AKIPRESS.COM - Turquoise Hill Resources has declared 2015 net income attributable to shareholders of $313.3 million, or $0.16 a share, compared with net income of $26.9 million, or $0.01 a share in 2014 – an increase of $286.4 million, reports Mining Weekly.

The Vancouver-based company advised that the increase was mainly attributable to a $210.2 million non-cash impairment charge recorded in 2014 on the reclassification of its coal-focused subsidiary South Gobi to assets held for sale, and a deferred tax asset of $165 million recognized in 2015, partially offset by adjustments for inventory write-down of $103.2 million.

Operating cash flows before interest and taxes in 2015 were $650.5 million, compared with $718.5 million in 2014, reflecting the impact of lower commodity prices on sales revenue, offset by the continued production and delivery cost improvements and effective working capital management.

Revenue of $1.6 billion in 2015 was down 5.8% year-over-year, reflecting lower copper and gold prices partially offset by higher volumes of copper-gold concentrate sales. Concentrate sold in 2015 of 819,800 tons was 11.7% over 2014, reaching an all-time annual high.

All-in sustaining costs in 2015 were $1.37/lb of copper, compared with $1.95/lb in 2014. The decrease was mainly owing to volume increases, cost optimization and operational efficiencies, partly offset by reduced gold and silver credits per pound of copper produced, combined with impact of non-recurring and non-cash items.

As at December 31, Turquoise Hill's cash and cash equivalents were about $1.3 billion.

Oyu Tolgoi was expected to produce 175,000 t to 195,000 t of copper and 210,000 oz to 260,000 oz of gold in concentrates for 2016.

Turquoise Hill advised that about 90% of Oyu Tolgoi's expected 2016 concentrate output had already been sold.