 saw shares rise in early trading on Tuesday, after reporting solid progress on its projects in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia.){kind=link}
Gold exploration company KEFI Minerals (LON:KEFI) saw shares rise in early trading on Tuesday, after reporting solid progress on its projects in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia.
KEFI reported a pretax loss of £136,000 for the year ended December 31, a reduction from the £319,000 loss reported the previous year. The company’s figures were aided by a VAT refund of £2.519 million, offsetting increased exploration costs and administration expenses.
KEFI concentrated on progressing its Tulu Kapi gold project in 2016, Ethiopia’s first modern mine, obtaining a $20 million investment from the Ethiopian government to support its progression.
In a statement, the company said that the completed Preliminary Economic Assessment confirmed robust economics for the development of the underground mine, with the initial potential to increase production to over 150,000 per annum over four years whilst drilling to expand underground resources which are open in several directions.
Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Executive Chairman of KEFI Minerals, commented: “With the Ethiopian State of Emergency, conventional finance proposals were stalled in 2016 so we successfully responded by focusing our efforts on alternative financiers familiar with Africa, especially Ethiopia, and particularly on proposals designed around African-experienced gold project contractors. As a result, we are now assessing three proposals.
“At the same time, operational activities continued uninterrupted and we now have a development-ready mine, once the funding package is finalised. We look forward to commencing development in 2017 and open-pit gold production in 2019.”
Shares in KEFI Minerals are currently trading up 1.82 percent at 5.60 (1121GMT).