21st Jul 2014 10:01
LONDON (Alliance News) - Alba Mineral Resources PLC Monday said its pretax loss widened in its first half as the company struggled to gain value from its mineral operations, causing it to invest in an oil and gas asset earlier this month.
Alba Mineral Resources, which generally focuses on uranium exploration in Mauritania and base metal development in Ireland, said its pretax loss widened to GBP65,835 for the six months ended May 31 from GBP33,994 the previous year.
The company said the majority of its losses came from an increase in administrative expenses to GBP65,826 from GBP25,762 previously.
Alba Mineral Resources has been struggling to gain traction with its assets, and after the period end noted that Teck Ireland Ltd had withdrawn from its exploration joint venture with Alba in Ireland.
Alba Mineral Resources added in April that its Mauritania licence expires in May 2015 ,and there is uncertainty over whether the licence will be renewed or extended beyond that point, which could lead to the GBP556,293 carrying value of the asset becoming impaired.
As such, the company had been looking for new acquisitions after noting in April that, without further fund raising, it may struggle to carry out its exploration activities.
Earlier this month, the company signed a deal to acquire a 5% stake in Horse Hill Developments Ltd, which operates in the UK Weald Basin just south of London, for a cash payment of GBP300,000.
The deal represented Alba's first move into oil and gas. On Monday, the Horse Hill-1 well and overall licence at the site received key UK government approvals towards drilling, which is scheduled to start later this month.
Alba Mineral Resources shares were down 2.9% to 0.704 pence on Monday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Alba Mineral Resources