Horizonte Minerals PLC (LON:HZM) (TSE:HZM) has hailed the achievement of “significant business and project level milestones” in 2020 as it updated investors on the status of its balance sheet and financing.
In its results for the year ended December 31, the company said it had ended the period with £10.9mln in cash which was supplemented post-period by an £18mln fundraising in February.
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The pre-revenue company also reported a pre-tax loss of £2.4mln, narrowed from a £3.2mln in the prior year, adding that it has also made “significant progress” on overall project financing for its Araguaia project in Brazil including a US$325mln senior debt facility to part-fund development of the site.
Horizonte also said it has made “key appointments” across its operational and corporate teams during the year, while it has also completed value engineering for Araguaia that has resulted in “a number of improvements to enhance operational performance”.
Looking ahead, the company said while the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had continued into 2021, it was confident that vaccine rollouts will result in “a more certain, less interrupted year in 2021”.
“We continue to be grateful for the support of our shareholders, and we are pleased to see increasing interest in the Horizonte story from new investors and strategic partners. Horizonte has reached an exciting phase of its journey, and we believe we are able to offer a unique and compelling investment opportunity,” chairman David Hall said in a statement.
In a separate announcement, the company said it has filed an amended technical report for its Araguaia, Vermelho and Serra do Tapa projects to provide “corrective disclosure” as a result of a review by staff of the Ontario Securities Commission of the preliminary short form prospectus of the company filed on March 15.
The company said the conclusions and recommendations of the technical reports remained the same and unchanged from the original publication dates, adding that it believed none of the changes are material to its assets or operations.
In a note on Friday, analysts at Peel Hunt retained their ‘buy rating and 14p target price on the group, saying the £10.9mln year-end cash balance was ahead of their initial forecasts of £9mln, and that the company’s cash burn was “under better control” than they had anticipated.
“There were no major surprised in the FY20 financials but the financial detail at year end shows tighter financial control at year end than we had anticipated, a good sign. The company looks set for further progress in [the second quarter] when we expect they will complete the full debt package for Araguaia and commence some of the early stage works funded by the £18mln raise earlier this year”, the broker added.
Shares in Horizonte were 3.6% lower at 7.1p in lunchtime trading.
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