Ecora Royalties swings to interim profit as cobalt price surges

Ecora Royalties PLC on Wednesday announced a more-than-trebled dividend as it swung to a statutory interim profit as prices of cobalt and copper rose significantly.

The critical minerals-focused royalty company, formerly known as Ecora Resources PLC, said it swung to a pretax profit of USD24.3 million in the first half of 2026, from a loss of USD10.9 million the year before.

Operating profit before revaluations surged to USD12.9 million from USD3.7 million.

Revenue more than doubled to USD32.0 million from USD15.8 million, while operating costs were broadly unchanged at USD6.3 million.

Ecora announced an interim dividend of 1.90 US cents per share, more than tripled on-year from 0.60 cents.

Notably, the average cobalt sales price at Voisey's Bay in Newfoundland & Labrador in Canada jumped by 72% to USD28.4 per pound from USD16.5 a year ago. Ecora received 266 tonnes of cobalt, up 90% from 140 tonnes.

Furthermore, realised copper prices at Mantos Blancos in Chile rose 37% to USD5.92 per pound from USD4.33.

Net debt decreased 40% to USD74.9 million as at June 30 from USD124.6 million a year prior, and is 12% lower than USD85.5 million as at December 31.

Looking ahead, Chief Executive Officer Marc Bishop Lafleche said: "Looking forward, a number of our operating partners are targeting near-term milestones which are expected to advance the next wave of organic growth in our portfolio.

"Within the base metals portfolio, the evaluation of brownfield expansion opportunities are being progressed at Voisey's Bay and Mantos Blancos, alongside the greenfield Santo Domingo [in Chile] project that is moving towards final investment decision. Elsewhere, a definitive feasibility study on the Phalaborwa [in South Africa] rare earths project continues to progress towards completion."

He added: "This combination of strong cash generation, commodity price tailwinds, deleveraging, potential key derisking milestones underpinned by a positive fundamental outlook for copper and other critical minerals, gives us great confidence in the near and long-term outlook for Ecora."

Ecora shares rose 5.4% to 176.80 pence each on Wednesday afternoon in London.

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