Sibanye Gold expects a trebling of earnings for 2016, driven by a higher gold price and the inclusion of platinum for the first time, but problems at its Cooke 4 mine, which will be flooded, contributed to a large reduction in its full-year gold output forecast.Sibanye, the largest producer of South African gold, said on Thursday that its earnings per share for the year to end-December would be at least 300% higher than the 79c per share in 2015, coming in at more than 237c.Sibanye lowered its full-year gold output target to 48,500kg, or 1.56-million ounces, from the 50,000kg target set at mid-year, while all-in sustaining costs would rise to R460,000/kg from R425,000/kg. Sibanye’s shares fell more than 7% on the production update, making it the largest decline among SA’s four major JSE-listed gold producers.The Cooke 4 shaft was expected to produce more than 2,000kg of gold a year, offsetting water-pumping costs of R150m a year, with proceeds from uranium extraction and sales from ...
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