OceanaGold PH expects stronger Q3 and Q4

OceanaGold PH [OGP 13.40 ?1.2%; 204% avgVol] [link] and its parent company, OceanaGold Corp (OGC) held a media roundtable on Tuesday to discuss concerns about OGP’s weaker-than-expected Q2 production and provide guidance for what investors could expect for Q3 and Q4. OGC’s COO, Peter Sharpe, said that OGC and OGP “expect Q3 and then Q4 to be stronger than Q2.” The companies confirmed plans for OGP to declare and pay quarterly dividends, and reiterated their confidence in the ability of OGP to maintain a “high level dividend”. OGC said that OGP’s weak Q2 production was caused by unplanned downtime and a reconfiguration of its mine sequence to optimize later output. The companies said that they expect OGP to hit its output target of 120,000 ounces of gold and 14,000 metric tons of copper. As for the prices of those commodities, a representative for OGP said that “there are no indications that prices will go down.”

MB BOTTOM-LINE: I like the involvement of OGP’s parent company and the interest in maintaining an open dialogue on OGP’s first quarter of public results and its first dividend. I especially like that the company put the Powerpoint presentation that it delivered to the media roundtable up on its website [pdf link]. Given how most international parent companies treat their listed PH companies and their investors, this was a welcome breath of fresh air. The only way to make it better is for OGP to post the presentation materials link in a same-day EDGE disclosure. Kudos to management and to the investor relations team for the transparency and investor engagement. One side note on prices: while gold and copper are both in price uptrends, there are simply no guarantees that prices will remain at these levels or reach higher levels. While there are no indications that prices will go down, just remember that a lack of indicators won’t mean anything if/when the prices do start to come down. They’ll just come down. As a lifelong goldbug I’ve been messing with the metal since $500/oz, but while the price is at lifetime highs for me, the path there was anything but straight up.

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