Harvest Minerals narrows losses as Arapua project records first revenue

AIM-listed fertiliser producer Harvest Minerals narrowed pre-tax losses in the first half of its trading year, after recording first revenue from its Arapua multi-nutrient direct project and taking several steps to reduce costs.

Pre-tax losses were slashed 41.8% year-on-year to $829,681, as reductions in travel, rent, accounting and consulting expenses offset rises in advertising, legal and depreciation costs.

Harvest successfully moved ahead of schedule during the half, completing agronomic test works on the Arapua Project in Brazil under twelve months and, as a result, kicking off commercial production of KPfertil fertiliser in October.

KPfertil delivered Harvest Minerals its first revenue of $42,000 and inked a major supply deal with a sales value of more than $2m with Brazilian distributor Agrocerrado Produtos Agricolas e Assistencia Tecnica to provide a total of 36 kilotons of the fertiliser to the South American firm.

Brian McMaster, Harvest Minerals' chairman, said, "Looking forward, 2018 is going to be another real step change for us as we focus on increasing our sales volumes and head towards commercial production."

McMaster also pointed to Harvest's strong order book for the remainder of the year as a sign of good things to come.

“We announced in January 2018 a significant expansion for our processing plant to 320Ktpa, which will be completed in early Q2, and are actively expanding our sales and marketing team. We will also be submitting a full feasibility study and environmental report as part of the application for a full mining licence and continuing our agronomic testing, including the ongoing long-term test work on coffee, which is the major crop within 50km of the project. In the meantime, we continue to produce product under our trial mining licence,” McMaster said.

Harvest ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of $1.64m - 17.9% year-on-year gain.

As of 1300 GMT, shares had slipped 4.28% to 21.25p.