Gold mining company Central African Gold Plc (CAN.L), Thursday, reported a wider loss for the first half of fiscal 2009, hurt primarily by a sharp decline in revenues and loss on sale of Ghana division. The company's shares are currently trading down more than 38% on the LSE.
For the first-half period, loss attributable to shareholders was GBP 8.16 million as compared with a loss of GBP 5.90 million in the prior-year period. On a per share basis, loss narrowed to 1.64 pence from a loss of 3.58 pence a year earlier.
The London-based company's revenues for the period plummeted to GBP 293 thousand from GBP 8.62 million in the first half of fiscal 2008.
Geographically, revenues from Zimbabwe were GBP 293 thousand compared to GBP 1.95 million in the same period last year. The company said the mines in Zimbabwe have suffered from years of under-capitalisation, as well as a lack of development and exploration.
Gold production for the period resulted in a gross loss of GBP 0.6 million. Operating loss for the period widened to GBP 8.8 million from a loss of GBP 2.8 million in the 2008-year period. Central African noted that its operations were adversely affected by power outages and breakdowns of aged equipment, lack of available spare equipment components and sufficient quantities of consumables.
The company stated that power supplied to the mines remains erratic, negatively affecting production and plant efficiencies. Frequency of unscheduled power outages has decreased, even though scheduled power outages have increased in recent times, Central African added.
During the six-month period, administrative charges decreased to GBP 1.59 million from GBP 3.65 million last year, and financial expenses were GBP 226 thousand versus GBP 3.57 million in the year-ago period. In the first-half period, the company had a loss of GBP 7.16 million arising from the forced divestment of its subsidiary CAG Ghana.
Looking ahead, Central African said it continues to remain cautiously optimistic about the recovery of Zimbabwe's mining sector.
In a separate release, the company announced that the temporary suspension of its ordinary shares from trading on AIM has been lifted today, following the announcement of Central African's annual report and accounts for the full year fiscal 2008 and its interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2009.
CAN is currently trading on the London Stock Exchange at 0.82 pence per share down 0.51 pence or 38.26% on a volume of 3.22 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the shares have been trading in a range of 0.53 pence to 2.25 pence.
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