Record uranium sales reported by Eldorado Nuclear

Short communication. Full text included in abstract. With sales up 66% to $335 million last year from $202 million in 1986, Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. of Ottawa moved into the black in 1987 reporting a profit of $12 million. This compared with a loss of $64.4 million in the previous year. The Crown-owned company's operating profit leaped 150% to $109 million from $44 million a year earlier. Chairman George Bonar ascribed the large gap between operating and final profits to costs incurred borrowing foreign funds in previous years to finance a $500 million capital expansion. He said costs associated with the loans amounted to $95 million last year. Mr. Bonar attributed the strong turnaround to record sales to Canadian and foreign electrical utilities and company-wide reductions. The 9.7 million pounds of uranium concentrates sold last year was 111% higher than the 4.6 million pounds sold in 1986. Largely due to higher output at Eldorado's Rabbit Lake facility, production at this and the Key Lake mines in northern Saskatchewan spurted 51% to 3,062 metric tons. While setting new production records, Eldorado's uranium processing operations at Blind River and Port Hope, Ontario trimmed unit costs by 12%. Compared with the previous record output of 8,239 tons set in 1986, the volume of uranium processed rose 32% to 10,897 tons. At the end of 1987, reserves totalled about 175 million pounds of uranium oxide, Mr. Bonar said. This compared with 30 million pounds prior to the capital expansion in 1981. All dollar figures are in Canadian funds