UPDATE 2-Gold miner Kinross forecasts brighter 2016 production, costs

(Reledes with 2016 outlook, adds comments from CEO interview)
By Susan Taylor
TORONTO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Kinross Gold Corp K.TO ,
squeezed by slumping prices and production declines, expects to
shake off a money-losing 2015 with record output and lower costs
this year, the world's fifth-largest producer by output said on
Wednesday.
Chief Executive Paul Rollinson said the Toronto-based miner
is "running a tight ship" that reflects a disciplined approach
to capital, operations and acquisitions.
Kinross expects record 2016 production of 2.7 million to 2.9
million ounces of equivalent gold at an all-in sustaining cost
of $890 to $990 an ounce. Capital expenditure is forecast at
approximately $595 million.
In 2015, the company produced 2.59 million ounces, at the
high end of its forecast of 2.5 million to 2.6 million ounces,
at an all-in cost of $975 per ounce.
Rollinson said he's not relying on a recent rally in gold
prices to continue. "The gold price has been great in the last
couple of weeks, but it's a volatile world out there," he said
in an interview.
Gold XAU= on Wednesday hovered below a 7-1/2 month high of
$1,200 an ounce, touched on Monday, as investor appetite for
safe-haven assets are fed by sliding stock markets and global
economic worries. The spot price on Wednesday was $1,196.91 an
ounce.
Kinross continues to mull a two-step expansion of its
Mauritania mine, Tasiast, and expects to report in late March
the costs for a second phase of development, Rollinson said.

The company estimated proven and probable mineral reserves
at 34 million ounces of gold at year-end, and said additions
largely offset depletion during the year.
In its fourth quarter, Kinross recorded an adjusted loss of
$68.8 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with an adjusted
loss of $6 million, or 1 cent a share, in the same period the
previous year.
Analysts had expected an adjusted loss of 4.8 cents a share,
according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
During the quarter, Kinross produced 623,716 equivalent
ounces of gold at its 10 mines in North and South America,
Africa and Russia, at an all-in sustaining cost of $991 per
ounce.
That was down from 672,051 ounces in the same period the
previous year due to low rainfall at its Paracatu mine in
Brazil, when production costs were $1,006.