Sula Iron & Gold plunges as interim loss widens

30th Jun 2015 09:25

Commodity exploration group Sula Iron & Gold reported a wider interim loss but said it remained on track to achieve its goals.For the six months to 31 March, the London-listed company said it had made a £0.89m loss, 30.9% wider than in the corresponding period in 2014, although the value of net assets under the company's control grew 8.5% year-on-year to £6.4m.In the first six months of its financial year, the group said it completed the excavation of five trenches in its gold exploration programme and it expected the results, which are currently undergoing independent verification, to be delivered by the end of July.Meanwhile, Sula's Mineral Resource Estimate identified an exploration target comprising an additional 100 and 250 meters, with a grade range of between 20% Fe and 35% Fe at the group's Ferensola licence in Sierra Leone.The project is now worth approximately $56m after independent consultants SRK Exploration Services lifted the technical valuation on the licence by almost $20m in February."The company remains on track to deliver on the objectives it set out at the beginning of the period, namely to identify drill targets on our gold project and to advance our coltan project to the point where bulk sampling for metallurgical testing can commence," said group chief executive Nick Warrell.Sula shares were down 11.11% to 1.40p at 11:45 on Tuesday.