one-time items, earnings were $574 million, or $1.16 a diluted share, up from the year-ago $561 million, or $1.14 a share.
Analysts on average had expected adjusted earnings of $1.14 a share, Thomson Reuters reported.
Revenue for the quarter was $2.55 billion, up 1.2 percent.
Newmont said its average gold sales price in the quarter was $1,366 per ounce, up from $1,102 a year earlier. Copper sold for $4.52 a pound, up from the year-ago $3.24.
For full-year 2010, Newmont posted net income of $2.277 billion, or $4.55 a diluted share, up from $1.297 billion, or $2.66 a share, in 2009.
As for outlook, Newmont lowered its projected 2011 gold production to 5.1 million to 5.3 million ounces, down from its previous guidance of 5.3 million to 5.4 million, citing lower production at the Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia.
On that news, shares fell 7.4 percent in Thursday’s trading, to $54.76.
Newmont announced Feb. 3 that it would acquire Canadian mining company Fronteer Gold Inc. in a cash and stock deal valued at $2.3 billion. The acquisition brings Newmont new assets close to its existing operations in Nevada.
