Hochschild Mining PLC on Wednesday said revenue and profit in 2021 had seen a strong rebound from the impact of Covid in the prior year, aided by higher silver prices.
Hochschild is a London-based gold and silver miner operating in South America.
Revenue for 2022 was up 30% year-on-year to $811.4 million from $621.8 million. This mostly reflects the rise in production after stoppages in 2020 due to the pandemic, as well as higher prices for silver.
Total silver production grew by 24% to 12.2 million ounces, from 9.8 million ounces in the prior year. Gold production was 221,420 ounces, up 26% from 175,240 ounces in 2020. Average realised silver prices were boosted by 12% to $24.9 per ounce, from $22.3 in 2020.
As a result, pretax profit from continuing operations was $137.3 million, more than doubled from $62.9 million in the previous year. This mostly came from higher production and sales, slightly offset by higher costs, namely increased production and exploration costs, new equipment purchases, and development capital expenditure.
Hochschild is targeting production on a 72 times gold-to-silver ratio of 360,000 to 375,000 gold equivalent ounces, and 26.0 million to 27.0 million silver equivalent ounces for 2022.
The mining company proposed a final dividend of 2.3c per share, unchanged from 2020. It had already paid out 1.95c per share as an interim dividend, which was down from 4.0c per share in 2020. It also paid a dividend in specie following the Aclara demerger for a total amount of $94.9 million in December.
Looking ahead, Chief Executive Officer Ignacio Bustamante said: ‘2022 promises to be another year of volatility and the world is not free from the pandemic yet. However, throughout our history, Hochschild has shown an ability to withstand operational, political and social challenges and we believe that we have the correct long-term strategy to generate value for our shareholders today while we transition the company for the future.’
Hochschild’s share price was down 2.9% at 99.29 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
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