LONDON (Alliance News) - Zanaga Iron Ore Co Ltd on Friday said its loss widened in the first half of the year due to a foreign exchange headwind and increased general expenses.
Shares in Zanaga were down 7.5% at 14.78 pence on Friday.
In the six months to June 30, the mining company reported a pretax loss of USD831,000, almost twice its USD494,000 loss the year before.
The largest contributor to this change was the company's USD64,000 loss on foreign exchange during the period, swinging from a USD242,000 gain the year before. Moreover, general expenses increased to USD416,000 from USD357,000 for the period.
The miner holds a stake of 50%, minus one share, in the Zanaga iron ore project in the Republic of Congo. This was its sole business for the period and is presently still under development, so the company recorded no revenue for the period.
"The future of iron ore particularly lies in the production of high quality iron ore materials and the Zanaga project is well aligned to benefit from that trend going forward," Zanaga Non-Executive Chairman Clifford Elphick said.
"We look forward to providing our shareholders with further updates on the early production project as the cost estimates are received and compiled by the Zanaga project team," Elphick added.