Keaton reports R297m FY loss

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African coal miner Keaton Energy incurred a net loss of R297.3-million for the year ended March 31, compared with a net loss of R71.9-million the year before.

The coal miner reported a headline loss a share of 26.9c, compared with headline earnings a share of 0.4c the year before.

Revenue from continuing operations, namely the flagship Vanggatfontein mine, in Mpumalanga, decreased by 13% from about R1.18-billion in the previous financial year to about R1.03-billion for the year under review.

Keaton Energy CFO Jacques Rossouw attributed the decrease mainly to a 36% decrease in transport revenue, owing to lower transport rates from State-owned power utility Eskom and shorter delivery distances. This also resulted in a 36% decrease in transport costs paid to suppliers.

Meanwhile, overall coal sales at Vanggatfontein decreased by 4%. The cost of sales decreased by 10% from R968.9-million in the previous financial year to R868.8-million in the 2016 financial year.

The decrease was mainly owing to a R103.2-million decrease in transport costs and a 7% decrease in waste volumes mined at Vanggatfontein.

The strip ratio achieved at Vanggatfontein, excluding the rehandling of waste dumps and spoils, decreased to 2.8 from the previous ratio of 2.9.

The R89.5-million in fuel costs was substantially lower than the prior year’s R122.7-million, owing to lower volumes mined at Vanggatfontein, as well as a decrease in diesel prices.

Keaton had taken the decision in the second half of the financial year to accelerate mining of Pit 2 to limit the rehandling of future life-of-mine overburden and consequently reduce future cash outflow.

Unfortunately, coal qualities and planned yield in the last remaining cuts decreased significantly to that experienced previously at Pit 2, resulting in a decrease of expected cash generated from these last cuts and accelerated depreciation.

The company’s operations generated R470.2-million net cash during the 2016 financial year, compared with R536.9-million generated in the previous financial year after taking working capital outflow of R33.3-million and net finance costs of R19.4-million into account.

The decrease in operational cash was as a result of the poor operational performance at its KwaZulu-Natal-based anthracite mine Vaalkrantz and the effect of Pit 2 at Vanggatfontein.

Keaton Energy had successfully concluded the disposal of its underperforming anthracite operations, including Vaalkrantz, in February.