Hummingbird Resources swings to interim loss as production costs rise

Hummingbird Resources reported interim revenue growth on Friday but said it swung to a loss as production costs increased following construction work at its Yanfolila gold mine in Mali.

The gold production, development and exploration company swung to a loss before tax of $5.8m from a profit of $3.5m the year before as production costs rose 17% to $44.9m following the construction of a second ball mill at the Yanfolila site, which is expected to reduce costs through the remainder of the year.

Reported revenue of $67.1m for the six months ended 30 June was a 1% improvement on the same period last year, as production remained steady at 51,273 ounces of gold. Of this, 51,034 ounces were sold at an average price of $1,304 per ounce.

Hummingbird also maintained its 2019 production guidance at 110,000 to 125,000 ounces due to the positive impact of the ball mill.

Chief executive Dan Betts said: "Beyond our current guidance for this year, we are targeting production of around 130,000 ounces of gold per year from 2020 at Yanfolila, a circa. 20% increase from our feasibility study. We plan to continue our recent positive momentum into to the second half of the year and thank everyone who has continued to support us to this point."

Hummingbird Resources shares were up 1.58% at 22.50p at 1243 BST.