CALGARY (CP) -- Grande Cache Coal Corp. shares fell more than 17% Thursday after the company widened its second-quarter loss to C$10.5 million and forecast continuing delays in some shipments to Asia.
The company's shares fell 56 cents to C$27.10 - a drop of 17.13% - on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Earlier, the Calgary miner reported its quarterly loss amounted to 26 cents a diluted share and compared with a loss of C$2.2 million or six cents per share in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue improved to C$34.6 million on sales of 400,000 tonnes of coal and compared to marginal revenues of C$200,000 in the same period a year earlier. The firm had no sales revenue in the first six months of 2005, as coal shipments had not yet begun.
''The seaborne metallurgical coal industry has recently been experiencing delays in customer shipments, making it difficult for the corporation to predict the volume and timing of sales over the remainder of the fiscal year,'' the company said in a release. It now predicts total sales for the fiscal year to be one million tonnes.
Cost of sales for the next six months is expected to be about C$105 per tonne and revenue about C$123 per tonne.
We are encouraged by the progress we have made in improving our mining operations through September and October,'' president and CEO Robert Stan said in a release.
''We are in discussions with our Asian customers concerning shipping schedules for the balance of this fiscal year. The delays in shipments are impacting all producers, but we believe the outlook for the steel industry remains positive in the medium to long term.''
The company said it expects to produce two million tonnes in the next fiscal year.
Calgary-based Grande Cache [TSX:GCE] is a metallurgical coal miner that works coal leases in the Smoky River coalfield of Central Alberta.
(c) The Canadian Press 2005
