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(Alliance News) - Premier African Minerals Ltd on Monday reported a narrowed loss for 2018 but said it had suffered a "disappointing" year as it failed to restructure ownership of RHA Tungsten Pty Ltd or agree a proposed joint venture on Zulu Lithium Pty Ltd.
Shares in Premier African Minerals were down 22% at 0.049 pence each in afternoon trade.
The mining and natural resource developer posted a USD7.8 million loss for 2018, narrowed from USD19.6 million the year before. This was largely the result of a USD9.8 million property, plant, and equipment impairment in 2017, which shrank to just GBP196,000 in 2018.
Revenue fell to USD168,000 from USD368,000. Cost of sales dropped to USD179,000 from USD3.5 million excluding depreciation and amortisation and administrative expenses dropped to USD2.8 million from USD3.6 million.
"2018 was disappointing with a number of achievements anticipated being stalled and generally due to circumstances not immediately under our control," said Chief Executive & Outgoing Chair George Roach.
"The prospect of restructuring the ownership at RHA, born out of the promise of a new Zimbabwe, failed to materialise and in its place the Zimbabwean National Indigenisation & Economic Empowerment Fund proposed in late 2018 that they would fund RHA back into production whilst retaining their ownership. In this event, Premier's loan account to RHA, now in excess of USD20 million, remains in place and Premier is reappointed as the manager of the project," said Roach.
"Similarly, the failure to reach agreement on the proposed joint venture to develop Zulu Lithium has been exacerbated by the ongoing frustrations associated with the delay in granting our exclusive prospecting order application over the on-strike extensions to Zulu," the CEO added.
Looking ahead, the company is seeking to diversify so as to avoid relying exclusively on factors outside its control, investing in assets that are already profitable and in production.