PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The continued fall in iron-ore prices has seen ASX-listed Mineral Resources revise its expected earnings for the financial year ended June.
The company on Thursday said that expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) would range between A$460-million and A$480-million. This is compared with the previous guidance of Ebitda of between A$480-million and A$520-million.
Mineral Resources points out that the previous estimate was based on an iron-ore index price of $70/t, along with a discount of 25% for the lower-grade nominal 58% iron fines.
However, since the last estimate, the iron-ore index price has fallen from around $80/t to a low of $54/t, while the discount has widened around 18%, to 35%.
Mineral Resources notes that while the full-year results have been impacted by the reduced iron-ore prices, earnings for the period have increased by more than 60% over the previous period’s results, owing to the strength of the mining services division, and the improving performance of the company’s lithium production sites.