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Red Rock Resources PLC on Thursday said its loss widened in its recent financial year, following a rise in administrative costs.
Red Rock is a London-based natural resource development company with interests in Africa and Australia.
Its shares jumped 13% to 0.35 pence on Thursday afternoon in London.
The company reported a pretax loss of £2.8 million in the financial year that ended June 30, widening from a loss of £1.7 million a year before. Red Rock is not generating revenue from operations.
The company said the loss is due to higher administration costs which increased to £1.2 million from £699,000 the year prior, reflecting higher costs of staff at subsidiaries which increased to £657,000, increased accounting costs to £115,000, and travel costs which jumped to £77,000.
Looking ahead, Red Rock expects to bring one or more of the lithium assets held by its Zimbabwe subsidiary into test production in the next year.
Red Rock added that it expects to complete efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo to obtain recompense for the sale of its interest in a copper-cobalt joint venture with Vumilia Pendeza SA in the next year.
‘Musonoi Mining SA and the other joint venture projects with La Generale des Carrieres et Mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo were without our knowledge and consent sold for $20 million a few months after we had started work there, and then according to our information sold on by a simultaneous or near-simultaneous contract for some hundreds of millions of dollars,’ Red Rock said.
In November 2021, Red Rock obtained an order against Vumilia to protectively seize 50.1% of the $5 million which has been paid so far, and it received $2.5 million from Vumilia in January.
Red Rock owned 50.1% of the joint venture and of the designated joint venture company. Red Rock said it obtained a further judgment from the Congolese courts for $2 million for costs and damages, although this judgment is being appealed. It added that it went to arbitration to claim 50.1% of the $15 million consideration not yet paid.
‘Market conditions in the second half of 2022, and our expectation that funds would be available from realisations in the Congo, mean that Kenya operations recently have been lagging behind our schedule and as our search for a suitable partner has not yet borne fruit, these are issues we ourselves need to address,’ Red Rock said.
By Jaskeet Briah, Alliance News reporter
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