Agnico Eagle's Meliadine Mine Attains Commercial Production

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM) announced that its Meliadine mine has achieved commercial production on May 14, 2019.

Notably, the Meliadine project is located in Nunavut, Canada. It was acquired by Agnico Eagle in July 2010 and is its largest gold deposit in terms of mineral resources.

Per management, Amaruq is on schedule for achieving commercial production in third-quarter 2019. The company expects Meliadine to produce around 230,000 ounces of gold in 2019 at total cash costs of $612 per ounce. Agnico Eagle is thus well positioned to achieve gold production target of 1.75 million ounces for year.

Moreover, initial ore processing at the Meliadine mine started in February 2019. Pre-commercial payable gold production totaled 47,281 ounces, down from initial guidance of 60,000 ounces. However, pre-production gold sales were 28,855 ounces.

Total construction costs of the project are below the 2017 guidance of $900 million. The company will provide an update on capital costs during second-quarter 2019.

Agnico Eagle’s shares have lost 8.5% in the past year, against the industry’s 0.2% rise.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Agnico Eagle currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Materion Corporation (NYSE:MTRN) , Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (OTC:FSUGY) and AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU) , all currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Materion has an expected earnings growth rate of 27.1% for 2019. The company’s shares have gained 17% in the past year.

Fortescue Metals has an impressive projected earnings growth rate of 99.3% for the current year. The company’s shares have surged 63.6% in a year’s time.

AngloGold has an estimated earnings growth rate of 85.9% for the current year. Its shares have rallied 34.8% in the past year.

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