SINGAPORE (Feb 21): CNMC Goldmine Holdings sunk to a net loss of US$1.9 million ($2.7 million) for the 4Q ended Dec from earnings of US$3.3 million a year ago.
This is mainly attributed to lower revenue and an unrealised foreign exchange loss of US$2.3 million in the quarter due to the depreciation of the Malaysian ringgit against the US dollar.
Revenue fell 44.2% to US$5.2 million in 4Q, from US$9.3 million a year ago.
This was due to a 52.5% drop in production and sales volume of fine gold, and partially mitigated by a 17.4% increase in average realised gold price in 4Q.
This brings CNMC to a 14.8% decline in earnings to US$9.1 million for the full year, on the back of a 4.9% fall in revenue to US$34.7 million.
Operating expenses for FY2016 rose 11.5% to US$21.84 million, driven mainly by amortisation costs, management and staff remuneration, royalty and tribute fees, and changes in inventories.
All-in costs of production increased to US$819 per ounce of gold in FY2016, from US$608 for the previous year.
As at Dec 31, 2016, cash and cash equivalents stood at US$27.0 million.
Despite the decline, CNMC says it intends to issue a special dividend of 0.534 cent a share, and a final dividend of 0.2 cent a share.
Together with a first and second interim dividend totalling 0.4 cent distributed in Sept 2016 and Jan 2017, the entire payout for FY2016 will amount to 1.134 cents a share – 20% higher than total dividend of 0.945 cent a year ago.
This will be CNMC’s biggest annual dividend since its public listing in 2011.
“We will double down on efforts to minimise production costs even as we seek to increase our mining activities,” says CNMC CEO Chris Lim.
“Having already paid the entire processing fee for Sokor’s lease extension upfront at one go and barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect our all-in cost to be reduced with the absence of this one-time processing fee payment in future,” Lim adds.
CNMC closed flat at 39.5 cents on Tuesday.
