Ormonde Mining (LON:ORM) moved into profit in 2015 helped by a gain on the sale of a majority of its stake in its flagship Barruecopardo tungsten project in Spain.
The Aim-listed junior booked a €3.4 mln gain on the sale, which was part of a US$100mln finance package agreed with Oaktree for the construction of a mine at site in Salamanca.
Profits for the year were €2.07mln (loss €1.63mln) with €557,000 revenues also received in management fees for services provided to Saloro, the company that owns the licence at Barruecopardo.
Saloro is now a 30/70 joint venture between Ormonde and Oaktree having been wholly owned previously.
This week, Ormonde said first tungsten is now expected from Barruecopardo in 2017 with a delay caused by an objection to its compulsory land purchase plans.
Mike Donoghue, Ormonde's chairman, said: "The past year has been a successful one for Ormonde, with the achievement of a $100 million financing package for the Barruecopardo Tungsten Project in what was a very difficult funding market for mining projects.
“With an updated construction schedule having been recently agreed with our Project partners, which sees commissioning of the mine in late 2017, the next year should be an exciting one.
He noted that the price for tungsten had rallied recently, adding that supply is also increasingly being constrained by an agreed cut-back in production by the eight largest tungsten mining groups in China, which could progressively start to limit market supply in 2016, and by higher cost mine closures and the deferral of new mining projects.