Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

KAZ Minerals Plc said its 2014 loss widened after the biggest listed copper miner inKazakhstan reported a $2.3 billion accounting charge after divesting two-thirds of its assets.

The net loss was $2.36 billion compared with a loss of $2.03 billion a year earlier, the London-based company said in a statement on Thursday. Copper prices slid about 7.1 percent to average $6,830 a metric ton in 2014.

The company in October completed the transfer of its unprofitable copper mines and smelters inKazakhstan to its former chairman Vladimir Kim’s company and changed its name to KAZ from Kazakhmys Minerals Plc. It also agreed to pay about $240 million as working capital and other expenses to run the assets.

The charge includes an impairment of $1.6 billion on the value of its assets and $700 million on “historical foreign- exchange movements,” Chief Financial Officer Andrew Southam said on a call.

The company produced 83,500 metric tons of copper cathode in 2014 compared with 294,000 tons a year earlier before the split, and 9 percent more than 2013 when looking at current operations. It targets output of about 300,000 tons in 2018 after developing the Bozshakol and Aktogay sites. KAZ’s workforce was also cut by 80 percent after the split. It targets to produce 80,000 tons to 85,000 tons this year.

“We are excited to be entering the final stages of the construction of Bozshakol, the first of our major growth projects, and continuing the development of Aktogay,” Chief Executive Officer Oleg Novachuk said in the statement. “We anticipate the copper market will return to deficit as we ramp up output from our major growth projects.”

The company expects gross cash costs to rise to 280 cents to 300 cents a pound this year from 257 cents in 2014.