St Barbara: 2016 an excellent year

Business

ST Barbara chairman Tim Netscher says 2016 has been an excellent year for the company.
St Barbara is the operator of the Simberi gold mine in New Ireland.
Addressing shareholders and company directors at the annual general meeting in Melbourne yesterday, Netscher, pictured, said he was proud to report such good results in his long and varied career in mining.
“After delivering a significant turnaround in your company’s performance during 2015, 2016 has seen the consistent delivery of reliable and highly profitable production,” he said.
“We have generated record cash flow and profit, and particularly pleasingly, have achieved this with a record low number of injuries.
“We have applied our free cash flow to the repayment of debt, dramatically transforming the company’s financial position in a very short time.
“During the financial year, our Australian dollar net debt position improved from A$270 million (K627.5 million) to A$89 million (K206.8 million), reducing by a massive two-thirds.
“Our statutory profit was a record A$169 million (K392.8 million) and our cash flow from operations was A$243 million (K564.7 million). The cash flow was more than double the 2015 result and the profit result quadrupled.
This substantial improvement in our circumstances has been reflected in our share price.
“We re-entered the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) 300 in September last year and became the best performing company in that group for calendar 2015.
“Then we entered the ASX 200 in March this year and became the best performing stock in that group for financial year 2016.”
Accourding to St Barbara’s website, its  assets also include the Leonora Operations in Western Australia.
The Simberi mine is in New Ireland started production in February 2008.