Western Areas still in black despite tough times

Nickel miner Western Areas has reported a $94.7 million drop in full-year net profits, a result of the continued weakness in global nickel prices and sustained strong performance by the Australian dollar.

Western Areas announced today that its profit for the year ended June 30 came in at $40.2 million, down from $134.9 million the previous year.

The Perth-based miner’s EBITDA dropped from $312 million in FY2011 to $186.5 million in FY2012.

Managing director Dan Lougher said the company was pleased to have remained profitable in a challenging environment, and would pay a final partially franked dividend of 6 cents per share, taking the total dividend payout for the year to 11 cents.

Mr Lougher welcomed the result, particularly against the backdrop of significant falls in the nickel price.

“Western Areas remains profitable at current prices, albeit with reduced profit for FY12 despite an exceptional performance on every other operational front,” Mr Lougher said.

“Maintaining a reputation for delivery is important to us and the results for the second half of the financial year demonstrate the hard work from all the people involved at Western Areas.

“We’ve managed all the aspects under our control extremely well, including safety, costs, production, sales and logistics.”

Mr Lougher said the company believed there was potential for significant nickel price gains over the next 12 months, as Chinese stockpiles run down.

He said any global shortage of high quality nickel concentrate would assist the company’s ability to secure favourable off-take terms.

At 2:00PM, Western Areas shares were up 2.8 per cent, trading at $4.35.