November 11 (SeeNews) - Canada's Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) said that it generated lower net profit and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from operations in Bulgaria in the January-September period of 2019.
DPM's Chelopech gold and copper mine, located in central Bulgaria, decreased its net profit to $50.6 million (45.9 million euro) in the first nine months of 2019 from $64.5 million in the same period of last year, the company said in an interim financial statement last week.
The Ada Tepe property, which holds the Krumovgrad open pit gold mine, generated a net profit of $297,000 in the review period compared to a net loss of 526,000 levs the year before. The Krumovgrad mine achieved first commercial production in early June, and reached full operating capacity in September.
DPM's EBITDA from Bulgarian operations fell to $87.9 million in the first three quarters of 2019 from $94.6 million in the comparable period of last year, as EBITDA from the Chelopech mine dropped to $80.1 million from $95.8 million.
In the third quarter alone, DPM's net profit from operations in Bulgaria edged down to $17.5 million from $18.3 million in the same quarter of 2018, while EBITDA increased to $35 million from $28.4 million the year before.
Both the Chelopech and Krumovgrad project remain in line with their 2019 production guidance. In the third quarter, the Chelopech mine achieved gold production of 40,328 ounces and copper production of 10.1 million pounds, while the Krumovgrad mine produced 25,314 ounces of gold.
Chelopech is expected to produce 155,000-187,000 ounces of gold this year, while Krumovgrad is seen producing 45,000-60,000 ounces of gold. The Chelopech mine is also expected to produce 33-39 million pounds of copper in 2019.
($ = 0.9067 euro)