Metals developments and exploration group Champion Iron [ASX:CIA] unleashed an investor presentation and shared results for Q4 of fiscal 2023.
The group declared a dividend of 10 cents per ordinary share and said earnings per share averaged 39 cents in the quarter.
CIA was mostly flat after sharing its reports, trading for $6.10 per share.
It’s been hovering in the red this year so far, tracking at 16.5% below and 20% below in the last 12 months. The same can be said for its performance versus the wider market:
Source: TradingView
Champion’s Q4 and annual results
Reporting from Montreal earlier this morning, Champion Iron provided an array of highlights for its performance in operations and finance over the course of the FY2023 and the latest quarter.
Highlights included a record quarterly production of 3.1 million wmt of high-grade 66.1% Fe concentrate for the three-month period.
This was an increase of 4% and 65% compared to the previous quarter and the same period of the previous financial year, respectively.
Annually, production hit 11.2 million wmt of high-grade 66.1% Fe concentrate, which was up by 41% from the previous financial year.
The group said this was attributable to strong performance following phase two operations as commercial production took off in December.
Quarterly, record iron ore concentrate sales of 3.1 million dmt were up by 15% and 64% from the previous quarter and FY2022, respectively.
For the year, a record 10.6 million dmt was sold, up from 7.7 million dmt sold the previous financial year.
The explorer reported revenues of $463.9 million for the three-month period, up from $331.4 million at the same time in 2022.
Net cash flow from operating activities came to $167.7 million — an uplift from the $4.3 million for the same period in 2022. Additionally, EBITDA was $195.7 million, which was slightly lower than the $197.9 reported last year.
The group reported a net income of $88.2 million with earnings per share of $0.17, which was down from $115.7 million and $0.23 for the same period in 2022, respectively.
Champion said its facilities reached nameplate capacity on several operating days during the quarter. However, the results were impacted by delays in the delivery and commissioning of mining equipment and locomotives.
These delays limited mining and haulage capacity, and in turn, impacted quarterly production results already hampered by a longer-than-expected planned maintenance period for two of its Bloom Lake crushers.
The group also had to battle a four-day power outage, impacting infrastructure at the port facility and shipments.
The company mined and hauled 52.0 million tonnes of material during the year ended 31 March 2023, compared to 42.8 million tonnes for the same period in 2022.
Despite the delays, the increase in the volume of material moved at the mine was driven by additional mining equipment in operation.
The stripping ratio was 0.60 for the year, compared to 0.92 for 2022. The result was lower than planned, even as the company focused on mining ore due to the restricted availability of mining equipment caused by the equipment delays.
The cash operating margin totalled $45.2 per dmt for the year ended 31 March 2023, compared to $117.8 per dmt for the same prior-year period.
The variation is mainly due to a lower net average realized selling price and higher AISC.
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