	cra expects to pay final dividend of cents cra ltd craa s said it expected to pay a final dividend of not less than cents a share after july making cents for the year against in the mining and smelting group earlier reported net ings rose to mln dlrs from mln in against analysts forecasts yesterday of mln to mln cra said it was deferring consideration of a dividend until later this year to provide the benefit of dividend imputation to its shareholders after july dividends will be tax free to shareholders provided they come out of ings on which the full pct company tax rate has been p id the company operates on a substituted tax year not the fiscal year ending june and as a result has incurred tax at the pct rate on ings cra said in a statement consequently it has funds available for distribution with dividend imputed but is waiting to see the imputation legislation before determining the final payout it said despite the higher net ings cra said was a poor year for the minerals industry with the notable exception of gold producers prices for major metals expressed in real u s dollars declined to the lowest levels in about years it said fluctuating exchange and interest rates added volatility and uncertainty while the revaluation of the yen is leading to substantial restructuring of japanese industry cra said world demand for metals is growing slowly inventories have steadily declined with supply and demand in better balance but overcapacity continues cra said turning to contributions to its ings cra said bougainville copper ltd buva s contributed mln dlrs while its share of comalco ltd s cmac s net was mln net ings from iron ore operations were mln dlrs against mln in it said lead zinc and silver mining and smelting operations incurred a net loss of mln dlrs against a mln loss in cra said coal activities resulted in a net profit of mln dlrs against mln while salt raised its contribution to mln from mln cra s share of ings from the argyle diamond project amounted to mln dlrs against nine mln in cra said the main item in its mln dlr extraordinary loss was a mln writeoff of unrealised foreign exchange losses on borrowings as required by a new accounting standard other extraordinary items were mln dlrs provided for closures and writedown of assets and a mln increase in future tax provisions cra said cash flow continued at a high level being mln dlrs before capital expenditure against billion in the strong cash flow coupled with the proceeds of the rights issue and the use of existing cash balances enabled group debt to be reduced by nearly mln dlrs cra said it held forward contracts at year end to buy mln u s dlrs to hedge part of its foreign debt this cost mln dlrs after tax included in the net interest cost reuter 
