Iluka Resources' sales revenue has dived as demand and prices for its zircon products fell.
Revenue in the three months to March 31 of $115.2 million was down 12 per cent on the same period a year ago, and 51 per cent lower than the December quarter.
Iluka's Zircon is sold mainly to customers that use it for ceramics, including tiles, along with some industrial metals.
The company said revenue fell due to the usual drop in demand during the February-March Chinese new year period, after robust demand in December and January.
There had also been delays in sales, but volumes have since improved.
The company's share price took a hit, falling 66 cents, or 7.9 per cent, to $7.70.
Demand for Iluka's other major product titanium, used mainly as a pigment for paints, is improving, with the company restarting a rutile kiln and the Tutunup South mine in Western Australia.
Prices for Iluka's products were down by between 10 and 35 per cent in 2014, and it said there had been no material changes since.
Quarterly production was down 24 per cent from a year ago to 221 million tonnes, due mainly to the idling of a mineral separation plant in the Murray Basin in Victoria.
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