Jobs, revenues, share prices benefit as higher commodity prices boost B.C. mining – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – May 11, 2018)

 

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The bull’s still not back but higher commodity prices continue to sustain a mood of cautious optimism among British Columbia miners, PricewaterhouseCoopers assures us. Its 50th annual report on B.C. mining sketched a broad picture of the province’s industry by surveying 13 companies, focusing on 15 operating mines, a smelter and seven projects in the exploration, permitting or environmental review stage.

Among survey participants, gross revenue hit $11.7 billion in 2017, a 35% jump from the previous year and reflecting an upward trend in the mining cycle. (Except for commodity prices, all figures are given in Canadian dollars.) Governments scooped up $859 million in total mining revenues from those companies last year, compared with $650 million in 2016.

Shareholders fared especially well, reaping 31.1% pre-tax gains from the companies involved, compared with 13.5% in 2016 and 6.3% in 2015. “This is the highest return we’ve seen in recent years and it has surpassed the historic high levels of 2012,” PwC stated.

Direct employment among the companies climbed to 10,196 jobs, compared with 9,329 in 2016 and 9,221 in 2015. PwC attributed most of the increase to Conuma Coal Resources’ two operating mines in the northeast.

Indeed, the participants’ metallurgical coal revenue rose to $5.2 billion from $3 billion in 2016 and $2 billion in 2015. Prices averaged $173 a tonne last year, up from $115 in 2016 and $101 in 2015. At a 50% increase over 2016, the steelmaking stuff struck the highest price increase of any commodity included in the report.

For the rest of this article: http://resourceclips.com/2018/05/11/jobs-revenues-share-prices-benefit-as-higher-commodity-prices-boost-b-c-mining/