CoAL losses pile up

Johannesburg - Coal of Africa (CoAL) [JSE:CZA] on Tuesday reported a headline loss per share of 4.48 Australian cents for the half year ended December 2009 from a loss of 0.32 cents a year ago.

The company reported an after tax loss of Aus $35.183m compared with a loss of Aus $1.294m a year ago, which included an impairment to the Holfontein thermal coal project of Aus $8.693m.

Other financial investments were impaired by Aus $6.223m primarily attributable to the Aus $5m revaluation of the company's Zimbabwean investment. The depreciation charge for the period was Aus$6.918m and the company also incurred Take or Pay obligations of Aus$3.393m at the Matola Terminal in Maputo.

Foreign exchange losses totalled Aus $3.615m. The cash balance at the end of December 2009 was Aus $94.042m.

The company said the six months ended December 2009 marked the transformation of the company into a multiple product mining company. The progress of the Mooiplaats Project, acquisition of NuCoal and the recent granting of the Vele NOMR in early 2010 will result in CoAL producing significant amounts of blending coking coal and thermal coal for the international and domestic markets.

CoAL's mining assets and guaranteed access to long term port infrastructure ensure the Company is ideally positioned to take advantage of expected rising international coal prices, it said.

- I-Net Bridge