Thompson Creek Metals Posts Q3 Net Loss of $60.9 Million

Thompson Creek Metals Corp. (TSX:TC,NYSE:TCM) released its Q3 results for the third quarter of 2015, as well as the first nine months of the year, commenting that it incurred a net loss of $60.9 million for the quarter. That’s well up from a net loss of $11.1 million in the year-ago period.
The net losses in both periods “included primarily unrealized non-cash foreign exchange losses of $68.8 million and $60.3 million, respectively, primarily on intercompany notes.”
Other Q3 highlights are as follows:

• Cash generated by operating activities was $38.5 million in the third quarter of 2015 compared to cash generated by operating activities of $83.0 million in the third quarter of 2014.
• Consolidated revenues for the third quarter of 2015 were $141.7 million compared to $229.3 million in the third quarter of 2014. Copper and gold sales contributed $113.0 million in revenue in the third quarter of 2015 compared to $100.7 million in the third quarter of 2014. Molybdenum sales were $23.0 million for the third quarter of 2015 compared to $124.3 million in the third quarter of 2014. During the third quarter of 2015 we completed five shipments of copper and gold concentrate and recorded five sales compared to three shipments and three sales in the third quarter of 2014.
• Payable production at Mount Milligan Mine for the third quarter of 2015 was 16.4 million pounds of copper and 53,791 ounces of gold, compared to payable production of 16.3 million pounds of copper and 60,366 ounces of gold for the third quarter of 2014.
• Sales volumes and average realized sales prices for copper and gold for the third quarter of 2015 were 24.4 million pounds of copper at an average realized price of $2.09 per pound and 75,451 ounces of gold at an average realized price of $926 per ounce, as compared to 16.5 million pounds of copper at an average realized price of $3.02 per pound and 57,974 ounces of gold at an average realized price of $952 per ounce for the third quarter of 2014. Molybdenum sales volumes in the third quarter of 2015, which consisted of the sale of molybdenum inventory produced at our mines in 2014 and molybdenum sourced from third parties, were 2.9 million pounds at an average realized price of $7.86 per pound compared to 8.9 million pounds at an average realized price of $13.94 per pound for the third quarter of 2014.
• Consolidated operating income for the third quarter of 2015 was $10.5 million compared to $63.8 million for the third quarter of 2014. The quarter over quarter decline in operating income was primarily due to a decrease in molybdenum sales, partially offset by an increase in gold sales. Consolidated operating income for the third quarter of 2015 was also impacted by $3.5 million of costs related to idle molybdenum mining operations.

Jacques Perron, president and CEO of Thompson Creek, commented:

We continue to focus on operational improvements at Mount Milligan Mine and our efforts have been rewarded by our excellent unit cash cost performance year-to-date. We are pleased to report that we successfully completed the installation of the second SAG discharge screen deck on October 26, and that the commissioning of the new configuration was completed at the end of October, with both screen decks operating as expected. Since restarting operations following the mill shutdown, we have been experiencing gradual improvements in throughput. Other than the permanent secondary crushing plant, all major modifications required to achieve our objectives have now been successfully completed, and we are confident that throughput will continue to increase through the remainder of the year.

Click here to read the full Thompson Creek Metals Corp. (TSX:TC,NYSE:TCM) press release.