Sharp increases in the global price of lead and zinc in 2021 contributed to the company that operates Tara Mines recording pretax profits of €19.75 million last year.
Accounts show that Tara Mines Holdings DAC returned to profit as revenues increased by 37.5 per cent from €171.1 million to €235.2 million.
The pretax profit of €19.75 million followed a pretax loss of €29 million in 2020 — a positive swing of €48.75 million
The firm’s revenues and profits would have been higher but for a mine incident in late November. A directors’ note with the accounts said that “significant volumes of water entered an underground exploration drift and then entered parts of the operational mine”.
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The note said that the “water inrush” stopped on December 2nd but it disrupted production for the remainder of 2021 and continued into the first quarter of 2022.
The accounts that “the residues of water in the mine are now largely dealt with and normal production will resume from quarter two of 2022″.
The water inrush at the mine near Navan, Co Meath was the most notable of a number of unexpected events that had a negative impact on production in 2021, according to the note.
The note said that the average price of zinc last year increased by 32.6 per cent over 2020 while the average price of lead increased by 20.8 per cent over 2020.
Ore reserves
The company — which is a subsidiary of the Sweden-headquartered Boliden Mineral AB — increased revenues last year despite mining and milling less ore than in 2020. The accounts said that 2.1 million tonnes were mined and milled last year compared to 2.3 million tonnes in 2020.
According to the accounts the “current ore reserves indicate a mine life through 2029. The outlook for the mine’s future remains positive”.
Numbers employed by the business increased by two to 667 last year with staff costs increasing from €67.94 million to €70.83 million. Directors’ pay totalled €538,000.
The profit last year takes account of exploration costs of €29.49 million and non-cash depreciation costs of €31.66 million.
The company recorded post-tax profits of €16.56 million after paying corporation tax of €3.18 million.
A breakdown of the business’s revenues shows that €167.2 million was recorded in EU countries and €67.98 million in other states.
At the end of December 2021, the firm’s shareholder funds totalled €195.83 million which included accumulated profits of €52.95 million.
The business’s cash pile increased from €12.2 million to €19.94 million.
