16th Sep 2024 16:33
(Alliance News) - Kavango Resources PLC on Monday said that although its loss widened it "continued to make good progress" in its latest half year.
In a separate release, the London-headquartered metal exploration company also announced "further positive assay results" from Prospect 3 at the Hillside Gold Project in southern Zimbabwe.
Kavango, which owns base and precious metal projects in Botswana and Zimbabwe, reported a pretax loss of USD1.7 million for the first half of 2024. This was compared with a USD1.4 million loss the previous year.
The company became revenue-generating for the first time during the period, making USD209,000 from Hillside where production commenced under a mining contract. Gross profit totalled USD41,000 from Kavango's mining activities in Zimbabwe.
Kavango said its exploration expenditure totalled USD828,000 in Botswana, and USD1.1 million in Zimbabwe. Purebond Ltd later invested a further USD2.6 million through a convertible loan note, "enabling work to be accelerated on both production at Hillside and wider exploration".
The firm also noted that it raised GBP3.1 million through issuing 257.1 million shares via an underwritten accelerated bookbuild at 1.2 pence each.
Going forward, at Hillside the company intends to increase production to one kilogram of gold per month this year. Kavango also said it is "looking forward" to its proposed referral listing on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange in Zimbabwe.
The company furthermore announced the latest assay results from Prospect 3. The "best results" included 2.93 grams per tonne of gold and 13.82 grams per tonne at different depths in one hole, NSDD002, at 66 metres to 68 metres depth; for the other, NSDD003, they included 1.80 grams and 5.79 grams per tonne of gold at around 104 metres deep.
"Results provide further confirmation of what Kavango believes to be a likely extensive mineralised system, with an open strike [exceeding 200 metres]," the firm said.
"These results take us a step closer to defining a first bulk minable target at Hillside," commented Chief Executive Ben Turney. "The widths and grades at Prospect 3 are encouraging, as is the proximity of gold mineralisation to surface."
Shares in Kavango were 6.6% lower at 1.05 pence each on Monday afternoon in London.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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