JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Triple-listed Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) has narrowed its loss for the six months to December 31, to $12.97-million, from the loss of $14.2-million recorded in the six months to December 31, 2015.
The narrowed loss was owing to a net foreign exchange gain of $2.9-million, compared with a net foreign exchange loss of $9.4-million in the prior comparable period. This was offset by an increase in employee benefit expenses of $2.5-million, compared with $2-million in the prior comparable period.
Other expenses, however, decreased to $2.3-million, from $3.2-million in the six months to December 2015.
The results for the period under review were also impacted on by a $10.6-million impairment owing to CoAL’s decision not to renew its agreement with Terminal de Carvao da Matola, which had granted CoAL port capacity through the Matola terminal until 2028.
CoAL’s cash and cash equivalents stood at $7-million as at December 31, compared with $19.5-million as at June 30, 2016.
The company on Tuesday also reiterated that it was evaluating opportunities to acquire a cash-generating asset.
CoAL is still awaiting the approval of an integrated water use licence for its Vele colliery.
Pending regulatory approvals and funding, as well as board approval, CoAL expects to start construction on the Makhado project in the 2018 calendar year. The proposed opencast mine is expected to produce 12.6-million tonnes a year of run-of-mine coal, yielding 2.3-million tonnes of hard coking coal and 3.2-million tonnes of thermal coal for the domestic and export markets.