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LONDON (Alliance News) - Griffin Mining Ltd Tuesday reported a drop in pretax profit in the first half of 2015, although revenue grew, as it was hit by interest payable on Chinese loans.
The mining company said its pretax profit in the six months ended June 30 fell to USD3.7 million from USD5.8 million, even though revenue grew to USD35.2 million from USD33.2 million.
Griffin said that throughput of 418,950 tonnes of ore at the Caijiaying Mine was up 2.5% on the 408,671 tonnes achieved the year before, while metal in concentrate production benefited from better grades and better lead and gold recoveries.
However, profit was hit largely by USD2.5 million in interest payable on Chinese loans, up from USD1.6 million a year before, as well as from foreign exchange losses and other smaller costs.
"Operationally, the company continues to achieve very good results in light of the current downturn in commodity prices with, period to period, increased zinc, lead, silver and gold production, including record gold output, better grades and good recoveries, all this without the imminent commissioning of the new 1.5 million tonnes per annum processing facilities," Chairman Mladen Ninkov said in a statement.
"Nevertheless, the continuing severe weakness in commodity prices coupled with the fixed cost nature of mining production inevitably means any costs increases, such as the increased regulatory costs in the first half, impact the profitability of the company," he added.
Shares in Griffin Mining were trading down 5.3% at 35.50 pence Tuesday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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