CNMC Goldmine Q4 profit plunges 80.5% on lower sales

CATALIST-LISTED CNMC Goldmine Holdings on Friday posted a profit attributable to owners of US$244,004 for its fiscal fourth quarter, a 80.5 per cent plunge from a profit of US$1.3 million a year ago.

This translated to earnings per share of 0.06 US cent for the three months ended Dec 31, from 0.31 US cent previously.

Revenue sank 39.7 per cent to US$7.6 million, from S$12.6 million a year ago. This was due to lower production and sales volume of fine gold, as a result of lower ore grade from open pit mining, the company said. Nonetheless, the decrease in sales volume was partially mitigated by a rise in average realised gold price.

Directors of the company have proposed a final tax-exempt dividend of 0.2 Singapore cent, as well as a special tax-exempt dividend of 0.4 Singapore cent. These are subject to shareholders' approval at an annual general meeting to be held in April, with books closure and the dividend payment date to be announced at a later date.

For the full-year, net profit more than doubled to US$4.4 million from US$1.7 million, even as revenue slipped 1.1 per cent to US$39.1 million versus US$39.5 million in the preceding year.

The increase in earnings was due mainly to the absence of about US$2 million in expenses incurred for FY2018 for CNMC's proposed Hong Kong dual-listing, which did not materialise.

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Looking ahead, CNMC Goldmine noted that open-pit mining remains as the group's primary source of revenue generation and that it hopes to commence the extraction of gold ore "as soon as practicable".

Most recently, the company announced on Jan 31 that underground mining operations at its Sokor gold field in Kelantan, Malaysia have been disrupted by the Covid-19 outbreak. More than half of the crew at its mining subsidiary have been temporarily prohibited from returning to Kelantan after they went home to Hubei for the Chinese New Year celebrations, the company said.

"It remains unclear when these workers will be able to return to Kelantan, as there has been no official announcement on when travel restrictions imposed by China and Malaysia will be lifted in view of the viral outbreak," added CNMC Goldmine.

The counter was trading at S$0.245 on Friday afternoon before the midday break, down S$0.015 or 5.8 per cent.