[miningmx.com] — SOUTH Africa’s Optimum Coal Holdings, which listed in March this year, said on Friday it expects to report headline earnings per share for the year of between 40c to 50c and higher output of saleable coal.
“(Headline earnings per share) have been adversely affected by weakened export coal price experienced during the year and a stronger rand/dollar exchange rate compared to financial year 2009,” the company said in a statement.
Optimum said it produced 10.8 million attributable tonnes of saleable coal during the financial year, compared with 9.2 million tonnes in the previous year. Some 5.5 million tonnes of that coal went to state-owned power utility Eskom.
The output figures include tonnages from the Koornfontein Mine, in which the company acquired a majority stake earlier this year.
The company, the country’s sixth-largest producer of thermal coal, said it has bought the outstanding 4% minority stake in Koornfontein Mines from the Koornfontein Employee Trust for R24m net of tax.
The company will report its annual results on September 15.
