Pike River Coal reports $39m loss

Inside the Pike River Coal mine, 46km northwest of Greymouth. Photo / Greg Bowker

Pike River Coal has reported an annual net loss of $39 million and is not paying a dividend.

The owner of a coal mine on the West Coast which has cost $288.1m to develop said the loss reflected the fact that the mine was still in a development phase.

A total of $11.4m of post production costs for pit-bottom roadway construction have been reclassified in the accounts from operating costs to production assets.

The company said yesterday that it has commenced railing coal from its rail loadout facility at Ikamatua to the Port of Lyttelton in preparation for its second export shipment of premium hard coking coal.

The loss compares with a loss of $13m a year earlier.

The company had revenue of $3.35m as it shipped coal extracted during the development of the mine.

Costs of sales of $48.1m included a depreciation and amortisation charge of $8.8m. Financial expenses of $6.1m include $4.9m of interest expense.

The exporter had $1.4m of realised exchange gains and $1.3m of unrealised exchange gains primarily on the US dollar denominated convertible bond.

The company also had an income tax benefit of $13m because of the new company tax rate that comes into effect on July 1, 2011 of 28 per cent.

- NZPA