Cambior Inc. reported a higher second-quarter profit on Thursday as strong gold prices more than offset lower production.

Cambior, a Montreal-based company with mines in Canada, Suriname and Guyana, said it earned $7.1 million, or 3 cents a share, in the three months ended June 30. That compared with a profit of $1 million, or nil a share, in the same period a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn 5 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company produced 129,100 ounces of gold in the quarter, down from 172,000 ounces last year, due to lower output from its Rosebel mine in Suriname and because its Omai mine in Guyana stopped producing in September 2005.

It cost the company $326 to produce an ounce of gold, up from $273 last year due to higher energy costs.

Cambior realized an average selling price of $584 an ounce, compared with $400 last year.