ALO.L Share News (ALO)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Savannah Resources PLC Thursday said its pretax loss widened in 2015 thanks to impairments and losses from selling shares in one of investments in a fellow London-listed company.

The miner, which is still chasing its maiden revenue, said its pretax loss in 2015 was significantly wider than a year ago, producing a GBP3.1 million loss compared to a GBP1.9 million loss a year earlier thanks to one-off charges.

Savannah booked GBP1.1 million in impairments against its investment in other listed companies and a GBP666,154 loss on the disposal of shares in London-listed Alecto Minerals PLC after its shares tumbled in the year. However, those charges were partly offset by a drop in finance costs to only GBP2,446 in 2015 compared to GBP491,851 last year.

"We made great progress in 2015, particularly in giving more definition to the copper projects in Oman, with high-grade copper and gold results returned from drilling and the definition of a significant aggregate exploration target for the two blocks," said Chief Executive David Archer.

This was augmented with a major strategic initiative, subject to Mozambican Government approvals, of the combination of our Jangamo heavy mineral sands project with Rio Tinto's Mutamba HMS Project," he added.

"With defined development strategies in place targeting commercial copper production in late 2017, and a planned fast paced, staged evaluation of Mutamba/Jangamo I believe 2016 will be a transformational year for the company," said Archer.

Earlier this week, Savannah said Al Marjan Ltd, which acquired its first 5.93% stake in Savannah back late last year, had upped its stake to 29.99% in a placing worth around GBP1.7 million. Shareholders need to approve the issuance of some of those shares, which if approved, would take Al Marjan a smidgen under the threshold to make an offer for the company under AIM rules.

Savannah shares were down 1.2% to 2.0 pence per share whilst Alecto shares were down 3.7% to 0.0650p.

By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance

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