Equinox says its 2022 gold production of 532,319 ounces was below guidance

Welcome to Kitco News' 2023 Outlook Series. Uncertainty continues to dominate financial markets as central bank monetary policies push the global economy into a recession to cool down inflation. Stay tuned to Kitco News to learn from the experts on how to navigate turbulent financial markets in 2023.

(Kitco News) - Equinox Gold (TSX: EQX) (NYSE: EQX) announced today that the company recorded its strongest production quarter for the year with 150,439 ounces of gold produced in Q4 2022, for full-year 2022 production of 532,319 ounces of gold.

However, Equinox said that full-year 2022 production of 532,319 ounces of gold was below the lower end of production guidance of 550,000 - 615,000 ounces as the result of operational challenges earlier in the year at Los Filos and Aurizona that continued to affect production in the fourth quarter, as forecast in the company's third quarter results release.

The company added that production was further affected by lower-than-expected recoveries at Santa Luz, including during the fourth quarter.

“While operations largely improved during Q4 2022, including at Los Filos and Aurizona, the company continues to work on improving recoveries at Santa Luz and managing costs across the operations, and plans to provide 2023 production and cost guidance in late February,” Equinox noted in a statement.

The company also said it ended the year with approximately $200 million in cash.

President and CEO Greg Smith commented, "Q4 was our strongest production quarter in what was overall a challenging year for the company from an operational perspective, with both inflationary cost pressures and underperformance at some of our mines.

“However, 2022 was also a year of substantial progress. The Greenstone team continued to advance construction of the mine on budget and on track to pour gold in the first half of 2024. We achieved commercial production at our new Santa Luz Mine in Brazil, commenced permitting for the Castle Mountain Phase 2 expansion, advanced the feasibility study and permitting for development of the Aurizona underground deposit, and demonstrated the potential for a significant expansion at Los Filos.”

Equinox Gold is a Canadian mining company with seven operating gold mines, construction underway at a new project, and a plan to achieve more than one million ounces of annual gold production from a pipeline of development and expansion projects.