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LONDON (Alliance News) - URU Metals Limited Monday said its pretax loss narrowed in its first half, and it has acquired a 100% stake in its joint venture partner Southern African Nickel Limited.
The base metals and uranium explorer and development company said its pretax loss narrowed to USD147,000 for the six months ended September 30 from USD860,000 the previous year.
The company said its administrative expenses almost halved to USD445,000 from USD860,000 as the company streamlined its operations and it achieved a payment of USD298,000 on the disposal of its investment in UrAmerica, an Argentina-based private uranium exploration company.
URU Metals said it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 100% interest in its joint venture partner Southern African Nickel Limited and subsequently a 100% interest in the SAN joint venture, which holds a 74% interest in the Zebediela Nickel Project and 50% interest in the Burgersfort Nickel Project, both in South Africa.
URU said that, as part of the deal, it will pay the shareholders of SAN the token sum of USD1 and will pay the JV's current outstanding obligations of roughly USD185,000 to its South African operating consultant, Pangea Exploration (Pty) Ltd., a connected company to SAN.
The company also said that despite its recent decline in share price and challenging market conditions, the long-term fundamentals of the base minerals industries remains positive.
URU Metals shares were down 3.2% to 2.25 pence in morning trading Monday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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