TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Rocked by a higher impairment charge and the weaker Canadian dollar, Canada’s largest uranium producer Cameco has reported a fourth-quarter loss of C$10-million, or C$0.03 a share – reflecting a decrease of C$83-million compared with the company's net earnings of $73-million in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Excluding special items, the company earned C$0.38 a share for the three months ended December 31, underperforming analyst estimates of an adjusted profit of C$0.49 a share.
“We are still waiting on a market recovery that was expected to come sooner, but we’ve learned to put those expectations aside and prepare for whatever comes our way," stated president and CEO Tim Gitzel in a statement released on Friday.
Revenue increased by 9.7% year-on-year to C$975-million, compared with C$889-million a year earlier.
Cameco reported a record quarterly output of 9.6-million pounds of uranium oxide in the fourth quarter – a 17% increase from 2014, mainly owing to production from the new Cigar Lake operation, located in the uranium-rich Athabasca basin of northern Saskatchewan. The uranium business segment accounted for about 70% of the consolidated revenues in the period.
The average realised price for uranium fell 8% year-on-year to $46.36/lb, offsetting a 5% increase in sales totalling 11.2-million pounds.
During the fourth quarter, Cameco recognised a $210-million impairment charge related to the Rabbit Lake operation.
Cameco expected consolidated revenue in 2016 to decrease by up to 5%, based on currently committed sales volumes, due to a planned decrease in uranium and fuel services sales volumes. The average unit costs were also expected to increase by 5%.
The company expected to produce about 30-million pounds of uranium this year.