Gold miner Newcrest Mining Ltd sent out its financial report on Tuesday, with varying results, where the company outlined its record production for the December quarter and its decision to nudge back a bit the firm's full year gold production guidance.

The miner said that its precious metal output spiked by seven percent during the last quarter of 2010 amidst the heavy downpours that had hit its Australian project sites and the uncertain political environment that partly threatened its West African operations.

Overall, Newcrest said that its production activities soared save for its Queensland mining project in Mt Rawdon. That downside conspired with Australian wet weathers and African political instability, causing the company slice its full year production guidance from a high of 3.0 million ounces to just between 2.85 million and 2.95 million ounces.

The company's copper production guidance was also downgraded from the maximum output of 86,000 ounces to just between 75,000 ounces and 80,000 ounces, which Newcrest partly blamed to the shutting down of its Bonikro site.

For each month that the Bonikro processing plant is closed, Newcrest is bleeding up to 8000 ounces of gold though the company is optimistic that by February, its operations will resume which should be followed soon by the restart of the project's mining activities.

Also, Newcrest said that some 21,000 ounces of gold were lost in the December quarter due to the incessant rains that lashed the south-eastern part of Australia, where much of the company's gold diggings are concentrated.

Heavy downpours that hit Newcrest's mining sites in New South Wales and Queensland resulted to the production losses in the quarter and that figure could soar by as much as 20,000 ounces more as access to high-grade ore at Cadia Hill became more difficult.

In spite of the mixed results, analysts said that Newcrest was able to deliver remarkable figures especially for its gold production, thanks much to its major mines in Lihir, Telfer and Gosowong.

For the December quarter, Newcrest saw its gold cash costs declining by 10 percent to $440 as against to the figures recorded in the previous quarter while its copper production slid by 25.8 percent to 17,712 tonnes when compared to output from the same period in 2009.