Uranium producer Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA) reported on Tuesday that the Darwin-based company suffered a 36 percent decline in its first half uranium oxide output even as it admitted that expected full year production could be up to 18 percent lower from the results posted last year.

Currently the world's fourth biggest uranium miner, ERA said that it has already produced a total of 1,717 tonnes of uranium oxide in the six months leading to June and it is looking forward to produce between 4,300 and 4,700 tonnes for the remaining part of 2010, which is a marked reduction from the 5,240 tonnes output posted last year.

ERA previously announced that this year's output would replicate the production total posted in 2009 but numerous considerations contributed to the relatively lower projected production this year.

The company attributed the lower mining volumes to maintenance works on one of the walls of its mining site, where workers corrected some instability issues on the identified problem.

ERA added that the unprecedented amount of rainfall that hit its mining site resulted to more amount of water being trapped on the site and preventing immediate access to the bottom of the pit.

In spite of the reduced output, ERA still expressed optimism that the company would be able to ship out more than 5,000 tonnes of uranium oxide with proper managing of its inventory and possibly with the aid of some secondary purchases.

The company is confident that higher grades of ore deposited in the lower levels of the pit and mill grades on its mining site could be accessed within this year, which should lead to the better production forecast for the remaining part of 2010.

At present, ERA is majority owned by Rio Tinto Ltd with up to 68 percent of interests in the company and as of 1005 AEST on Tuesday, company stocks were trading at $14.23, sliding by 50 cents or 3.39 percent from the previous trading day.