MOSCOW: Russia's biggest gold producer, Polyus Gold, said on Friday it plans further cost cuts this year amid support from a weak ruble and may boost production in the next five years.

While many Russian firms were hit by a 43 percent slump in the ruble against the dollar in 2014, the weaker local currency has supported margins at Polyus by decreasing the dollar value of its ruble-denominated costs, the company said.

Polyus, controlled by businessman Suleiman Kerimov and his partners, said its 2014 earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 11 percent year-on-year to $1.0 billion, beating the consensus forecast of $930 million in a Reuters poll of analysts.

However, the company's bottom line was hit by non-cash losses from derivative financial instruments and investments of $934 million, Polyus added. It posted a loss from continuing operations of $182 million in 2014 compared with a profit of $143 million in 2013.

Polyus was reviewing some of its existing assets, which may bring up to 500,000 troy ounces of gold in additional annual production in the mid-term, it said in a separate statement.

The company may carry out such a production increase by 2020, Vladimir Polin, the company's managing director, told a media conference call on Friday. This year the firm plans to produce between 1.63 million and 1.71 million ounces, compared with 1.70 million ounces in 2014.

Its all-in sustaining cash cost declined by 18 percent to $825 per ounce in 2014 thanks to the weakening ruble, cost optimization and lower sustaining capital expenditures. Such costs are expected to keep falling in 2015, the company said. Polyus is also reviewing its operating plan for the

challenging and costly project to develop one of the world's largest untapped deposits — Natalka in Russia's far east, in which it has already invested $1.2 billion.

On Friday, it said it was sticking to the project and had resumed talks with Chinese firms over a potential partnership for Natalka. It gave no further details.

Shares in Polyus were up 0.6 percent in London, outperforming a flat FTSE Gold Mines Index.