14th May 2014 11:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - EMED Mining Public Ltd Wednesday said its losses widened in the first quarter of its new financial year, on the back of a huge increase in finance costs.
The Europe-based mineral development and exploration company said its pretax loss in the three months to March 31, widened to GBP4.5 million from GBP3.1 million a year earlier, due to a huge increase in finance costs, mostly in Cyprus, where its exploration activities and administration is based.
Finance costs in the quarter increased to GBP2.2 million in the period from only GBP105,000 the prior year.
Exploration expenses for the quarter meanwhile, were only GBP23,000, compared with GBP220,000 last year.
Last month, EMED Mining said that mining rights for the Rio Tinto copper project in Spain have now been transferred to the company's subsidiary EMED Tartessus, effectively giving the company its final permits required to start production at the major project.
"The fact that EMED Mining now has AAU and AS approval means that we can focus on developing on-site operations and progress towards the reopening of the historic Rio Tinto copper project," said Chief Executive Officer Isaac Querub in a statement Wednesday.
The Rio Tinto copper project, formerly owned by Rio Tinto PLC, is a key focus for EMED. At its full-year results in March the company said that its near-term priority was to start production at the project.
The open-pit mine has ore reserves totalling 606,000 tonnes of contained copper and a large processing facility that has been on care and maintenance since 2001.
EMED Mining shares were up 1.5% to 7.74 pence Wednesday early afternoon.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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