Atlas net profit dips to

Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation suffered a 79 percent drop in consolidated net income to 397 million last year from the 1.9 billion earned in 2013.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said the drop in profit is due mainly to lower metal prices, increased depreciation, higher financing charges, and higher income tax provision in 2014 following the expiration of the income tax holiday incentive of Carmen Copper Corporation in October, 2013.

Atlas Mining Executive Vice President Adrian Ramos said “2014 challenged Atlas Mining to manage the constraints on the optimization of its expanded processing plant and the effects of uncontrollable events such as the drop in world copper prices and unusual weather phenomena.”

He added that, “this year, to reinforce our resilience, the Atlas Mining team will focus on maximizing efficiencies to reduce operating costs, and on enhancing risk mitigation systems.”

Atlas mining reported a 12 percent increase in its revenues to 16.2 billion in 2014, fueled by higher revenues from copper, gold and nickel.

Despite lower realized metal prices, copper revenues (accounting for 85 percent of total revenues) grew by 10 percent to 13.7 billion as concentrate shipments grew by 14 percent in 2014. Gold revenues also grew by 17 percent to 1.3 billion.

Following the commissioning of the expanded processing plant in March this year, wholly- owned subsidiary Carmen Copper registered a 14 percent increase in its average daily milling throughput to 49,200 tons per day (tpd) from 43,000 tons per day in 2013.

Copper recovery likewise increased from 82 percent to 85 percent which offset the lower grade realized in 2014. The improvement in throughput and copper recovery pushed copper production higher by 15 percent to 105.5 million pounds of copper metal in concentrate and gold output by 23 percent to 26,310 ounces.

However, the full impact of the expanded plant has yet to be realized because of process design changes necessary for optimization and weather disturbances in the fourth quarter.

With improved production, total volume of copper concentrate shipped during the year expanded by 14 percentto 176,000 dry metric tons (dmt). Copper metal content rose 15 percent to 103.8 million pounds of copper metal in concentrate, while gold content tracked 23 percent higher to 24,071 ounces.

As a result, revenue still rose in spite of the slide in the realized prices of copper and gold in 2014. Copper prices fell by 5 percent, hovering at an average of US$3.12 per pound, while gold dropped by 9 percent and averaged at US$1,265 per ounce.

Berong Nickel Corporation, where Atlas Mining holds 25 percent equity interest, topped the one million wet metric tons ( wmt) mark for both production and shipment numbers as production grew more than two-fold to 1.3 million wet metric tons, while shipments grew significantly by 58 percent.

This translated to a net income of 322 million, a turnaround from a net loss position last year. (JAL)