LONDON (Alliance News) - Papua Mining PLC, which focuses on gold and copper mining in Australia and Papua New Guinea, said today that it significantly narrowed its loss in 2017 due to a significant drop in impairments incurred in 2016.
The company's pretax loss for 2017 was GBP380,388, sharply narrowed from GBP6.1 million in 2016. The 2016 loss was largely attributed to a GBP5.8 million impairment charge.
The company said that it has made no revenue and will not pay a dividend as development efforts are still ongoing.
Going forward, the company intends to change its name to Rockfire Resources PLC at its next annual general meeting.
Papua Mining also drew attention to its 2017 expansion into Queensland Australia with three exploration permits for minerals already granted and another three permit applications submitted.
"The total area under licence, is 352 square kilometres in Papua New Guinea and 624 square kilometres in Australia, including applications...The variety of project size, together with the potential for either open cut and underground extraction methods provides Papua with multiple opportunities for exploration success and development pathways," said Papua Mining Chairman Michael Somerset-Leeke.
Shares in Papua Mining were down 9.9% at 0.75 pence per share on Monday morning.