Grange Resources posts $80 million loss after iron ore prices dip lower
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Tasmania's largest iron ore mining company, Grange Resources, has posted a loss of nearly $80 million for the first half of the year.
Grange, which owns the Savage River mine on the state's west coast, has put the loss down to lower than forecast iron ore prices and has not ruled out job losses.
General manager of operations Ben Maynard said falling iron ore prices were having an impact.
"It's certainly putting pressure on," he said.
"This is one we continue to watch day-in, day-out. There's a lot of speculation out there as to where the market is going to go and there're a lot of complicated things that influence that.
"We will continue to do what we can to maintain our costs under control to make sure we stay in that sort of position.
"We are working hard to improve our efficiency, we continue to invest in major capital works."
Mr Maynard said despite the result there was room for optimism.
"The highlight for us is that we actually posted an underlying profit of about $33 million for the half," he said.
"Largely the loss is a result of the impairment and that's down to really a formulaic calculation that we have to make as a company.
"The Savage River operation ... is going very well, we're seeing great production results, we're seeing good movements and good ore supply.
"We're producing at record operational rates through our concentrator. We're producing a high quality project and we're doing it safely."
Mr Maynard said the company was not planning any major job cuts but could not rule out the possibility.
"We need to keep producing and we need people and operators to keep doing that," he said.
"For us, we're going to hunker down, we're going to continue to produce, we'll continue to optimise our business and run as efficiently as we can and I think that'll place us in good stead to ride out whatever comes.
"Investment is still happening in the business. The business is still producing well and we think it's going well at this stage."
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