Europa Metals' losses widen as exploration costs rise

(Sharecast News) - Lead and zinc explorer Europa Metals reported wider interim losses after exploration costs increased.The AIM-listed outfit turned in a pre-tax loss of A$1.5m for the six months ended 31 December on Friday, a 110% deeper loss than the A$712,548 reported a year earlier, as exploration costs soared more than 432% to A$958,396.Revenues did increase 300% to A$32,000 but the improvement was offset by an 89% fall in other income to A$71,294.Europa also received a smaller foreign exchange gain of just A$4,369 in the first half of its trading year, down from A$25,787 a year before.Looking forward, Europa plans to complete an infill drilling campaign aimed at the high-grade core of its Toral deposit.Europe expects the drilling will increase confidence in the resource estimate to the JORC Indicated category, which will then be subject to further investigation as part of a planned pre-feasibility and feasibility study.By mid afternoon in London, Europa shares had fallen 11% to 0.03p.