Mineral Resources Ltd.'s profit attributable to shareholders for the first half of fiscal 2018 rose to A$163.6 million, or 87.30 cents per share, from the year-ago profit of A$140.3 million, or 75.05 cents per share.
The company also increased the fully franked interim dividend to 25 cents per share, from 21 cents apiece in the first half of fiscal 2017.
Revenue in the six-month period increased to A$854.5 million, from A$782.7 million a year ago, according to the Feb. 8 release, while other income for the company surged to A$107.4 million in the half, including a A$93.5 million gain on investments, compared to A$3.3 million of other income in the prior-year half.
Meanwhile, the company recorded impairment of A$56.5 million in the half, mainly on its Yilgarn iron ore assets in Western Australia.
EBITDA for the six months jumped 25% year over year to A$352 million, and underlying EBITDA increased to A$250 million, from A$232 million a year ago. For the full fiscal year, the company expects underlying EBITDA of over A$500 million.
Mineral Resources produced 6 million wet metric tonnes of iron ore in the half, including 3 million wmt each in the first and second fiscal quarters. Iron ore shipments totaled 4.8 million wmt, shipping about 2.4 million wmt in each quarter.
Production of lithium totaled 2 million wmt in the half, including 1.1 million wmt in the second quarter and 913,000 wmt in the first quarter. Lithium shipments in the fiscal half totaled 1.8 million wmt, including 1 million wmt in the second quarter and 728,000 wmt in the first quarter.
