COMMERCIAL B.H.Sth profit improves

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33191, 3 April 1973, Page 19

COMMERCIAL B.H.Sth profit improves

CV.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

MELBOURNE, April 2

Broken Hill South, Ltd, earned a group net profit of $1,374,000 in the half-year to December 31 compared with a net loss of $596,000 the previous corresponding period when results were affected by abnormal circumstances.

In the half-year to December 31, 1970. the net profit was $1,751,000.

Gross proceeds from group sales increased by 13 per cent in the latest period. An interim dividend of 6 per cent will be paid on June 8.

A principal factor contributing to the improved results was the elimination of the previous loss sustained on working the south mine at Broken Hill, which was closed down on July 7.

The surplus on the sale of concentrates produced at the mine before the mining halt and the surplus from the retreatment of residues at Broken Hill, before that was halted on December 22, also helped results. The subsidiary companies, Cobar Mines Pty, Ltd, and Kanmantoo Mines, Ltd, sustained small losses but the Electrolytic Refining and Smelting Company of Australia, Ltd, operated profitably.

Average prices for lead, zinc and silver in Australian dollars improved, but the average price for copper, in Australian currency, fell because of the decline in the value of sterling. Since the start of the second half-year, the price of -copper has improved significantly and notwithstanding the Australian dollar revaluation and the U.S. dollar devaluation. all segments of the group are now operating profitably.