Andrada Mining delivered its first interim profit, reporting revenue up 80 percent to 20.6 million pounds for the six months ended August 31, gross profit more than quadrupling to 8.3 million pounds with a gross margin of 40.3 percent, up from 16.4 percent, and profit after tax of 2.5 million pounds against a 3.0 million pound loss a year earlier. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to 4.5 million pounds.
The driver was price as much as volume. Contained tin production at the Uis mine in Namibia’s Erongo region rose 13 percent to 576 tonnes, while the effective realised tin price rose 57 percent to 52,131 dollars a tonne. C1 operating costs stayed broadly stable at 17,842 dollars per tonne of contained tin. Cash generated from operations reached 4.9 million pounds, more than the whole of the previous financial year, and the cash balance rose to 15.6 million pounds from 8.9 million pounds at the end of February.
Growth is funded and under way. The ore sorting expansion at Uis is on schedule, with the new crushing circuit en route to site and sorters being prepared for installation, and is expected to lift annual tin concentrate production by about 50 to 70 percent to 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes, equivalent to 1,500 to 1,900 tonnes of contained tin a year.
Beyond Uis, exploration at Lithium Ridge, advanced with SQM, identified an extension of known mineralisation, and Brandberg West, with BWCAM, progressed regulatory approvals and ore sorting test work on tungsten, copper and tin. Chief executive Anthony Viljoen called the results a turning point, with Uis performance converting into profitability and cash generation ahead of the expansion.