Junior miner reports progress at its South African nickel/copper/platinum group project
Early this month, London AIM-listed exploration and development group URU Metals released its final results for the 2017/18 financial year (which ended on March 31). During that year, the company’s activities were focused on the exploration and development of its mineral properties, in South Africa, particularly the Zebediela Nickel project. (Its other, less advanced, South African project is Burgersfort Nickel.)
The company has no operations at the moment and thus is not generating any cash flow. It recorded a net loss for 2017/18 of $862 000. Its “total comprehensive loss” for the year was $1 037 000. It reported total noncurrent assets of $3 243 000 and total current assets of $3 060 000, giving total assets of $6 429 000. Its total liabilities amounted to $977 000 and its total equity to $5 452 000.
During the year, it spent $508 000 on operating activities and $1 056 000 on investing activities. It generated $203 000 through financing activities and ended the year with $1 317 000 in cash and cash equivalents (having started 2017/18 with $2 678 000).
“The past financial year has been a fruitful year for URU, with achievements in fulfilling investment strategies,” wrote company chairperson Jay Vieira in the results report. “We are now well positioned to take advantage of potential positive movements in the nickel market, as well as positive trading at the group’s available-for-sale financial asset, Management Resource Solutions plc, following a difficult 2017 financial period.”
“The Zebediela project now represents an exciting nickel/copper/platinum group element (Ni-Cu-PGE) exploration project with the potential to become a shallow, low-cost, high-value mining project,” affirmed company CEO John Zorbas. “Recent drilling by the group has demonstrated that the project has the potential to host a nickel orebody with significant PGE and Cu credits at shallow depths.”
During 2017, Zebediela saw a “successful drilling campaign”, with follow-up drilling in November and December. “The relatively high base metal content with significant PGE grades means that the basket price in drill intersections for Zebediela is higher than that at Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena mine, the world’s largest openpit platinum mine, located approximately 20 km northwest of the Zebediela project,” he observed.
For 2018/19, the company intends to undertake more exploration, targeting the Ni-Cu-PGE mineralisation identified during last year’s drilling. These activities will include more drilling, soil sampling, ground-based geophysics surveying and additional geological mapping. The soil sampling, mapping and geophysics activities have already begun. The ultimate aim is to define a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant mineral resource estimate, leading to further feasibility studies on the project.
“The group has a positive outlook on the nickel market,” stated Zorbas. “The average nickel price for 2018, as noted in the ‘World Bank Commodity Markets Outlook Report’, published in April 2018, is expected to be $13 500 a metric ton, with forecasts predicting it will reach $18 000 a metric ton by 2030.”
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