More than one-third of Oceana's gold production last year came from its Philippines operation, the Didipio mine.
While looking for about $US100 million in operational savings, and at the expense of more than 260 New Zealand jobs so far, production from its South Island and northern Philippine mines all met or exceeded expectations.
Oceana delivered 307,463oz of gold and 25,010 tonnes of copper during calendar 2014, beating its forecast guidance for 275,000 to 305,000oz of gold and up to 24,000 tonnes of copper; the latter being the byproduct from its Didipio gold and copper mine on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
The sale of the copper byproduct offsets the crucial costs to produce each ounce of gold, making Oceana one of the most competitive producers in the gold sector.
Its guidance range for 2015 gold was upped to between 295,000oz and 335,000oz oz, while copper production is expected at 21,000 tonnes to 23,000 tonnes.
While New Zealand production costs are far higher than those in the Philippines, the South Island gold is covered by a forward hedging contract, locking in prices.
''The company continued to deliver on its commitments by further strengthening the balance sheet using strong free cash flow to reduce our core debt by $US30 million in the fourth quarter and by $US60 million for the year, despite a 9% decrease in the average gold price received year on year,'' he said in a statement yesterday.
For 2015, Mr Wilkes expected more ''very strong results''. Higher gold production from both Didipio and New Zealand would again generate significant free cash flow to further strengthen the balance sheet.
Didipio's gold production was a record for the fourth quarter at 27,713oz, and it produced 106,256oz for the year, while the consolidated Macraes and Reefton mines produced 201,207oz for the year.
Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said Oceana had done well in the face of the weak gold prices, and delivered a ''solid result''.
''When [global] gold prices come back, Oceana should be in a good position to take advantage of that,'' he said.
He highlighted that for investors, there were positives to be taken from Oceana being in a position to pay down ''more chunks'' of debt and also boost its cash in hand.
Oceana made a core debt repayment of $US30 million and increased its cash balance to $US51 million.
During all of 2014, $US60 million debt was repaid, which over two years totals about $US124 million in repayments.
Mr Wilkes said ''sector-leading'' all-in sustaining costs, for consolidated New Zealand and Philippine operations was $US785; while New Zealand alone was $US1255 but the Philippines negative $US103 per ounce; which reflects to importance of the copper offset contribution.
Didipio produced a record 6747 tonnes of copper in the quarter to December, the result of a record mill feed of 870,617 tonnes of ore, and higher grades within that tonnage.
Oceana plans to switch from diesel generation to electricity there in the third quarter of the year, and expects operating costs to reduce by $US10 million to $US12 million.
New Zealand operations achieved guidance forecasts, and a more than 40% boost to the previous quarter's production, at 57,929oz, was achieved with higher production from Reefton.
Forsyth Barr broker Andrew Rooney said Didipio mine had again exceeded output expectations and the higher production was to continue this year.
''The Otago and Reefton outputs were in line with expectations and, overall, Oceana continues to be one of the lower-cost producers,'' he said.
He highlighted Oceana had further reduced debt during 2014, having now paid down $US124 million in the past two years.
He said the global price of gold had climbed off its 12-month low since November, now trading around $US1277.20 an ounce.
Oceana Gold
• In its 25th year of production from Macraes, in East Otago.
• Expects last year's 2014 strong production of gold and copper to be even better during 2015.
• More than 4 million ounces produced to date.
