30th Sep 2014 09:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - Bellzone Mining PLC Tuesday reported a narrowed loss for the first half of the year, as exploration and administrative expenses fell sharply in the wake of its struggles to find fresh funding.
The metals explorer reported a pretax loss of USD4.8 million for the six months to June 30, compared with the USD20.4 million loss it had reported a year earlier, as exploration expenses fell to just USD521,000, from USD9.9 million, and it cut administrative expenses by over half. It doesn't yet earn any revenue.
In the first half, it stopped drilling at its Sadeka and Kalia operations and placed equipment on care and maintenance, in an effort to cut costs while it looked for new financing.
Last month, Bellzone said it had secured a deal with China Sonangol under which China Sonangol agreed to provide short-term finance of up to USD4 million. That would have given Bellzone enough to continue operations until late October, but the two sides have yet to reach agreement on the satisfaction of the condition related to the deal. Bellzone drew down an initial tranche of USD663,129 in August, and got a second advance of USD750,000 earlier this month, giving it enough to continue until mid-September.
However, last week the company asked for its shares to be suspended because it couldn't get any more money to keep it operating.
"The company continues discussions with potential short and long term finance providers, however, there can be no certainty that the required financing, either short or longer term, will be obtained," it reiterated in its earnings statement Tuesday.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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