Gold miner Lihir Gold Ltd
(ASX:LGL) says it has made a US$301 million loss for the half year to June 30 due to an impairment charge related to its Ballarat operations.
The result was impacted by a one-off charge of US$409.1 million after tax, associated with the write-down of its Ballarat assets.
The company says underlying profit was a record US$154.9 million, up 130 per cent from $67.4 million the year before.
CEO Arthur Hood says the strong underlying result reflect a continued outstanding performance at the company’s cornerstone asset of Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea.
Lihir says the outlook for the remainder of 2009 is for continued solid production from its three producing mines, taking full year production to between 1 and 1.2 million ounces.
Lihir Gold pulled itself out of the red to post a profit of US$109.3 million in 2008.
