LONDON (Alliance News) - China-focused miner Griffin Mining Ltd on Thursday said it swung to a loss in 2015 due to production suspensions following the deaths of two employees at the Caijiaying mine.
Griffin said it made a pretax loss USD940,000 for calendary 2015, swung from a USD1.0 million profit the year prior.
Revenue rose to USD59.8 million from USD45.6 million as throughput and production improved enough to offset a 10% decline in average zinc metal in concentrate prices, a 30% decline in silver prices achieved, and a 17% fall in gold prices.
The loss was driven by the group's cost of sales increasing substantially, primarily due to the suspension of operations at the Caijiaying mine the year earlier which meant cost of sales were much lower.
Operations were also suspended twice at Caijiaying in 2015, for a total of three months, following the deaths of a two employees which prompted internal investigations by the company. Full operations resumed in January.
Shares in the company were up 0.3% to 23.94 pence.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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Griffin Mining (GFM)