I just wish to comment that Horsetrader's analysis on 01/02/2012 should be reviewed closely.
Referring to the quarterly report on 31/01/2012, the cost of mining used ( $2.52 per pound) is the cost of copper mined from the Nifty Mine ONLY. At Nifty ABY spent $58m to mine 11000 tonnes of copper. We do not have a mining cost per pound for the Mt Gordon mine- but it has cost them $30m to mine only 4000 tonnes of copper. ( refer page 4-6).
ABY has the same copper output as 2010/11 financial year, but it costs them $30m more per quarter to extract the product!!
The quality of ABY's profit in the first half was not fabulous ( a messy result of EPS of 4 cents) given copper prices were around $9000-9500 per tonne for most of the the first half of this financial year.
Copper prices were about $7000 per tonne in Dec Qtr and about $8000 per tonne in March qtr. Therefore in the second half of FY12 we must be looking at a loss!!!!
ABY has long term issues - Mt Gordon mine is a lemon basically. Mgt have excuses - ramp up (one year to ramp up??), mining contractor issues- how about blaming yourselves for making a high risk low return decision to open this enviromental disaster of a mine. The Nifty mine seems to be in long term decline - it will cost more to extract the copper out of the ground over time but its profitable.
Also -why did the CFO resign 3 days after the books were closed on 31/03/2012?? An unusual time to leave - maybe conflicts with mgt about accounting practices?
ABY Price at posting:
67.0¢ Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Not Held
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