Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 23
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
Kazakhstan’s mining company KAZ Minerals PLC increased its revenues to $766 million in 2016 compared to $665 million in 2015, the company said in a message Feb. 23.
“The increase in revenues was driven by higher sales volumes of copper and gold and increased prices for zinc, gold and silver, offset by a 12 percent reduction in the average market price of copper and a 20 percent decrease in zinc output in 2016 compared to the prior year,” the company said.
EBITDA increased from $202 million in 2015 to $351 million in 2016.
Underlying profit hit $180 million in 2016 compared to $10 million loss in 2015.
Operation profit increased from $90 million in 2015 to $218 million in 2016.
The company noted that in response to low commodity prices it sought additional efficiencies and for the third consecutive year it has reported lower operating costs. Costs have reduced as the company transitions to large scale, open pit mining and due to the devaluation of the tenge which occurred in the second half of 2015.
The company’s net debt hit $2.67 billion in 2016 compared to $2.25 billion in 2015.
KAZ Minerals PLC focuses on large scale, low cost, open pit mining in Kazakhstan. It operates three mines and three concentrators in the East Kazakhstan Region, the Bozymchak copper-gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, the Bozshakol open pit copper mine in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan and the Aktogay open pit copper mine in the East Kazakhstan Region.
The company produced 140,300 tons of copper cathode equivalent, 75,400 tons of zinc, 3.1 million ounces of silver bar equivalent and 119,700 ounces of gold bar equivalent in 2016.