LONDON (Alliance News) - Kazakhstan-focused molybdenum and tungsten exploration and development company Kemin Resources PLC posted a slightly narrower pretax loss for the first half on Thursday as it delayed plans to move its projects into production.
The company said that while it thinks the Drozhilovskoye and Smirnovskoye projects remain attractive given the high grades of molybdenum oxide and tungsten concentrates they have, in light of the current market conditions and lower world prices for the two commodities, it has decided not to progress the projects to production at the current time.
Kemin said it will instead focus on further optimising the projects and will continue to explore in the prospect areas.
Kemin said its pretax loss for the six months to the end of June was GBP431,000, compared to a GBP470,000 loss a year earlier.
"Our Drozhilovskoye and Smirnovskoye deposits are substantial assets but, given the continued cyclical downturn in commodity prices that we have seen during the first half of 2015, our board is of the opinion that it makes economic sense to preserve these projects for a higher molybdenum and tungsten price environment," said Chief Executive Sanzhar Assaubayev.
"In making the decision not to rush our [competent persons reports], we can now concentrate on focused exploration and appraisal work on the deposits and continuing to add value for shareholders," he added.
Shares in Kemin were down 11% to 2.00 pence on Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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