Ortac Resources Loss Halves As It Cuts Cost While Progressing Projects

LONDON (Alliance News) - Mining development and exploration investment company Ortac Resources Ltd on Wednesday said its pretax loss more than halved in the first half as it slashed operating costs to cope with the tough commodities market.

Ortac's pretax loss for the half was GBP342,000, compared to GBP791,000 a year earlier, after the company cut costs at its sites in Slovakia and its head office in London.

Zamsort Ltd had a solid first half, securing new financing, renewing its small mining licence for the Kalaba mining project in Zambia and looking set to commission a copper, cement and cobalt hydroxide filter plant in the second quarter of 2016. Ortac owns convertible loan notes issued by Zamsort.

Elsewhere, Ortac saw encouraging drilling results for Andiamo Exploration Ltd at the Haykota licence in Eritrea. Ortac owns a 25% stake in Andiamo.

Ortac also maintained its interests in Slovakia and said it is in talks with potential local partners to work on the ?turec gold and silver project.

"Work over the past six months has allowed us to further diversify our portfolio, mitigating country-specific and commodity risk. We are excited by recent developments at Zamsort, with the construction of the trial production plant, and hope for continued positive newsflow from that project over the next few months," said Anthony Balme, Ortac's chairman.

By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.