Galileo Resources makes solid development progress, widens loss

Natural resource exploration and development company Galileo Resources posted its unaudited interim results for the six months to 30 September on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm said during the period, independent modelling continued on a number of prospects on the Concordia Copper Project in South Africa, including Whyte's West, Klondike, Wheal Julia and Homeep East.

A desktop study of the modelling conceptualised a deposit of potentially more than 750 million tonnes rock mass at a mean grade 0.57% Cu assuming 50% mineralisation, Galileo said, adding that geological information suggested copper mineralisation on Concordia is strongly associated with diorite rock type, which previously was considered low grade and therefore uninteresting at the time.

The prospecting right for Concordia was notarially executed and renewed by the Department of Minerals Resources for a further three years to 17 August 2019 during the half.

At the Glenover phosphate rare-earth project in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, the option granted to Galileo's joint venture partner Fer-Min-Ore to acquire or otherwise commercially collaborate with other third parties on the project lapsed by mutual consent on 28 August, with the parties agreeing to pursue alternative strategic options jointly to advance the project.

In the US, Galileo sold its Gabbs property in Nevada for $2.5m cash, and an earn-in agreement was executed with Orogen Gold for Galileo's Silverton gold-silver property in Nevada.

That agreement gave Orogen the right to earn an initial 51% interest in property on spending $0.4m over 18 months and the option to earn an additional 24% interest in the property through a further exploration spend of $1.5m over a subsequent 30 month period.

Galileo said it retained the right to participate pro rata after Orogen's initial 51% earn-in

An additional 210 unpatented claims were acquired on the Ferber gold property in North Eastern Nevada, and the board said all Nevada property claim fees had been paid to August 2017.

“The group's loss for the six months, before and after taxation and before taking items of other comprehensive income into account, was £538,075 - compared to a 2015 loss of £170,971,” confirmed Galileo chairman Colin Bird.

“The group's loss per ordinary share was 0.3 pence - compared to 0.1 pence.

“I look forward to the company advancing its projects and prospects with the underlying criterion of shareholder return being our key focus.”