Strategic Minerals said it is hopeful it will soon secure the finance to restart the Leigh Creek copper prospect in Western Australia now that environmental approval has been granted.
“With the unconditional Paltridge North approval, the company has intensified discussions with both existing and previously identified parties,” said John Peters, managing director.
“While subject to securing finance, the company's current expectations are that operations will restart at Mountain of Light before the end of the year.
Restarting Leigh Creek would improve cash flow and profitability "dramatically," said the statement and give Strategic Minerals a second income stream.
Revenues currently coming from the Cobre tailings operation in New Mexico and the company posted a pre-tax profit of US$248,000 (US$388,000) on sales of US$1.33mln (US$2.6mln) in the six months to end-June 2022.
Unrestricted cash at the half-year was US$430,000 after US$450,00 was invested in Leigh Creek and US$200,000 at Redmoor in Cornwall, which is part of the Deep Digital Cornwall project.
Peters, who said he recently acquired a further 5mln shares on the market, added: "Just when the first half of 2022 saw early signs of the global economy emerging from the full effects of the pandemic, conflict in Ukraine upended markets and saw price rises that helped fuel inflationary pressures and rising interest rates.
“Against this background, the company has been managing its Cobre operation and has, prudently, pushed forward on its development projects.
"Post balance date, the UK Government issued both a Critical Minerals List and Strategy.
"This has significant implications for CRL in that both tin and tungsten, the main minerals identified at Redmoor, are on the list.”