Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. of stockbroker-businessman Felipe Yap said its net loss widened by 84.5 percent to P301.3 million in the first half of the year from only P100.1 million in the same period last year.
Revenues rose by only 2.46 percent to P816.7 million due to better gold price and the weaker peso vis-a-vis the US dollar.
However, higher costs and lower production resulted in a larger net loss for the company.
Metal production consisted of 8,131 ounces of gold and 25,555 ounces of silver versus last year’s 8,649 oz of gold and 34,100 oz of silver.
Gold price averaged $1,870.20 per oz as against $1,796.56/oz a year ago while silver price averaged $22.96/oz versus $26.03/oz.
Total cost and expenses jumped by 18 percent to P1.12 billion from P955 million due to higher cost of all materials.
Lepanto, which is focused on producing gold from its Victoria and Teresa deposits, said it is implementing various cost-cutting measures which have so far shown good results in terms of higher metal recoveries and lower production costs in the past few weeks.
The company intends to raise capital to support operations, reduce payables and undertake exploration of its gold and copper deposits and mine development.