Beowulf Mining reports half year loss due to acquisition

Iron ore explorer Beowulf Mining reported a half year loss due to an acquisition but benefited from the weak pound.

For the six months ended 30 June loss after tax was £333,052, in line with the same period last year. In the second quarter a loss of £166,000 after tax was also in line with the loss in the first quarter of the year.

Basic loss per share for the period was 0.07p, which the company said was an improvement over the loss per share for the previous year of 0.09p and better than the 2015 full year loss per share of 0.38p.

Cash at 30 June was £1.2m, an increase of about £1m the corresponding period in 2015.

The company had intangible assets of just over £6.7m, which included £277,982 for the Fennoscandian acquisition in January. There was also a favourable exchange difference of £621,195.

Share capital and share premium had increased by 31 December 2015 due to fundraising in February and March, which raised £1.4m, and the £25,500 worth of shares issued as part of the Fennoscandian acquisition. The merger reserve of £137,700 is also in relation to the acquisition.

The AIM-listed company said the translation reserve losses reduced from £1,090,348 at 31 December 2015 to £463,717 at 30 June, due to the weak of the pound which followed the Brexit vote from the UK referendum. The majority of the company's costs are in Swedish Krona which strengthened against the pound by about 10% since 31 December 2015.

In April, the company's subsidiary, Jokkmokk Iron Mines AB (JIMAB), told the Swedish government that its environmental impact assessment for its application for an exploitation concession at its Kallak North mining project was in accordance with the recent Swedish supreme administrative court judgement, when it approached the subsidiary. JIMAB told the Swedish government, that regarding Tasman Metal’s Norra Karr project that judgement should be returned to the mining inspectorate for a judgement.

During the period the Swedish mining inspectorate awarded the company a three-year exploration licence for the Åtvidaberg nr 1 site, which covers 225 square kilometres and is located in Bergslagen.

Beowulf completed an initial geological appraisal of its Haapamäki graphite project in Finland and are positive about the results. The company said the project is considered a priority target for continuing exploration activities.

Chief executive Kurt Budge, said: "In the last month we have provided updates on our exploration activities in Finland and Sweden as we have been busy carrying out work at our graphite assets and at the Åtvidaberg licence. In addition, we have been successful in the award of another exploration licence, Sala nr 10 in Sweden. We have shareholders who remain focused on Kallak as the value driver of Beowulf, but our moves into graphite, Åtvidaberg and Sala will show their worth in time.

“While we are still waiting for a decision on the exploitation concession for Kallak North, Beowulf has diversified and made significant progress towards building a solid platform for a modern and sustainable mining business in the Nordic region.”

Shares in Beowulf Mining were down 0.89% to 4.21p at 1110 BST.