China stainless steel mogul fights to avoid a second collapse
A debt crisis is threatening the future of one of the world’s top stainless steel producers, Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry.
Queensland base metal miner, Kagara Mining, said 130 of its staff were becoming redundant after the company posted an A$48.9 million loss in the first half of its financial year.
Kagara’s stock plummeted 38.71% on the ASX to 19 cents a share. After the layoffs, the company’s headcount will be reduced to 350.
The company blamed its woes on a high Australian dollar, sharply rising cash costs, and falling commmodity prices.
“In Australian dollar terms, the median realized zinc price fell between periods by approximately 20% while copper price fell by approximately 11%, reflecting the combined effects of price and FX impacts,” said the company in a statement.
While the company retrenches, it is putting its Mungana underground mine on care and maintenance, scaling back its exploration expenditures and cutting costs across all its businesses.
Kagara Ltd is a Australian mining company (ASX ticker: KZL) with copper, zinc-lead and nickel operations in North Queensland and Western Australia. and a strong project development and exploration pipeline.
