3rd Apr 2014 12:07
LONDON (Alliance News) - African Minerals Ltd Thursday said it swung to a pretax loss in 2013 despite first revenues and a jump in production during the period.
The iron ore miner in Sierra Leone posted a pretax loss of USD57.0 million from a pretax profit of USD4.3 million in 2012 as the company was hit by a smaller gain on a non-controlling interest put-option and an increase in finance expenses.
The company said it achieved a fair value gain of USD169.8 million on a put option related to Shandong Iron & Steel Group Co Ltd's acquisition of 25% interest in the company's Tonkolili iron ore project in 2012. That gain was below a similar gain in 2012 of USD288.4 million.
African Minerals said its finance costs were USD85.8 million in 2013, versus none in 2012.
However, the company did note its first revenues of USD869.1 million, with total production of 13.1 million tonnes of iron ore rather than 5.1 million tonnes in 2012, as the company completed the construction of its Tonkolili project in May and began to ramp up production.
African Minerals said its total iron ore shipped almost tripled in 2013 to 12.1 million tonnes from 4.3 million tonnes, and its first quarter production 2014 was 5.3 million tonnes of saleable product with exports of 4.6 million tonnes.
The company said its 2014 forecast sales guidance is 16 million to 18 million tonnes, with C1 cash costs for the full year expected to average USD34-36 per tonne, with further cost savings of USD40 million targeted over 2014.
The firm also said the construction of its first Phase II concentrate facility at Tonkolili is expected to start in the second half with the project ramping up initially to 25 million tonnes per year.
African Minerals shares were down 5.3% to 152.00 pence Thursday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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