Miner Kinross quarterly net loss deepens on lower gold price

(Reuters) - Kinross Gold Corp (Toronto:K.TO - News) slid to a deeper net loss in the third quarter on the back of lower margins due to a weaker gold price, but its adjusted loss was slightly ahead of market expectations, results showed on Tuesday.

Toronto-based Kinross said it recorded a net loss of $52.7 million, or 5 cents a share, in the quarter to end-September compared with a loss of $4.3 million, or 0 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.

It reported an adjusted loss of $23.9 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with adjusted net earnings of $70.1 million, or 6 cents a share, a year ago.

Analysts had expected an adjusted loss of 3 cents a share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Kinross, which has mines in the Americas, Russia and Africa, said it was completing early stage engineering work on a possible two-phased expansion at its Tasiast mine in Mauritania to increase grinding capacity.

A feasibility study of the first phase of the expansion, to increase mill throughput capacity to 12,000 tonnes per day from 8,000 tonnes now, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016, the company said in a statement.

(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker)