(Reuters) - Newcrest Mining Ltd <NCM.AX> reported a 22 percent rise in underlying profit for fiscal 2017, but missed forecasts following a minor earthquake that cut production at its flagship mine in Australia.
Australia's largest independent gold miner reported its full-year underlying profit rose to $394 million, but was short of analysts' estimates between $434 million and $485 million.
The suspension of mining activities after a seismic event in April at the Cadia mine - the company's biggest and lowest-cost source of gold - led to a 55 percent fall in gold output at the mine in the June quarter from the previous quarter.
Newcrest set an annual production target of between 2.4 million and 2.7 million ounces of gold in fiscal 2018, after yielding 2.38 million ounces last year from its mines in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ivory Coast and Indonesia.
(Reporting by James Regan and Christina Martin; Editing by Richard Pullin)
