Bougainville profit boosts C.R.A.

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33154, 19 February 1973, Page 16

Bougainville profit boosts C.R.A.

(N .Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) SYDNEY, February 16. Shareholders in Conzinc Riot into of Australia, Ltd, should doff their hats north to Papua New Guinea’s off-shore island of Bougainville, site of the group’s rich copper and gold mine.

The Australian operation of the mining giant yesterday released preliminary profit figures for 1972 which showed, that except for the first flow of copper-gold earnings from Bougainville, C.R.A.’s group net profit would have shown a substantial decline rather than the 27.7 per cent increase reported.

The group net profit jumped by $8,450,000 to a peak of $38,942,000 in a year when most mineral earnings were decisively lower. :The increase brought earning rate on capital up from 42.2 per cent to 54 per cent. Dividend is steady at 20 per cent.

The group’s profit is the

end-product of a widely varying mixture of gains and losses. The contribution from iron ore producer Hamersley, Ltd, which is 54 per cent owned by C.R.A., would have dipped by 14.4 per cent to about $ 13.4 m. That from aluminium producer Comalco, Ltd, owned 45 per cent by C.R.A., would have fallen by 25 per cent to about $5.9m. The dominant influence on C.R.A.’s 1972 profit, however, has been the contribution of more than sll.Bm from the first nine months of commercial production at the Bougainville copper mine. Bougainville Mining, Ltd, in which C.R.A.’s interest is an effective 56.4 per cent, earned $20.9m for this initial period, and in the final quarter of last year appeared to be running at an annual profit rate of at least s2Bm. Sales by C.R.A. and its subsidiary companies to external customers jumped by 51.5 per cent to $338.7m, a large part of which must have been provided by Bougainville copper and gold [concentrate sales.

Synthetic ore

Peko-Wallsend, Ltd, has reported that Rutile and Zircon Mines (Newcastle) Ltd, and Sherwin-Williams Company of Cleveland, Ohio, have signed a licensing agreement on synthetic rutile ore production. Under the terms of the agreement, SherwynWilliams will be licensed to produce synthetic rutile ore from ilmenite sands, using technology developed by the Australian company. The ore will be used as a raw material for the production [of titanium dioxide pigment. Sherwyn-Williams will build a s2m plant for this purpose (adjacent to its Ashtabula, Ohio, titanium dioxide facility, with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons.