Nickel Asia savors buoyant metal prices
MANILA, Philippines -Listed mining company Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC) reported a net income of P7.93 billion in 2022, up by 1.5 percent from the year prior as higher metal prices and favorable foreign exchange rates made up for the slack in sales volume.
In a disclosure on Tuesday, NAC said revenues had risen by 2 percent to P28.03 billion last year even as nickel ore sales volume decreased by 11 percent to 15.94 million wet metric tons (WMT).
“Despite the inclement weather that affected our nickel mining business, 2022 remained a good year for NAC with prices for the metal buoyed by high demand. Our renewable energy business also made strides as it was able to increase its generational capacity and forge a partnership with an international player, Shell Investments B.V.,” said NAC president and CEO Martin Antonio Zamora.
Weighted average price of sold nickel ore inched up to $29.17 per WMT from $29.13 per WMT in the past year.
NAC exported 8.15 million WMT of saprolite and limonite ore to Japanese and Chinese customers at the weighted average price of $39.39 per WMT, compared with last year’s 10.79 million WMT at $40.40 per WMT.
It likewise delivered 7.79 million WMT of limonite ore to the Coral Bay and Taganito High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) plants, whose prices are linked to the London Metal Exchange, the global marketplace for trading industrial metals. These fetched an average price of $11.64 per pound of payable nickel from 7.14 million WMT at $8.35 per pound.
Expressed in US dollar per WMT, deliveries to the two facilities generated $18.72 last year from $12.03 in 2021.
The mining firm said it recorded a gain from its equity share in its investments in both HPAL plants amounting to P942.1 million, an increment of 69 percent from the past year.
Total operating cash cost was almost unchanged at P12.25 billion while the total operating cash costs increased by 12.59 percent to P769 per WMT from P683 per WMT.
In a separate disclosure, NAC said its board had approved a suretyship agreement with Security Bank Corp. for a P2-B loan facility for Emerging Power Inc. This will finance phase 4A of Subic solar power plant expansion project of solar power arm, Jobin-SQM Inc. INQ
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