After markets close Thursday evening, Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) is set to report first-quarter earnings. Analysts have a consensus earnings per share (EPS) estimate of $0.23 on sales of $1.95 billion. That is a bit better than EPS of $0.22 on revenues of $1.76 billion a year ago.

Newmont posted its lowest revenue total in the past 10 quarters in the third quarter of last year. The company’s costs of revenue were also at a five-quarter high in the same period, so it is a wonder the company posted net earnings at all. Then in the fourth quarter, EPS dropped from $0.43 to $0.03, even as gold prices peaked at around $1,300 an ounce in February, a level not seen since last summer. Since early April, gold has traded in a narrow range around $1,200 an ounce.

With costs low, about all Newmont and the other miners can do is rein in costs and try to get better at matching supply to demand. Newmont is getting better at keeping costs under control, but it is not doing an outstanding job, and that is probably what the times demand. At the end of 2014, Newmont’s all-in sustaining costs (cash costs plus capital expenditures needed to maintain current production levels) had dropped by more than $100 an ounce to around $1,000 per ounce. That number needs to continue to decline.

For the trailing 12 months Newmont’s stock price is down 8.65%, which is considerably better than Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO), Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG), or Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX), which are down nearly 19%, 21% and 29%, respectively.

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Newmont’s shares closed at $22.77 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $17.60 to $27.40. The consensus price target on the stock is around $26.10, and based on that closing price the implied gain is about 15%.

Shares traded up about 2.7% at $23.38 in the early afternoon on Thursday.

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