Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.’s CLF affiliates have completed the divestment of 60% ownership of the Decar nickel project, located in central British Columbia, to First Point Minerals Corp. for a price of $4.75 million.
The deal, approved by First Point’s shareholders, was completed on Nov 18, 2015. After completion of the transaction, First Point now owns 100% of the project, which includes 60 claims covering about 24,500 hectares.
As part of the deal, Cliffs has sold all of its 14,353,190 shares in the capital of First Point in a number of private transactions at a price of C$0.0515 per share. Of the total number of shares disposed by Cliffs in these transactions, insiders of First Point purchased a total of 8,953,190 shares, representing 8.5% of the issued and outstanding shares of First Point.
Cliffs’ net loss (attributable to common shareholders) for third-quarter 2015 was at 10 cents per share, narrower than net loss of $38.49 per share recorded in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted loss came in at 15 cents per share, lower than Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 23 cents.
Sales for the quarter came in at $593.2 million, down 39% from $979.7 million in the prior-year quarter. Sales also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $622 million.
At the end of third quarter, Cliffs had net debt of $2.5 billion versus net debt of $2.9 billion a year ago. There was nothing drawn on the company's new asset-based lending facility at the end of the quarter. Reduction in net debt was due to a number of actions including asset sales, exchange offers and open-market bond repurchases.
Cliffs currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked mining stocks include Atlas Iron Limited AGODY, Fortescue Metals Group Limited FSUGY and Anglo American Platinum Limited AGPPY. All of these stocks hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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