LONDON (Alliance News) - Russia-focused miner Amur Minerals Corp on Tuesday said it swung to a pretax profit in the first half on derivatives gains, as it focused its energy on the Kun-Manie project.
The company said it made a pretax profit of USD3.0 million in the half to the end of June, compared to a USD5.3 million loss a year earlier. The loss in 2014 was driven by the company booking a derivative loss of USD3.7 million, which turned to a gain of USD1.2 million this year. Amur does not generate any revenue.
Amur spent the first half working on securing an exploration and production licence for the Kun-Manie nickel copper sulphide project, which has now been registered. Amur is now positioning itself ahead of the expected award of a production licence for the project.
"The first half of 2015 saw the achievement of a major milestone for the company with the award of the production licence. There remains a substantial amount of work as we continue to advance Kun-Manie from exploration to pre-production, but with Russia's commitment to the development of the Far East and the dedication of our own staff, we have great opportunity to progress from a pure explorer to become a nickel sector player," said Chief Executive Robin Young.
Shares in Amur were down 5.7% to 13.20 pence on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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