Cambior gains extension

Financially beleaguered Cambior (CBJ-T) has been granted another one-month extension to submit an arrangement to repay or refinance the balance of its bank loan by the end of 2000. The company now has until the end of November to file the restructuring plan.

Caught at the wrong end of a disastrous hedging program more than a year ago, Cambior has been selling assets in order to repay its creditors. The list includes the producing Bouchard-Hbert and Langlois base metal mines in Quebec and various Mexican assets. Earlier this summer, Cambior mortgaged its half-interest in the Niobec niobium mine in Chicoutimi, Que., for US$13 million. By the end of June, the company was able to meet its US$75-million repayment obligation, the first phase of its financial restructuring program.

The sale of La Granja, a copper project in Peru, is expected to close shortly and provide net proceeds of of more than US$34 million. It will allow Cambior to reduce its debt level to about US$128 million.

Cambior held cash and cash equivalents of US$9.4 million at the end of September. The company produced 150,000 oz. gold in its latest quarter, about the same as a year ago. Cash costs were down slightly at US$214 per oz.

The company posted a net loss of US$8.9 million (or 24 per share) on revenue of US$51.8 million in the latest quarter, down from US$27.3 million on revenue of US$56.6 million a year earlier. The net loss for the first nine months of this year was US$10.3 million, down from US$26.2 million in the comparable period of 1999.

The company expects to reduce its overall debt by year-end through a share offering and/or the sale of the remaining copper assets, as well as by refinancing a portion of the debt.