(Reuters) –Canadian miner Barrick Gold (NYSE) Corp announced Wednesday that its fourth quarter production increased 10% sequentially. This was due to strong performances at its Carlin-Cortez Nevada mines.

As concerns about inflation and Omicron coronavirus supported gold’s safety-haven appeal, the prices of gold rose 4% in the fourth quarter.

From 1.09 million ounces quarter ago, the company recorded a total preliminary gold production of 1.20million ounces for its quarter ended December 31, compared to 1.09 million.

Toronto-based miner said that production in the current quarter reached 126 million pounds. This is 26% more than in the previous quarter.

Barrick is expected to publish its fourth quarter results on February 16th. It stated that it expected its all-in sustain costs (AISC for gold), which are key industry metrics, to drop between 4% to 6% from its third quarter.

An increase in Copper’s AISC from the last quarter is anticipated to be between 11%-13%

Barrick reported that its first full-year production of gold and copper was 4.44 millions ounces, and 415,000,000 pounds, respectively.

The company had previously forecast full year gold production of 4.40 to 4.70 millions ounces, and copper output of between 410 to 460million pounds.