PRETAX PROFITS at a company that processes lead and zinc from Lisheen mine in Co Tipperary last year increased to $75.6 million (€58 million).

The figure covers a 15-month period to the end of March last, and is almost 60 per cent ahead of the corresponding figure for calendar year 2010.

The increase in operating profit at Lisheen Milling Ltd – before a 2010 reversal of impairment is taken into account – came as revenues climbed 54.5 per cent to $409.5 million in the period.

The mine has been in production since 1999 and produces an average 165,000 tonnes of zinc per year and 200 tonnes of lead.

In 2010 Indian company Vedanta Resources purchased the Tipperary mine along with other bigger mines in South Africa and Namibia from previous owners Anglo American Zinc as part of a €1.34 billion deal which estimated Lisheen’s value at $308 million.

According to documents lodged by Vedanta Resources plc with the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisheen is expected to close in late 2013 or early 2014.

Last year Lisheen Milling Ltd paid four separate dividend payments totalling $84.2 million to its parent.

According to the directors’ report lodged with the Companies Office “the company performed strongly in the 15 months, a period in which the market experienced some volatility in commodity prices towards the second half of 2011 and a partial recovery in the first quarter of 2012”.

The firm’s operating profit, before the 2010 $35 million reversal of impairment is taken into account, increased by 60 per cent last year from $48 million to $76.8 million.

The pretax profits takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of $11.8 million and $1.3 million in redundancy costs.

The numbers employed by the company last year increased by just one to 72, but staff costs rose by 52 per cent to $11.3 million.

The firm paid $10.4 million in corporation tax last year.