Savannah Resources PLC (LON:SAV) has had a busy first half with more set to come as it moves into production.
Copper mining at Oman via an underground mine at Mahab 4 and open-cut development at Maqail South is earmarked to begin in the first half of 2018.
WATCH: Savannah Resources kicks off second round of drilling in Portugal
At the Mamba heavy mineral sands project in Mozambique, bull sampling is on track to begin in the first half of 2018 and building a 20 tonne per hour (tph) pilot plant has already started.
The project has also seen a 26% increase in resource size and an 8% increase in total heavy minerals (THM) grade. Production is targeted to begin in 2020.
In Portugal, the group said it had started a second round of reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Mina do Barroso lithium project, in a bid to define a JORC resource.
READ: Savannah Resources buoyed by Mina do Barroso drilling results
The operating loss for the six months was £1.53mln compared to a loss of £795,000 in the same period last year, in keeping with development investment.
The loss before tax was £1.5mln versus a loss of £760,541 in 2016, the company said in its interim results statement.
The firm had cash of £1.29mln as at June 30 -- up from £740,483 at the same time a year earlier.