Natural resources explorer Greatland Gold PLC (LON:GGP) has hailed the continuing recovery of the mining sector, which it says leaves it well-placed for the rest of the year.
The London-listed company made decent headway in the first half of its fiscal year at all of its main projects, which coincided nicely with an uptick in commodity prices.
The price of gold – which, as its name suggests, is Greatland’s main focus – has rallied over the past year or so, buoyed by the global economic and political uncertainty.
The better prices have also led to improved sentiment towards miners as investors come back to a sector they had briefly left when the downturn set in.
“During the first six months of our financial year, general market conditions continued to improve,” chief executive Gervaise Heddle told investors.
“The company believes that accelerating exploration across its portfolio of projects and the acquisition of new projects remains the best path to maximising shareholder value in the short to medium terms as the long anticipated recovery in the commodity sector continues.”
For the six months to 31 December 2016, Greatland reported an operating loss of £608,400 (2015: loss of £227,700).
The increased loss was largely due to higher exploration expenses incurred, as Greatland ramped up operations across all of its projects.
It was most active at its Ernest Giles gold-nickel project in Western Australia where it undertook a wide-spaced drilling campaign.
Results from that came out at the beginning of the second half and identified two large zones of gold mineralisation.
Greatland said progress was also made in the period at its other gold-nickel project in WA, Bromus.
A limited reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign identified “substantial” sulphide mineralisation, while downhole electromagnetic survets conducted shortly after uncovered “several highly conductive targets”.
Adding to its Western Australian portfolio, Greatland completed the acquisition of the Havieron copper-gold for US$750,000 in September.
The other works of note were carried out at the Warrentinna gold project in Tasmania where more RC drilling extended the continuity of gold mineralisation at the Derby North prospect.
As Heddle alluded to, the explorer is continuing to assess new opportunities to add to its portfolio of projects.
Shares gained 0.02p, or 8%, to 0.29p.