Rouble volatility a boon for Eurasia Mining

Eurasia Mining posted its interim results for the six months to 30 June on Thursday, with zero revenue, against revenue of £3,640 in the six months to 30 June last year.

The AIM-traded company had administrative costs during the period of £0.25m, down from £0.33m a year ago, and finance costs of £0.1m, compared to nil in the first half of 2015.

It still made a profit before tax of £0.9m, however, compared to a loss of £0.3m a year ago, thanks to a gain of £1.2m as a result of significant Russian rouble fluctuation.

“As I anticipated in the Annual Report, platinum and gold mining at West Kytlim has commenced, with the prospect of at least 10 years of production lying ahead,” said chairman Michael Martineau.

“At the time of writing we have shipped and had notification of receipt of the first concentrates from the mine.

“A single shipment of 574.18 grams of raw platinum was received at the Ekaterinburg Non-ferrous Metals Processing Plant and will be refined and then purchased by the refinery under the terms of our refining and sales agreement,” he said.

Martineau said the directors have targeted cash-generative and “straight-forward” mining projects to support the development of the company, and believes the strategy has proven successful for Eurasia’s survival in the long term.

“Eurasia's royalty-like financing structure for the West Kytlim mine has allowed us to advance the project to mining and we look forward to crystallising further value from our partnership with SKRS, when the project achieves steady state production in the short term, and benefits from capital expansion in the medium term,” Martineau explained.