Bushveld Minerals (LON:BMN) is making progress across its portfolio, and while the focus is exploration, mining is "within reach", it told investors, reporting 2015 results.
The vanadium project in South Africa is the flagship and in the longer term, the firm sees cash flows from that helping to finance other projects.
"We shall also continue our efforts to find strategic partners for our projects and believe that these projects' qualities are sufficiently attractive to achieve this," said chief executive Fortune Mojapelo.
The year to February 28 saw a number of highlights, including the successful upgrade to the vanadium project mineral resource to 285mln tonnes, while a scoping study showed $264 million NPV and 24% IRR based on initial capex of $262 million.
Post period, a mining right for the Vanadium site was applied for in March and the firm completed the acquisition of the balance of shares in Madagascar-focused coal firm Lemur Resources that it did not already own.
The loss before tax for the year was £2.88mln, compared to a loss of £416,743 for 2014.
Broker Shore Capital said the 2015 results were largely academic, having been comprehensively overtaken by post-period events, notably the Lemur completion.
"Bushveld had been supposed to release results from the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on the flagship Vanadium Project in H1 CY2015. Work on this appears to be still on-going, with “considerable progress” made, according to the company," said the broker.
Shares in Bushveld eased 1.41% to 3.5p.