LONDON (Alliance News) - West African Minerals Corp on Tuesday reported a narrowed pretax loss for its recently ended financial year, as it took steps to cut costs and preserve cash.
For the year to end-March, the company reported a pretax loss of GBP5.6 million, narrowed from a pretax loss of GBP8.4 million a year before, mostly as a result of lower impairment charges, amongst other operating costs. It did not report revenue in either period.
It did not propose a dividend for either period.
West African Minerals said it had implemented a significantly reduced operational and corporate budget with the aim of preserving cash throughout 2015. This meant reducing its operational team and exploration field activities, selling its assets in Sierra Leone, and applying to reduce the lease area size under its exploration permit in Cameroon.
The company said that the mining sector, particularly the iron ore sector, has been under "significant cyclical pressure".
"Our strategy today is to look for compelling consolidation opportunities in the mineral resource space in Africa where there is significant unrecognized value and West African Minerals can utilize its substantial technical expertise to unlock this value. Our long term view is that all mineral commodities are fundamentally cyclical and that those companies that can take advantage of periods of extremely low asset valuations to build their portfolio will be well place to benefit from the eventual market recovery," the company said in a statement.
Shares in West African Minerals closed down 11% at 3.58 pence Tuesday.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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