Increased plant capacity at its Lihir gold mining operations in Papua New Guinea has helped Newcrest Mining Ltd significantly boost production this year.
In its latest quarterly report, Newcrest has announced its overall production performance for the June 2013 quarter represents a 25% increase in gold production and a 20% increase in copper production over the March quarter.
At Lihir, gold production was 17% higher in the second than in the first quarter.
It comes after Newcrest last month announced an asset write-down of nearly 6 billion US dollars with a primary focus on the company's PNG mining operations at Lihir and in Hidden Valley.
Papua New Guinea's prime minister Peter O'Neill voiced concern at the write-down, offering assistance to safeguard Newcrest's investment.
