One of the best performers on the ASX 200 in morning trade has been the Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) share price.
At the time of writing the gold mining giant's shares are up almost 4% to $24.40.
Why is the Newcrest Mining share price on the rise?
As well as getting a boost from another lift in the spot gold price to US$1,311 an ounce, this morning Newcrest released its second quarter update which revealed a solid jump in production and cost improvements.
According to the release, Newcrest achieved gold production of 655,000 ounces during the quarter, which was a 19% increase on the previous quarter. This was driven by record quarterly gold production of 239,000 ounces from its Cadia operation.
Copper production was also strong at 27,000 tonnes, up 8% on the September quarter.
Pleasingly, all sites achieved a reduction in their all-in sustaining costs (AISC), with Cadia once again the star of the show with a record low quarterly AISC of US$121 an ounce.
This helped drive Newcrest's overall AISC down US$58 an ounce to US$720 an ounce during the quarter.
Combined with a slight rise in its average selling price, Newcrest's group AISC margin improved US$74 an ounce to US$515 an ounce.
Newcrest's managing director and chief executive officer, Sandeep Biswas, was pleased with the company's performance considering the decline in gold and copper prices over the last 12 months.
He said: "Record production at Cadia and another sound performance from Lihir underpinned a strong start to the financial year, with a higher AISC margin than the same time last year despite lower gold and copper prices. Our first half production performance establishes a great platform from which to deliver strong results for the remainder of the financial year."
No change was made to the company's guidance for the rest of FY 2019.
Should you invest?
If you believe that the gold price is going higher then Newcrest could be a great option along with industry peers Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) and St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM).
But if you're like me and not convinced it will climb meaningfully higher from here, then you may want to sit tight and wait for a better entry point.
