February 16 (SeeNews) - Canada's Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) said on Friday the adjusted earnings before income taxes of its Bulgarian gold-copper mine Chelopech rose to $71.9 million (57.6 million euro) in 2017 from $49.9 million in 2016.
Chelopech's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased to $107.9 million last year from $87.3 million in 2016, DPM said in an annual financial report.
The revenue generated by the Bulgarian mine grew to $206.2 million in 2017 from $161.6 million in the previous year.
Cost of sales rose to $113.7 million last year compared to $108.2 million in 2016, while depreciation costs edged down to $35.4 million from $36.8 million.
In the fourth quarter alone, Chelopech's adjusted earnings before income taxes fell to $17.5 million from $19.2 million, despite a rise in revenue to $57.3 million from $45.5 million.
DPM announced it has decided to increase Chelopech's exploration budget to $14 million in 2018 from $9 million in 2017.
"The increased budget will fund major drilling programs at Chelopech, consisting of 10,000 metres of underground drilling on the Southeast Breccia Pipe Zone and 5,000 metres of surface drilling on the Krasta target, to follow up on 2017 drilling," DPM said.
DPM also said it expects gold output at Chelopech to be between 165,000 and 195,000 ounces in 2018, slightly below the output in 2017.
"This is largely due to higher than anticipated grades in 2017, and grades returning to expected life of mine levels in 2018," DPM said.
($ = 0.8013 euro)