China Nonferrous Mining Corporation Limited announced that based on a preliminary assessment of the unaudited consolidated management accounts of the group and the information currently available to the Board, the profit attributable to owners of the company for the year ended December 31, 2015 is expected to be at a loss of approximately $100 million against profit attributable to the owners of the company for 2014 of $146.82 million. The Board anticipated that the decrease in the operating results of the group for the year ended December 31, 2015 as compared to the corresponding period last year is mainly due to three factors: Market condition: as a result of the global economic slowdown in 2015, the average London Metal Exchange (LME) copper price decreased by approximately 20% in 2015 as compared to the corresponding period in 2014; and as impacted by the local supply and demand, there is an approximately 25% decrease in the price of sulfuric acid as compared to the corresponding period in 2014; Force majeure events: the decrease in rainfall in Zambia resulted in a 30% reduction in electricity supply. Although the company produced 68,000 tonnes of cathode copper this year, which represent a 21% increase as compared to the corresponding period last year, the production of blister copper and sulfuric acid decreased by 16% and 21% to 186,000 tonnes and 481,000 tonnes, respectively.

The combination of factors associated with price and production levels resulted in an approximately 38% decrease in sales revenue of the company as compared to the corresponding period last year; Zambia mining tax policy: on July 1, 2015, the Zambian cabinet considered and approved the proposal to adjust mineral royalty for 2015. While mining companies are still subject to a 30% corporate income tax, the mineral royalty rate has been reduced from 8% to 6% for underground mines and from 20% to 9% for open cast mines, respectively. In the long run, the tax policy will lessen the company's tax burden, but as a result of the resumption on the levy of income tax, the corresponding deferred tax assets/liabilities derecognized in 2014 will need to be reassessed and recognized back in 2015, which will reduce the company's profit for the year at approximately $90 million.