Australia headquartered base and precious metals producer, MMG, said that its financials were affected by lower zinc prices and negative effects of the pandemic leading to disruptions of sales at Las Bamabas, Peru.
Lower sales at Las Bambas was offset by strong production at Kinsevere and Dugald River coupled with higher copper and precious metal prices coupled with lower financing cost.
Outlook
MMG expects to produce 360,000 to 390,000mt of copper and 240,000 to 260,000mt of zinc in 2021. Production at Las Bambas is set to increase to about 400,000mt over a period of 2022 to 2025.
The company believes 2021 will still be affected by the challenges of COVID-19 in the near term and the outlook remans volatile in terms of global economic recovery. Commodity prices’ outlook remains positive with increased global economic stimulus, noted MMG.
Sales
The company’s copper sales dipped 1pc to 377,852mt in 2020 from prior year levels by revenues from copper jumped 1pc to $2,178.6mn. Zinc sales totalled to 216,535mt, up 4pc from the year prior but revenues from zinc fell by 12pc to $369.9mn which affected the company’s total financials. Lead sales were reported at 45,088mt, up 3pc from 2019. Molybdenum sales increased by 40pc to 2,609mt in 2020 from 2019.
Production
Las Bambas produced 311,020mt of copper in copper concentrates, down 19pc from the prior year. Sales at Las Bambas for copper dipped 3pc to 304,266mt in 2020. Las Bambas suffered COVID-19 effects; restrictions on movements, unplanned site maintenance and community road blockages.
Production at Kinsevere totalled to 72,007mt of copper cathode, up 6pc from the prior year. Sales also improved 6pc to 72,024mt in 2020 from the preceding year. Production of zinc in zinc concentrate at Dugald River was reported at 177,704mt up 4pc from the previous year. Lead in lead concentrate at Dugald River came up to 23,847mt up 3pc in 2020 from 2019. Dugald River delivered record annual production of 177,704mt of zinc in zinc concentrates in 2020.
At Rosebery zinc production accounted for 67,393mt, down 19pc in 2020 from prior year and copper production up 2pc from 2019. Lead production dropped 5pc to 23,272mt in 2020, down 2019.
Financials
Net cash flow from operating activities rose by 19pc to $1,358.2mn in 2020. Revenues increased by 1 pc to $3,033.7mn. Profit after tax was reported at $5.6mn after reporting a loss of 195.3mn in the prior year.