(Alliance News) - Beowulf Mining Ltd said Friday its quarterly loss narrowed, as it reported a positive operational result from Mitrovica in Kosovo, but a continued wait for a concession at the Kallak magnetite iron ore project in Sweden.
For the three months to the end of March, Beowulf's pretax loss was GBP217,342, narrowed from GBP223,096 the same period the year before. A rise in administrative expenses was more than offset by the non-repeat of a share-based payment expenses.
In mid-February, Beowulf had announced that 42% investee Vardar Minerals identified an additional copper-zinc exploration target at Mitrovica, with several soil samples showing 500 parts per million of copper, and up to 1% lead and zinc.
Meanwhile in Sweden, the company has continued to engage with the government on the granting of a concession for Kallak.
Post-period, on Tuesday Beowulf noted that a Parliamentary Question had been put to Minister for Business, Industry & Innovation Ibrahim Baylan, considering when the government will make a decision on granting mining permits for the area.
The minister is scheduled to answer this question on Wednesday next week.
"Over the quarter, we continued to see progress being made by Vardar in Kosovo, with the addition of a copper-zinc exploration target at Mitrovica and a soils sampling programme being carried out over the prospective Madjan Peak gold target, the results of which should be announced shortly," said Chief Executive Kurt Budge.
"In May 2019, the State Secretary said, to the Chair and me, in a face to face meeting, that the Government understood the importance of Kallak to Jokkmokk. Now more than ever, with Covid-19, it would be logical to assume that a project such as Kallak, which has the potential to bring billions of SEK in investment and hundreds of jobs to northern Sweden, should finally gain approval," Budge added.
Shares in Beowulf Mining were down 3.9% at 5.60 pence on Friday in London.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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Beowulf (BEM)