19th Nov 2018 12:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - Botswana Diamonds PLC on Monday said its loss widened in its most recently ended financial year due to challenges in its namesake country.
The stock was down 5.5% on Monday at 0.68 pence a share.
The exploration company said its pretax loss widened to GBP557,657 in the year to the end of June from GBP310,798 reported for the same period a year ago, due to an impairment of GBP179,524.
During the year, Botswana Diamonds explained, some licences held by the company in its subsidiary Sunland Minerals Pty Ltd were relinquished. Therefore, the directors decided to impair the cost of exploration on these licences.
Botswana Diamonds did not generate any revenue in the period, as it currently develops projects in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
The company expanded into South Africa two years ago by earning into Vutomi, a privately owned venture with a portfolio of assets in South Africa. During the year, Botswana Diamonds said it examined number of development options for its flagship project within that South Africa portfolio, Thorny River, and decided to contract out the development.
If approvals can be finalised, royalty revenue should begin to flow to Vutomi by end of 2019, Botswana Diamonds said. This also will allow the company to work towards a maiden resource at negligible cost.
In Botswana, the company has two ongoing projects, Sunland Minerals and Maibwe. Targets at the Sunland Minerals were identified and drilled with no strong results, the company said.
Botswana Diamonds noted that it intends to continue to focus on its activities in Botswana, despite a challenging exploration environment. The company highlighted that the country is covered in sand - the Kalahari Desert - where the exploration techniques struggle.
Finally, in Zimbabwe, the company established a special purpose vehicle in co-operation with fellow London listing Vast Resources PLC to develop diamond ventures. Initial work done has identified several targets for placer deposits, as well as potential for the older conglomerates mined elsewhere in the area.
Related Shares:
Vast ResourcesBotswana Diam