While it's not well known compared to the S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO) index's other leading miners, the Champion Iron Ltd (ASX: CIA) share price is up 130% as the dual-listed Canadian miner profits from the rising iron ore price. That means it's even ahead of the best-performing large-cap Australia-based iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) that has returned 94% in a year.
Champion Iron has a market cap around $1.35 billion and reported an operating cash profit of C$29.3 million on sales of C$138.3 million for the quarter ending 31 March 2019. It also reported it had cash on hand of C$153.3 million, as at the period end.
For the quarter it reported it produced 1.802 million tonnes of high grade iron ore that achieved a gross realised price of US$98.73 per dry wet metric tonne, or of US$77.05 per dry wet metric tonne after freight shipping costs to China.
Like a lot of capital-intensive miners, it does carry a lot of debt with C$204.7 million in long-term debt listed on its balance sheet, which contributed to net finance costs of C$9.3 million alone for the quarter ending 31 December 2018.
As such, we can see that its share price could remain volatile given its leverage and exposure to the unpredictable iron ore price.
