The St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM) share price looks set to finish the week on a very disappointing note.
In morning trade the leading gold producer's shares are down a sizeable 9% to a 52-week low of $2.48.
This latest decline means the St Barbara share price has lost over 45% of its value in 2019.
Why is the St Barbara share price down 9% today?
Investors have been hitting the sell button after the gold producer announced a revision to its production guidance for FY 2019.
As you might have guessed from the share price reaction, the company has made a downward revision to its guidance.
According to the release, consolidated gold production guidance for FY 2019 is now approximately 355,000 ounces. This compares to its previous guidance of between 365,000 ounces and 375,000 ounces.
Why has St Barbara downgraded its production?
The production guidance downgrade has been driven by issues at St Barbara's key Gwalia mine.
Management revealed that a temporary blockage in the paste reticulation circuit to the underground workings has impacted the sequential mining schedule and delayed mining of one particular stope until July 2019.
In light of this one-month delay, Gwalia gold production is now expected to be approximately 220,000 ounces in FY 2019. Previously management had anticipated production in the range of 235,000 ounces to 240,000 ounces.
One positive, though, is that the company's Simberi operation continues to perform well. It is now expected to achieve the high end of its production guidance range of 130,000 ounces to 135,000 ounces in FY 2019.
Elsewhere in the industry a number of gold miners such as Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) and Resolute Mining Limited (ASX: RSG) have pushed higher after the spot gold price hit a two-week high overnight.
This has led to the S&P/ASX All Ords Gold index rising by a solid 1.6% this morning.
