Iron ore miner IRC warned on Wednesday morning that its net loss for 2014 would be “significantly greater” than its net loss of US$42 million for 2013.
The Hong Kong-listed firm said it expected a net loss of at least US$313 million for 2014, but the total loss could be far greater, with US$263 million of additional losses from impairments and inventory write-down.
The increased net loss was mainly due to lower iron ore and ilmenite prices, which had resulted in negative cash flow in IRC’s iron ore mine in Kuranakh in the Russian Far East, as well as an impairment provision of US$64 million for the Kuranakh mine in the first half of 2014, it said. With iron ore prices weakening in the second half of the year, another impairment provision of US$197 million might be recorded, IRC warned.
At the end of last year, IRC had US$75 million of cash and bank deposits, as well as US$56 million of undrawn credit. IRC will announce its 2014 results on March 25.
