22nd Nov 2013 11:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stellar Diamonds PLC Friday said its pretax loss narrowed in its full year as operating costs fell despite impairment charges.
The AIM-listed diamond exploration and development company focused on West Africa said its pretax loss narrowed to USD5.0 million for the twelve months ended June 30 from USD5.4 million the previous year.
Stellar Diamonds, which did not post any revenues this year, said its operating loss before interest, tax and impairments was reduced to USD3.0 million from USD4.0 million the previous year.
The company had made revenues of USD370,099 the previous year, but was hit by a cost of sales loss of USD1.3 million during the period, which gave the company a significant gross loss before taking into account impairments in 2012.
In the recent year, the company was hit by increased impairment charges of USD2 million, up from USD1.4 million the previous year, following an impairment review of the exploration and evaluation expenditure at the company's Droujba project in the Republic Of Guinea.
On a more positive note, Stellar Diamonds pointed to an increase in its resource base of 29% to 4 million carats during the period, and Stellar said it will advance its Tongo project to full feasibility during 2014, with a full scale production decision being made after that.
The company placed its Droujba mining operation into care and maintenance during the period, stating that although the site has potential for a short-term production of over 300,000 carats, a higher diamond price is required to make a larger-scale mine feasible and so it is focusing on operations in Tongo.
Stellar Diamonds shares were down 8.4% to 1.08 pence Friday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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