That’s how Panoramic Resources managing director Peter Harold summed up the environment in which his company recorded a net loss of $28.8 million for the year.

“The rapid drop in the nickel price since November 2014, despite general consensus that the price would trade higher as Indonesian stockpiles of laterite ore in China were drawn down, impacted heavily on sales revenue. In addition, seismic activity at Lanfranchi in April affected production in the June 2015 quarter and further reduced revenue, which had a significant impact on the full year results.”

Key figures included production of 19,130 tonnes of nickel (down 13% on financial year 2014); net revenue of $A199.7 million (down 16%); cashflow $43.5 million before tax (down 19%); earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of $32.7 million (down 55%); and liquid assets $65 million (down 32%).

“On the positive side, Savannah achieved record nickel production and released the maiden resource for Savannah North. Both are outstanding achievements and a great credit to the operations and geological teams,” Harold said.

He added that the ramp up in exploration led to a big increase in resources at Savanah and increased the potential strike extent of Savannah North to about 2km. It also led to the discovery of the high-grade Lower Schmitz mineralisation at Lanfranchi.

“Our growing nickel resource base puts the company in a good position to leverage off improved commodity prices,” Harold said.

The company has decided not to pay a final dividend but noted that fully franked dividends paid over the last nine financial years amounted to $114.5 million. A dividend of 1c per share was paid in April 2015.

Panoramic has decided to limit capital expenditure for mine development to $5 million and has budgeted about $4 million for exploration.

Impairments after tax, at December 31, amounted to $9.2 million at Copernicus and $800,000 at Lanfranchi.