SYDNEY, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Australia's largest gold miner Newcrest Mining's full-year underlying profit has slipped 24 percent to 323 million U.S. dollars as lower gold and copper prices and the closure of some of its mines, weighed down on the results.
The company announced on Monday that its net profit of 332 million U.S dollar for the year to June 30, slipped by 12 percent.
"Newcrest's financial performance in the 2016 financial year was solid, with all sites contributing positive free cash flow and the group achieving a 27 percent reduction in net debt," Newcrest managing director and chief executive officer Sandeep Biswas said in a statement to the ASX.
"The resulting improvement in Newcrest's target financial metrics, together with Newcrest's profitability and market conditions, has given the board confidence to announce a final unfranked dividend of 7.5 U.S. cents per share," he said.
For the 2017 financial year, Newcrest is forecasting the same as what it produced in the previous year with gold production in the range of 2.4-2.65 million ounces and copper production in the range of 80,000 and 90,000 tonnes.
