By Anastasia Lyrchikova
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia’s largest gold producer Polyus reported record production and core earnings for 2024 on Wednesday, thanks to higher gold prices, in spite of Western sanctions on Russia and the company.
Gold prices are up more than 11% this year at $2,915.80 an ounce, after rising 27% last year, the precious metal’s best performance in over a decade. Russia had a 9% share of global gold production in 2023, second only to China.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 49% to $5.7 billion, supported by revenue of $7.3 billion, Polyus said. Net income rose 86% year-on-year to $3.2 billion.
“(The) main drivers were higher gold sales volumes and higher gold prices during the reporting period,” Polyus said.
All major Russian gold miners, including Polyus, are under Western sanctions, and the United States, Britain and the European Union banned imports of Russian gold in 2022.
Western sanctions have cut many Russian industrial companies’ access to critical equipment and forced them to look to alternative import sources from countries like China. Polyus is continuing to reconfigure sales channels and find new suppliers, it said.
In December, it blamed the sanctions, which it believes are unjustified, for the near-doubling of development costs at its giant Sukhoi Log gold deposit in Siberia to $6 billion.
The company confirmed plans to pay dividends twice a year, targeting 30% of EBITDA. The board will consider fourth-quarter dividends on March 10, which could amount to about 575 roubles ($6.41) per share, T-Investments analysts calculated.
Polyus beat production guidance to record a 7% increase in output to 3 million ounces in 2024, while sales rose by 11% to 3.1 million ounces.
It expects gold output to fall to between 2.5 million and 2.6 million ounces this year, while capital expenditure is forecast at $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion, up from $1.26 billion in 2024, as it accelerates development of the Sukhoi Log project.
($1 = 89.7000 roubles)
(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; Additional reporting by Felix Light; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Christopher Cushing and Rachna Uppal)
