UPDATE 3-Newmont beats quarterly profit, production estimates on Newcrest assets boost

(Updates shares to market open in graph 7)

By Seher Dareen

April 25 (Reuters) - Newmont Corp beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Thursday, as the world's largest gold miner benefited from strong production and higher sales.

Separately, the company said operations at its Cerro Negro mine in Argentina have been suspended as a full investigation is being conducted after the death of two members of the workforce on April 9.

Quarterly attributable gold production in the quarter rose to 1.7 million ounces from 1.3 million ounces a year earlier, boosted through sites acquired following its acquisition of Australia's Newcrest A$26.2 billion ($17.06 billion) in November.

Analysts had estimated a production of 1.61 million ounces per LSEG data.

Sales in the quarter were $4.02 billion, compared with $2.68 billion a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the Denver, Colorado-based Newmont posted a net income of 55 cents per share for the quarter ended March 31, compared with the average analyst estimate of 36 cents per share, according to LSEG data.

Shares of the company were up 6.6% in morning trade.

"We view this release as positive to the shares given the EPS beat was mainly driven by better operating performance," Scotiabank analysts wrote in a note.

The company saw higher average gold price at $2,090 per ounce in the January-March quarter from $1,906 a year earlier, as spot prices of the precious metal rose about 8.2%.

All-in-sustaining cost for gold, an industry metric that reflects total expenses associated with production, rose to $1,439 per ounce of gold from $1,376 a year earlier.

The company maintained its 2024 forecasts, with production of 6.9 million ounces of gold at an AISC of $1,400.

($1 = 1.5356 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)