TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Privately held Uranium One reported a narrower net loss during the first quarter ended March despite lower revenues as a result of the timing of sales.
Being one of the world's largest uranium producers, Uranium One was in October 2013 bought out by Russian State-owned nuclear reactor builder and supplier Rosatom.
The company reported a net loss of $12.3-million, or $0.01 per share, compared with a net loss of $34.2-million, or $0.04 a share, in the comparable period a year earlier.
Excluding special items, the adjusted net loss was $19-million, or $0.02 a share, compared with an adjusted net loss of $22.9-million, or $0.02 a share, a year earlier.
Attributable uranium sales volumes for the quarter were 1.7-million pounds sold from the corporation's operations and joint ventures, compared with 3.3-million pounds sold during the first quarter of 2014. The lower sales volumes were mainly attributable to the timing of sales to customers and the remaining unsold first-quarter output that would be sold in subsequent quarters.
Uranium One achieved total attributable output of three-million pounds, compared with 3.1-million pounds of uranium during the same period last year.
The average total cash cost a pound sold was $14, up from $13 a year earlier.
Total revenues amounted to $77.5-million compared with $118-million a year earlier.
The average realised price for yellowcake rose by one dollar year-over-year to $37/lb.
As at March 31, the company had consolidated cash and cash equivalents of $112.8-million, including restricted cash of $16-million, compared with $212-million at December 31. Working capital was $203.3-million at the end of the first quarter.
Uranium One last month appointed former executive VP and COO Feroz Ashraf its CEO to succeed Chris Sattler, who had left the corporation to pursue other interests.
As a result of the company’s going private and, therefore, being relieved of its Canadian statutory reporting obligations, the changes in its board, cost rationalisation and integration with the corporation's Moscow-based parent, Uranium One, were restructuring the operations of its Toronto head office. The restructuring, which included relocating the head office finance, internal audit, information technology, human resources, technical services and certain legal functions to Moscow, and the associated reduction in size of the Toronto office, was planned to be complete by the end of June.
The company noted that its operations had not been impacted by European Union, US and Canadian sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea.