GV Gold boosts Q1 RAS earnings 30% to 2 bln rubles
MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - OJSC Vysochaishy (GV Gold) boosted net profit to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) 30% year-on-year to nearly 2 billion rubles in Q1 2016, the gold miner said in a report.
Sales revenue grew 16% to 3.691 billion rubles.
GV Gold financial highlights to RAS ('000 rubles):
| Q1 2016 | Q1 2015 | Change | |
| Sales revenue | 3 691 436 | 3 179 291 | 16% |
| Cost of sales | (1 110 286) | (1 033 273) | 7% |
| Gross profit | 2 581 150 | 2 146 018 | 20% |
| Operating profit | 2 393 572 | 2 000 626 | 20% |
| Profit before tax | 2 502 791 | 1 924 626 | 30% |
| Net profit | 1 999 858 | 1 537 903 | 30% |
| Total debt at end of period | 3 388 276 | ||
| - long-term borrowings | 2 535 285 | ||
| - short-term borrowings | 852 991 | ||
| Cash and cash equivalents | 693 824 |
Total debt fell 7% during Q1 2016, with long-term debt falling 17% and short-term debt rising 38%. Cash and cash equivalents grew 78%.
GV Gold said in the report that it planned to upgrade equipment at its Nos. 2, 3 and 4 gold recovery plants and to design and build a new, No. 5 plant, at the Ugakhan field in the Irkutsk region. "Downstream capacity should increase to 6 million tonnes of ore per year from 2018. This growth will be achieved by commissioning the No. 5 recovery plant, capacity 2.6 million tpy, at Ugakhan deposit and expanding the No. 4 plant at the Ykanskoye field to 0.3 million tpy. Overall gold production by then will be around 6.2 tonnes (198,000 oz) per year," GV Gold said.
GV Gold is also planning an extensive exploration program in 2016, including, in the Irkutsk region's Bodaibo district, follow-up exploration of the southeastern flank of the company's flagship Golets Vysochaishy field; exploration of the flanks of the Ykanskoye and Ozherelye deposits; prospecting drills at the Patomsky section and continuation of exploration at the Krasny field. In Yakutia, the company plans to continue geological work at the promising Terassovoye, Peresheyek and Severny sections of the Drazhnoye field.
GV Gold is one of Russia's ten biggest gold producers. It produced 181,000 oz of gold last year.
GV Gold chairman and Lanta Bank CEO Sergei Dokuchayev, company board director and Lanta Bank deputy CEO Natalya Opaleva and company board director and LT-Resurs CEO Valerian Tikhonov each own 20.36% of shares in GV Gold; BlackRock holds 17.99%; the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) owns 5.26%; Vladimir Kochetkov, a member of the GV Gold board of directors, owns 5.46%; Cyprus-based Brishurt Ltd owns 6.37%; CEO Sergei Vasilyev holds 0.91%, and 2.95% of the shares are held in Treasury.