By Business Reporter – Friday 6 December 2019
HARARE (Mining Index) – BINDURA nickel output for the half year period to September 30 2019 was down four percent due to lower ore grade achieved but net profit shot up 136 percent from $2.8 million to $6.6 million.
Nickel production at 2 943 tonnes, dropped from last year’s output of 3 076 tonnes. The decline was in line with the lower ore grade achieved, year on year.
“The all-in sustaining cost of producing Nickel in concentrate decreased from U$6 900 per tonne to US$6 574 per tonne. The decrease was a reflection of the on-going efforts to contain operational costs,” said BNC group chairman Muchadeyi Masunda in a statement accompanying the results.
He attributed the 136 percent profit gain to exchange gains and a slump in cost of goods sold (COGS).
“The improvement of 136 percent was anchored on exchange gains and a decrease in the cost of sales which, in turn, was attributable to the on-going efforts to contain costs as demonstrated by the decrease in cash costs, year on year.”
However, the cost of sales of US$16.3 million was 10 percent lower than the comparative figure in the prior year of US$18.0 million.
Revenue increased by 8% to US$28.3 million while gross profit improved by 47 percent to US$12 million against the prior year’s achievement of US$8.2 million.
BNC sold 3 002 tonnes of Nickel in concentrate, compared to 2 980 tonnes sold in the comparative period last year.
The nickel miner sold concentrate containing 3,002 tonnes of nickel relative to 2,980 tonnes for the same period, an increase of 1%. Sales for the second half of last year were 3,430 tonnes.
“An average nickel price of US$9 052 per tonne was realised for the sale of Nickel in concentrate, compared to US$9 001 per tonne achieved in the same period last year. This translated to a turnover for the half-year of US$28.3 million (2018: US$26.2 million),” said Masunda.
Ore mined during the 6 months to 30 September 2019 was 215 338 tonnes while ore milled was 215 728 tonnes.
Head grade was 1.34 percent recorded lower than the year-end figure of 1.64 percent. The decrease is a reflection of the mining mix whereby more of disseminated ore was mined than the massives. Recovery was 86.1 percent, compared to 86.3 percent achieved as at 31 March 2019.
The company’s projects gobbled US$3 million with US$1.2 million spent on shaft re-deepening while New LHDs and New Dumb Trucks consumed US$0, 7 million each.
The Smelter Restart Project remains at 83 percent complete.
The Refinery and Shangani Mine remained under care and maintenance.
No fatalities were recorded at any of our operations or projects during the year. ENDS//
