Australia's biggest gold miner Newcrest Mining has notched up positive production and cost numbers for the second straight quarter as it tries to turn around its flagging fortunes.
The group also received a better gold price, due largely to a falling Australian dollar, of $A1,556 an ounce on average during the three months to March, up from $A1,402 in the previous quarter.
Newcrest also kept its total costs relatively flat at $A1,059 an ounce.
Maintaining that was a significant positive with the falling currency, as their US dollar costs fell to $US834 an ounce from $US909.
Newcrest chief executive Sandeep Biswas took the helm last July following two years of multi-billion dollar losses, much of it related to writedowns and costs at the troubled PNG Lihir mine, high debt and a scandal involving breaching disclosure laws.
Newcrest sold more than half of its one-third stake in gold miner Evolution Mining for about $A106 million during the quarter.
"Newcrest continued to pay down debt from free cash flow generated in the period, including the proceeds from the partial sale of our stake in Evolution," Mr Biswas said.
"Lihir showed some improvement in the quarter as part of a staged and structured improvement strategy focusing on plant reliability, stability and intensity."
Newcrest produced 610,186 ounces of gold, up from 577,110 in the December quarter.
That included an increase in gold production relating to the continued ramp-up of the Cadia East mine in NSW and increased production from Bonikro in Côte d'Ivoire and Lihir.
The company's inability to hit production targets has been a problem in recent years, drawing criticism from investors and analysts.
Gold production guidance was unchanged at 2.3 million to 2.5 million ounces, with 1.75 million ounces produced after nine months, while copper production guidance was increased slightly to 95,000 tonnes to 105,000 tonnes.
Morningstar senior analyst Mathew Hodge said the environment was far better for gold miners than two years ago, with the price now stable as Newcrest pulled out costs and improved margins.
"It is largely a fixed cost business so the cheapest ounce of gold is the last one you produce," he told AAP.
"So you always want to try and keep production as high as you can for the capacity that you have got."
It has cut guidance for capital expenditure for the year by more than 10 per cent to $A585 million to $A625 million, which it said reflected efficiencies, a lower cost environment in Australia and the Cadia East mine's capital expenditure coming in below expectation.
Newcrest shares fell 50 cents, or 3.4 per cent, to close at $14.10, weighed down by falls in the gold price overnight.
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