Overall production increased in the second half of FY2015 as zinc and gold prices improved in Australia dollar terms, leading Swick to what it labelled a more stable year for earnings than the previous financial year despite moving from full-year profit to loss.

Swick’s revenue increased 12% year-on-year to $132 million over the financial year, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation before significant items was up 4.1% at $17.2 million.

The company reported an after-tax loss before significant items of just $30,000.

However, non-cash impairments, write-downs on both inventory and an accounting loss on the disposal of an associate, as well as restructure-related redundancy expenses resulted in significant item losses of $17.5 million.

The losses were less than the $20-25 million worth of impairments forecast by the company in July.

Swick reported a net profit after tax of $1.8 million the 2014 financial year - an 86% drop from the year prior to that.

Swick managing director Kent Swick said the result was a product of the environment in which the company was operating.

“The 2015 financial year saw a continuation of low and volatile commodity prices, uncertain global demand for metals and disinterested capital markets,” he said.

“These factors converged to reinforce the cost focus of the sector, and the continued very low capital expenditure environment.

“This led to greatly reduced exploration drilling and the competitive environment became more aggressive.”

Swick’s underground diamond division was a highlight, drilling more than 1 million metres over FY2015, a 22.1% increase on the previous financial year and 8.4% improvement on the record set two years prior.

The company had 60 rigs working at the end of June for a 72% utilisation rate.

Swick said it would not pay a final dividend to shareholders for the financial year due to the uncertainty over the drilling market, but would consider one for the first half of the current financial year.

However, Kent Swick said he expected the challenges to continue.

“With the continued volatility in the commodity market the company expects the highly competitive market for drilling services to continue in 2016 as surplus capacity remains in the industry,” he said.

“Swick continues to be ready and willing to assist its clients to maintain low costs and high productivity in this tough market.”