FINANCIAL NOTES
COPPER EARNINGS RISE
THE interim reports of three big Rhodesian copper mining companies show that the decline in earnings has been arrested and that there was substantial recovery during the last few months of 1938. This does not bring earnings back to the (Continued on page 152) FINANCIAL NOTES (Continued from page 15o)
peak levels reached in 1937, though one of them—Mufulir4 Copper Mines—comes very near to the 1937 level. The higher rate of earnings can be attributed in part to the period of slightly higher copper prices which occurred last autumn, but mainly to the fact that there were two months of unrestricted output during the past six months. This table illustrates the movement :
1937 1st half „ znd „ 1938 1st „ „ znd „
Two-thirds of the capital of Mufulira Copper Mines is held by Rhodesian Selection Trust and one-third by Rhokana. The above profits of Rhokana Corporation, however, exclude any dividend from Mufulira. Of the three companies two—Roan Antelope and Mufulira—show their profits on a quarterly basis, and the figures indicate that a lean September quarter was followed by an exceptionally good December quarter. The conditions which brought this about, higher prices and free- dom from restriction, no longer exist, so that it would be wrong to assume that the companies are likely to earn in their financial years ending on June 3o twice as much as they earned in the past six months. It is, however, fair to say that they have all earned substantially more than half the amounts needed to maintain last year's dividends.
PROFITS
Rhokana Roan Antelope Mufulira £1,540,000
£1,308,500 £479,500
1,136,000 1,045,500 564,500 814,000 528,500
403,500
896,000 712,000
547,000
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