By Angela Macdonald-Smith
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Energy Resources of Australia Ltd., producer of more than a 10th of the world’s mined uranium, said full-year profit almost tripled to a record, boosted by an insurance settlement.
Net income gained to A$221.8 million ($144 million) in the year ended Dec. 31, from A$76.1 million a year earlier, Darwin-based Energy Resources said today in a statement to the Australian stock exchange. Sales jumped 91 percent to A$691.7 million.
Energy Resources, controlled by Rio Tinto Group, made an after-tax gain of A$131.4 million after settling claims for damage and business interruptions from Tropical Cyclone Monica in April 2006 and “extreme” rainfall in February 2007. The average price the company, known as ERA, got for its uranium oxide jumped 30 percent even as spot prices fell.
“ERA expects sales tons in 2009 to be slightly higher than in 2008, possibly accompanied by a modest replenishment of inventory,” it said. “The outlook for uranium mining appears positive.”
Energy Resources dropped as much as 58 cents, or 3.1 percent, to A$18.42 in Sydney trading, compared with a decline of as much as 0.6 percent in the exchange’s benchmark index. The shares were at A$18.72 at 10:36 a.m. local time.
Earnings before one-time items rose 56 percent to A$119 million. Full-year production of 5,339 metric tons was similar to the previous year’s 5,412 tons.
Resources at the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory, ERA’s only producing site, more than doubled to 115,000 tons of contained uranium oxide after the discovery in the Ranger 3 Deeps area. Reserves at Ranger fell 11 percent to 43,966 tons, while reserves at the undeveloped Jabiluka deposit rose 15 percent to 67,700 tons.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net
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