LONDON (Alliance News) - ZincOx Resources PLC Tuesday said it is looking for a strategic investor to build a new plant after successfully ramping up its existing Korean recycling plant, as the company reported a rise in revenue in 2014, despite some operational difficulties toward the end of the year.
For the 2014 year, revenue totalled USD37 million, a significant increase from the USD27.1 million reported in 2013.
Zinc in concentrate production during the year was 28,564 tonnes, up from 24,577 tonnes a year earlier, whilst 119,124 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust was processed at the company's Korean recycling plant during the year, an increase from the 103,420 tonnes processed during 2013.
The company said its wholly owned Korean recycling plant has restarted after a successful ramp up, and began "operating consistently above target". The feed rate at the plant is now hitting around 97% of its target whilst zinc recovery lies at around 90%.
Taking the feed rate and the zinc recovery, ZincOx said the plant's underlying performance is hitting about 90% of its overall targets. As a result, the plant processed 15,200 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust over the past 30 days, which the company said is a "record for such a period", and is expecting further improvements in performance in the near future.
In December, a small refractory failure led to the feed being suspended. The plant's throughput totalled 10,405 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust during the month, with the sale of 2,337 tonnes of zinc in concentrate.
"While we were naturally disappointed by the small refractory failure in December, since the restart we have made very good progress," said Chief Executive Andrew Woollett.
The plant also was partially closed in November to conduct repairs, resulting in only 6,017 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust being processed during the period. The company said it sold 1,840 tonnes of zinc in concentrate in November.
ZincOx said it is now considering the development of another plant after the ramp up of the existing plant. The new plant would aim to upgrade facilities to turn zinc concentrate and iron briquettes into zinc oxide of an industrial chemical grade and pig iron, it said in a statement.
The upgrades would double the revenue generated per tonne of electric arc furnace dust, said the company.
Preliminary assessments of a new plant have shown the total capital expenditure cost would vary between USD105 million and USD120 million. The plant would treat 100,000 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust per year, indicating a pre-finance internal rate of return of around 25%, said ZincOx.
ZincOx said it will be piloting the zinc concentrate and iron briquette upgrades at the existing plant before a development decision is made.
The company is actively seeking a strategic investor for the development of the proposed new plant and has appointed HCF International Advisers Ltd to assist the company in finding an investor.
HCF is an independent corporate finance advisory boutique based in London and focused on the global metals and mining sector and associated infrastructure.
"At the current production rate we are confident of the attractiveness of a new project and so we can begin to look for a suitable partner," said Wollett.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
