Miner Newcrest has maintained its full-year production forecasts after December quarter gold and copper production rose from the preceding three months.
Newcrest produced 492,906 ounces of gold in the three months to December 31, up from 460,425 ounces in the three months to September 30. Gold production from its Telfer mine in the East Pilbara rose from 110,372 ounces in the September quarter to 128,995 in the final three months of 2012.
The company reported a decrease in Copper production from the mine, however, which it said had helped reduce cash costs from the mine from $939 per ounce to $912.
The company produced 19,926 tonnes of copper in the December quarter, up from 18,598 tonnes in the September quarter.
"The company's gold and copper production is expected to progressively increase over the remainder of the financial year," Newcrest said in a statement on Thursday.
It maintained its full-year forecast for gold and copper production, but said gold would be at the lower end of the range of 2.3 million to 2.5 million ounces.
Copper production is expected to be in the range of 75 thousand tonnes to 85 thousand tonnes.
Newcrest said its costs were marginally higher in the three months to December, as mining and milling activity increased, but it expects them to reduce over the second half of the 2012/13 financial year as volumes at its Cadia East and Lihir operations increase.
Newcrest operates mines in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Ivory Coast.
Its major assets are the the Lihir project in PNG, the Cadia Valley mine in central western NSW and the Telfer mine in Western Australia.