With this strong bottom-line performance, Kirkland Lake is also growing its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.1875 a share, which will come into effect with the fourth quarter dividend payout. The miner returned $141.9 million in cash to shareholders over the course of the third quarter, with $107.4 million used to repurchase 2.2 million shares, and $34.5 million used for a July dividend.
With 1 million oz. of gold churned out in the first three quarters of the year, Kirkland Lake expects to meet its updated (revised in June, following covid-19 impacts) production guidance of 1.35 million oz. to 1.4 million oz.
The Holt complex in Ontario, part of the strategic alliance agreement signed with Newmont in August, was designated as a non-core asset in February and operations were suspended in April.
“We continued to generate solid results in Q3 2020 and have entered the final quarter of (the) year well positioned to achieve our full-year 2020 production guidance,” Tony Makuch, the company’s president and CEO, said in a release.
Makuch added that Detour Lake, led the company’s year-on-year production growth. Fosterville also posted strong performance, as recent investments into ventilation and paste fill allowed the company to increase mining rates and utilize spare capacity within the Fosterville mill. Output from Macassa, which produced 38,028 oz., was affected by factors related both to covid-19 related protocols, as well as due to reduced equipment availability, from high temperatures in the mine, and by unplanned mill downtime.
According to Makuch, Macassa is already producing higher-grade ore, with expected improved results going forward. However, Kirkland Lake expects this asset to miss its 2020 production guidance of 210,000 oz. to 220,000 oz. The company plans to provide updated guidance for each operation with its full third quarter financial and operating results, which will be issued on Nov. 5.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
