MELBOURNE, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Newcrest Mining Ltd (NCM), Australia's top gold miner, quadrupled its half-year underlying profit on the back of stronger gold prices, cost cuts and higher volumes, with a sharp improvement at its Cadia mine.
Underlying profit shot up to $273 million for the six months to December from $63 million a year earlier, in line with analysts' forecasts between $260 million and $282 million.
It was helped by a 15 percent rise in the average gold price it fetched and a 2 percent rise in volumes, following a strong improvement in mill throughput at the Cadia mine in Australia, which was hit last year by a long outage to fix a mill motor.
"We remain on track to achieve our annual guidance for the fourth year in a row," Newcrest Chief Executive Sandeep Biswas said in a statement.
The company expects to produce 2.35 million to 2.6 million ounces of gold and 80,000 to 90,000 tonnes of copper in the year to June 2017.
Newcrest said it would pay an interim dividend of 7.5 cents a share, in line with what it paid at the full year last year when it reinstated its dividend after two years of not paying one. Analysts are expecting a total dividend payout of 17 cents a share for this financial year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Newcrest's shares rose 1.9 percent in early trade after the results were announced, outpacing gains in the broader market.
