It was strong Q4 gold production at Eldorado's Lamaque mine in Quebec, which benefited from higher than planned gold grades, that drove the strong results.
The miner's total Q4 gold production was 122,644 oz, which compares to 125,459 oz in Q3, and to 125,459 oz in Q4 2020.
Lamaque's production was 51,354 oz in Q4, up 37% quarter-on-quarter, and up 16% year-on-year.
That took Eldorado's total gold production for 2021 to 475,912 oz, which is down from 528,874oz in 2020. The 2021 production was towards the top of guidance of 460,000-480,000oz, which was lifted by about 6% on October 28 following favourable Q3 production.
Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets analyst Carey MacRury said the Q4 production beat CG's forecast of 118,000oz. Likewise, BMO Capital Markets analyst Brian Quast said it was slightly ahead of BMO's forecast of 121,000oz.
"It was a year of significant production execution for Eldorado, which now has two mines producing >150,000 oz/year," Quast said.
Eldorado did not provide an update on its previously announced 2022 production estimate of 430,000-460,000oz.
CG forecasts Eldorado's 2022 production will be 459,000oz and BMO forecast around 470,000oz.
Eldorado's five-year outlook sees its production growing to 510,000-540,000oz by 2025.
"We see significant upside to these figures and forecast production growing to ~700,000 oz/year once Skouries is online," Quast said.
The northern Greece-located Skouries project is expected to have an average annual production of 140,000 oz gold and 67 million pounds of copper over a 20-year mine life, according to a feasibility study released December 15.
Eldorado has mines in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It is listed on the TSX and NYSE.
