Empire Metals shares were down 1.7% to 1.2p in early afternoon trading on Friday after the group reported a widened pre-tax operating loss of £2.3 million from £953,769 in FY 2021.
The company announced an administration expenses loss of £1.9 million compared to £958,694 the last year, along with other losses at $417,138 against an intake of £3,721.
Empire Metals confirmed a total loss for the year of £589,254, representing a slight rise from £572,989 in the previous year.
The mining firm commented it had undertaken significant expansion of its exploration footprint across highly prospective areas of its target jurisdiction in Australia.
The company also appointed Shaun Bunn as managing director to advance rapid expansion strategy in Australia, along with the appointment of two exploration professionals, Ed Baltis as an exploration consultant and Louisa Stokes as an exploration geologist.
Empire Metals executed a drilling and exploration programme at its Eclipse Gold project, with a completed 4,589 metres reverse circulation drilling programme over 44 holes in February 2021, including an intercept of 24 metres at 1.4 g/t gold near Jack’s Dream old workings.
The group also mentioned its acquisition of the Gindalbie Gold project post-period end, alongside its concluded Definitive and Binding Sale and Purchase Agreement over the Bolnisi project in Georgia for $3.3 million in June 2021.
Empire Metals further noted its oversubscribed placing which raised £1.7 million post-period end, resulting in a cash at bank of £2.7 million to support exploration programmes across 2022 and 2023.
“This has been a pivotal year for Empire and it has been an incredibly exciting time to be part of the team. I had the pleasure of joining Empire at the key turning point in its strategy as it intensified its exploration focus on Australia, an area which I know well and has, quite rightly, been continuously hailed as the world’s leading mining jurisdiction,” said Empire Metals CEO Shaun Bunn.
“With Eclipse forming the initial stepping stone to establishing an Australian exploration portfolio of quality and scale, we have seen some very encouraging results from drilling and technical work undertaken in 2021, further increasing our confidence that our focus within Australia is well placed.”
“This has been clearly put into action with the decision to bolster our position at Eclipse post period end, through the Tribute Agreement in respect to the neighbouring Gindalbie Project, and thus forming the now renamed Eclipse-Gindalbie Project to create real scale in the region.”
