UPDATE: Newcrest 1st Half Profit Up 148% As CEO Steps Down

The world's third-largest gold miner Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM.AU) said Friday first-half net profit surged 148% to a record 437.8 million Australian dollars ($439.4 million) from the period ending December a year earlier, adding that its chief executive Ian Smith will step down.

The company said that underlying profit, which excludes losses on restructured hedges and costs associated with acquisitions, rose 96% to A$523.1 million from A$266.6 million.

Smith, who took over as head of the company in July 2006, said he was leaving to "pursue other areas of personal interest" and would be handing over to Greg Robinson, the company's executive director finance.

"Newcrest has been through substantial change over the past five years and the threats and opportunities facing the company that were apparent at the start of my tenure have largely been addressed and outcomes delivered," he said in a statement.

Gold has risen to an all-time nominal record over the past year, touching $1,431.30 in early December, while copper and silver, the main by-products from Newcrest's mining operations, have also risen to records in recent weeks.

Newcrest last year completed a takeover of its smaller rival Lihir Gold Ltd., leaving it as the only substantial listed gold company in Australia and putting it into the first division of global gold miners.

The company said the record results were a result of gold production rising 70% over the previous half-year as a result of the acquisition of Lihir's mines and increased production from its mines at Cadia Valley in Australia's New South Wales state, Gosowong on Indonesia's eastern Maluku island, and Hidden Valley in Papua New Guinea.

Newcrest said its revenue rose 66% to A$1.97 billion from A$1.19 billion while a first-half dividend of 10 Australian cents per share, unfranked, was declared, compared to 5 cents at the same time last year.

Chairman Don Mercer said that it was now "the most appropriate time in the company's on-going development for the transition to occur" from Smith to a new chief executive.

Robinson worked in BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP) petroleum and energy divisions in finance roles before joining Newcrest in 2006, prior to which he was a director of investment banking at Merrill Lynch & Co.

A spokeswoman for Newcrest said there was no reason for Smith's departure. "It's just he's been there for five years, and all these things have been achieved and addressed," she said.

-By David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4692; david.fickling@dowjones.com

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