CdA Mines’ output booming

Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. on Thursday reported record-setting revenue during its highest silver production quarter ever, the third quarter of 2009, and a tripling of gold production.

But the company’s net loss grew.

Revenue vaulted to $89.8 million, up from $36.5 million in the third quarter of 2008. The revenue gains were offset by a doubling of production costs and sharply higher depreciation, which yielded a net loss of $17.3 million, or 23 cents per share.

In the 2008 third quarter, the loss was $4 million, or 7 cents per share.

Operating cash flow multiplied to $23 million, up from $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2008.

Silver production increased 86 percent to 5.2 million ounces, and gold output to 29,000 ounces, most of both from new mines in Bolivia and Mexico.

Chairman Dennis Wheeler said the start of operations at the Kensington Mine in Alaska in the second half of 2010, and additional output from the Bolivian and Mexican mines, should allow Coeur d’Alene Mines to build on progress made this year.

A government-ordered halt of work on parts of the San Bartolomé mine in Bolivia, pending an election next month, should not be a long-term impediment, Wheeler said, as the Bolivian president and mining cooperatives in the region support Coeur d’Alene Mines’ operation.

San Bartolomé is the world’s largest pure silver mine.