Vast Resources first-half revenue up 5%

MINING group Vast Resources said its revenue rose 5% to $14.9 million (R189.45m) in the half year to September from its two operational mines in Romania and Zimbabwe.

The company also reported a 45% decrease in overhead expenses to $2.5m and a loss before taxation of $12.6m compared with a profit of $0.3m last year, which it said was due to $12.5m in exceptional items.

The group raised a $1.6m loan to fund its Romanian operations and a $5.02m overdraft to fund construction of its sulphide plant in Zimbabwe.

The cost of sales increase from 58% of revenue for the half year to September last year to 79% of revenue for the current half year was due to additional overburden stripping at the Pickstone-Peerless Gold Mine in Zimbabwe to facilitate sulphide mining and to provide adequate mining areas for future periods.

“The benefits of this overburden removal will be positively felt during future reporting periods,” chief executive Roy Pitchford said.

Chairman Brian Moritz said Pitchford had resigned from the board with effect from December 31.

Vast Resources said the effect of a transaction with Sub-Sahara Goldia Investments which involved the divestment of an effective 25% interest in the PickstonePeerless Gold Mine and the Giant Gold Mine in Zimbabwe was reflected in the half-year statements.

Notwithstanding recent political developments in Zimbabwe, the company said it expected the profits generated in the PickstonePeerless Gold Mine to be retained in Zimbabwe in order to finance the development of the Giant Gold Mine.

Vast Resources would focus on its core operations in both Romania and Zimbabwe, building on the experience and intellectual know-how gained since its transformation to a mining company that begun in 2014.

Political developments in Zimbabwe, where new president Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in to replace veteran leader Robert Mugabe, were encouraging, the company said.

“The board believes that political stability and an improved management of the local economy herald more favourable prospects for the group’s Zimbabwean assets,” Moritz said. – African News Agency (ANA)