Edenville Energy narrowed its first-half losses as it made progress on its Rukwa Coal project in south-west Tanzania. The African coal explorer upgraded its mineral resource estimate of the project, which includes the Namwele, Mkomolo and Muze coal deposits, to 57.5m tonnes of coal measured and indicated with a calorific value of 17.42mj/kg.Following a scoping study, the firm discovered the opportunity to develop the Rukwa Coal Project as the feed for a small scale coal-to-power operation. The small power producer opportunity will allow the group to move towards production, with optimal coal-to-power scenario based on 10 megawatt power plant supplying the local market.Loss on operations after tax for the first six months came to £300,560 down from the previous year's £319,123. The company had net assets at the end of the period of £10.4m and cash reserves of £341,910.During the period, the group entered into a £5m equity financing facility with Darwin Strategic, which will be used for future financing risk.Edenville raised £106,895 under this facility from a subscription of 53,000,000 ordinary shares at 0.2p per share in the first half. This week the company raised a further £390,000 from a subscription of 210,069,392 ordinary shares at 0.186 per share."The company is well funded to satisfy its immediate needs as it keeps a close eye on its operating costs. At the same time, we are maintaining a focused portfolio of licences in Tanzania and we aim to keep land holding costs as low as practically possible as we progress," said Chairman Sally Schofield. "The conclusions of the Scoping Study published in September, demonstrates that there is a viable commercial opportunity for Edenville to become a power producer, utilising a small scale, coal-to-power business scenario."RD