First-quarter earnings dropped slightly for Equity Silver Mines (TSE), falling to $4.5 million on revenues of $25.9 million, compared with the previous year’s earnings of $5 million on revenues of $27.6 million. The company noted that increased silver and gold sales volumes and a higher gold price were more than offset by lower silver and copper prices as well as lower copper sales volumes. As a result of higher grades, silver and gold volumes were up 16% and 14% respectively.
Particularly beneficial to Equity has been its past forward production sales which contributed revenues of $2.6 million over and above those that would have been realized had the company sold the production at spot prices.
Equity currently has a total of 2.5 million oz. of silver production sold forward at an average price of US$7 per oz. and 38,500 oz. of gold sold forward at an average price of US$441 per oz. The forward sales cover the period to November, 1991, but do not cover the company’s entire production. In 1989 Equity produced 7.01 million oz. of silver and 57,200 oz. of gold.
A study of post-closure costs, although not finalized, has indicated that the total liability will be in the order of $30 million versus the $20 million estimated by the company in 1989. Equity has therefore increased its annual provision to $9 million from $5 million. Equity Silver Mines (TSE) $000s except per share items First quarter
ended Mar. 31 1990 1989 Revenue $25,900 $27,600 Net earnings 4,500 5,000
per share 0.14 0.15004
Be the first to comment on "Equity Silver Mines earnings drop"