Weatherly reports significant progress at Tschudi

7th Oct 2014 11:53

Copper miner Weatherly described a pivotal year in which it made "significant progress" in bringing its Tschudi operations closer to production.The site, which chairman John Bryant has promised will "transform" the company's performance, is ahead of schedule, with first copper expected in the second quarter of 2015.Copper prices declined by around a further 15% during the period, meaning already tight margins were reduced. However, operations remained cashflow positive throughout and the company remained confident about the long-term prospects of copper. During the year, the company raised $4.6m from equity placements. In an effort to reduce costs and restore margins in a lower copper-price environment, the company undertook a radical overhaul of its operations aimed at boosting productivity in the second half of the year. These are expected to take the company closer to its target of 7,000 tonnes of copper per year, which would restore the group to profitability.Overall revenue declined from £35.66m to £32.22m year-on-year, while the cost of sales was almost unchanged at £31.57m The group reported an operating loss of £4.65m, doubling the figure seen the prior year of £2.1m."I want to be extremely clear to our investors, customers and staff about the significance of Tschudi," said Bryant."Looking to the future, and once Tschudi is up and running, [the] board will examine the possibilities of developing some of the potential copper deposits in the Windhoek area; we believe these may offer us an excellent opportunity to make the most of our concentrator's idle capacity."