(Alliance News) - Salt Lake Potash Ltd on Friday said its loss more than doubled in its most recent financial year on a range of expenses, most notably pre-development expenses from construction.
In its year ended June 30, the firm - which aims to produce organic sulphate of potash from lakes in Western Australia - posted a AUD26.9 million pretax loss, around GBP15 million. This was a much wider than the AUD11.3 million figure reported the year before.
The single biggest factor in this shift was pre-development expenses which amounted to AUD8.5 million in Salt Lake's 2019 financial year versus nothing the year before. This expense related to "the construction of the first phase of the commercial scale [sulphate of potash] brine evaporation ponds at Lake Way."
Other significant expense increases also played a role, including a 61% rise in exploration and development expenses to AUD13.7 million from AUD8.5 million and a trebling of corporate and administrative expenses to AUD3.3 million from AUD1.1 million.
On June 30, Salt Lake's net assets totalled AUD14.7 million, well above the AUD7.0 million reported the year before. This was the result of more than AUD33.3 million of funds raised in the year.
Shares in Salt Lake were down 0.6% at 46.70 pence in London on Friday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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