Mincor confident despite nickel weakness

Nickel miner Mincor Resources has declared a dividend to shareholders despite posting a narrow half-year loss on the back of sustained nickel price weakness.

Mincor will pay out a 2 cents per share fully-franked interim dividend, in line with the dividend shareholders received in the first half of the 2013 financial year.

Mincor shareholders cheered the news, with the company's stock trading 7.9 per cent higher at 61.5 cents at 10:55am WST.

The miner reported a $30,000 net loss after tax, driven by depreciation and amortisation charges of $14.6 million and the company's lowest average realised nickel price since 2005.

Mincor received an average realised price of just $7.01 per pound of nickel in the six months to December 31 2013, down 15 per cent from its first-half average of $8.26/lb.

However the company generated what it described as healthy earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $14.36 million, down slightly from its $14.77 million first-half EBITDA.

It said it was on track to achieve its full-year production target of 8,500 to 9,000 tonnes of nickel-in-ore and to outperform its cost target of $5.30/lb.

"Mincor has again been able to weather the storms of market volatility and low commodity prices by delivering strong operating earnings and reporting essentially a break-even bottom line result," Mincor managing director David Moore said.

"The strong operating performance is a result of our continued focus on doing things better, which over the reporting period included shifting our mines to a continuous roster and numerous other changes."

Mr Moore said the company was hopeful the nickel price may have reached its bottom for the cycle and had intensified an exploration drive in the Kambalda nickel district, which hosts the miner's Mariners and Miitel mines.