By Ryan Dube
LIMA, Peru--Peruvian precious-metals mining company Compania de
Minas Buenaventura SA reported a net loss of $288.4 million in the
fourth quarter of 2013, compared with a net income of $154.1
million in the year-earlier period.
The company said late Thursday its fourth-quarter results were
hurt by a $453.3 million noncash impairment from its minority-owned
Yanacocha gold mine.
Buenaventura has a 43.65% stake in Yanacocha, while Newmont
Mining Corp. has a 51.35% interest. The International Finance Corp.
owns the remaining stake.
Buenaventura is Peru's largest publicly traded precious-metals
company. Peru is a major global producer of gold and silver.
Buenaventura's fourth-quarter results were also negatively
affected by lower metal prices, which had hurt previous quarterly
results in 2013. The company said its revenue totaled $292 million
in the fourth quarter, down from $411.6 million in the year-ago
quarter.
The fourth-quarter net loss resulted in the company posting a
loss of $101.7 million for the full-year 2013, compared with a net
income of $703.6 million in 2012.
Buenaventura said its net sales in 2013 totaled $1.29 billion,
compared with $1.56 billion in the prior year.
The company said its equity gold production in 2013, including
the Yanacocha mine, was 895,345 ounces, compared with 1.03 million
ounces in 2012. Buenaventura said silver production totaled 18.9
million ounces in 2013, up from 18.3 million ounces in the prior
year.
Buenaventura Chief Financial Officer Carlos Galvez recently said
the company expects to produce about 900,000 ounces of gold and
about 20 million ounces of silver in 2014.
Write to Ryan Dube at ryan.dube@wsj.com
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