Strategic Minerals stayed in profit in 2021 even with a reduction in sales at its Cobre tailings operation in the US.
The junior added that its strategy to focus on metals likely to benefit from expected supply and demand imbalances had also been validated by metals prices in both 2021 and early 2022.
Commodity prices, especially for copper and tin, have shown strong growth, it said, with market predictions they will go higher in future.
Profits for the year to end December 2021 came in at A$0.26mln (2020 A$0.45mln), while net cash generated was $0.61mln (2020 A$0.93mln).
Sales at Cobre were maintained during the first three quarters of the year, said SML, but dipped in the final quarter as demand from its largest client dropped to around 25% of previous levels.
“Despite this drop in demand, Cobre still produced respectable annual sales of A$2.61mln (2020: A$3.03mln),” it added, noting that the large customer’s orders returned to previous levels in February this year.
At Leigh Creek in South Australia, SML submitted its responses to queries over its environmental permit application in January and if approval is granted copper operations can resume this year.
In Cornwall, work has also started on Deep Digital Cornwall project, led by the University of Exeter's Camborne School of Mines, in which SML subsidiary CRL and Cornish Lithium are delivery partners.
Funding for the bulk of the work is being provided by the European Regional Development Fund, through HM Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government though payments are taking longer to come through than expected, said SML.
The unrestricted cash position of the Group on 31 December 2021 was A$0.611m (2020: A$0.833m), which was little changed in a trading update SML published in April.