(Adds details on AISC guidance hike, project downtimes)
April 27 (Reuters) - Australia's Northern Star Resources said on Thursday third-quarter gold sales dropped 10.1%
from the prior quarter and raised unit cost expectations due to
downtime at its major projects.
The miner, set to be the biggest Australian gold miner if
Newcrest Mining's buyout by Newmont Corp is
successful, halted its Pogo operations in Alaska, U.S., for
three weeks to repair a mill motor.
However, this was shorter than the six-week halt it had
initially expected. The project resumed production in early
April.
Along with mill downtime at its Kalgoorlie operations in
Western Australia, it led the company to raise its guidance for
All-in Sustaining Cost, a measure of unit costs, to between
A$1,730 and A$1,760 per ounce from A$1,630 to A$1,690 for the
fiscal year.
However, full-year production guidance was left unchanged at
1.6 million ounces to 1.7 million ounces. The company sold
363,000 ounces of gold in the quarter ended March 31 compared
with 404,000 oz in the December quarter.
(Reporting by Harshita Swaminathan; Editing by Shailesh Kuber
and Arun Koyyur)
