Quarterly gold production was 551,590 ounces due to a higher level of maintenance activity.

However, it was better than Macquarie Securities’ estimate of 528,000oz gold.

Gold production at Cadia Valley and Lihir was 12% lower due to maintenance, 19% down at Telfer in line with plan and 10% lower at Gosowong due to grade.

Output at Bonikro in Ivory Coast jumped 31% to 29,694oz due to higher grades and Hidden Valley production was slightly higher.

All-in sustaining costs were $A988 an ounce, up 7%, due to a 24% increase in sustaining capital expenditure per ounce and a 15% reduction in by-product credits, partially offset by lower site costs.

The biggest increase in AISC was at Cadia Valley, where costs jumped 52% to $381/oz due to higher sustaining costs and lower copper credits.

Costs at Lihir were slightly higher, while Telfer and Gosowong costs dropped despite lower gold production, while Hidden Valley and Bonikro AISC were also down.

Importantly, AISC across all sites was lower than the average realised gold price for the quarter of $1450/oz.

“Newcrest continues to maintain a sharp focus on cost-reduction initiatives across the entire business,” Newcrest managing director and CEO Greg Robinson said.

“Our year-to-date all-in sustaining cost of $998 per ounce is $285 per ounce lower than last financial year which has enabled us to expand our all-in sustaining cost operating margin to $462 per ounce this quarter despite the lower gold price environment.”

Copper production was slightly lower at 21,012 tonnes.

Newcrest maintained full-year guidance of 2-2.3 million ounces of gold, flagging the final figure to be at the top end of forecasts.

Group AISC is expected to be at or below the lower range of guidance of $2.5-2.7 billion.

The company said guidance for the 2015 financial year would be provided in July when the June quarter and full-year production figures were released.

But it warned that Cadia Valley production was likely to be lower in FY15 than FY14 due to lower grades at Ridgeway which were not expected to continue.

Cadia Valley is currently on track to exceed its FY14 guidance of 480,000-530,000oz.

Newcrest flagged Cadia Valley production to rise to 700,000oz in FY16 and increase again in FY17.

Lihir production is to remain in line with FY14 due to an elevated level of stockpile feed.

Meanwhile, Newcrest chief operating officer Sandeep Biswas will be at the helm for Newcrest’s next set of results, with the company announcing today that his start date in the CEO role will be July 4.

When Biswas was appointed to Newcrest in October, it was expected that he would take over from Robinson in the second half of this year.

Robinson will leave the company on July 4 after 7.5 years.

Newcrest chairman Peter Hay thanked Robinson and said Biswas’ operations background would drive the company’s success.

“In particular, I am confident that Sandeep’s focus on asset utilisation, cost reduction, increasing free cashflow and simplicity of purpose will continue to accelerate the positive performance turnaround we have seen over the past four quarters,” he said.

Biswas is a chemical engineer who began his career at Mount Isa Mines and was most recently CEO of Rio Tinto subsidiary Pacific Aluminium.

Newcrest shares rose 2.5% to $10.27.