Exploration group Minmet recorded a profit of $12.1 million (€8.49 million) in the first six months of this year, a significant improvement on the $500,000 surplus it posted in the same period of 2006.
The company said its cash balances at the end of June stood at $16.1 million when the sales of quoted investments were taken into account.
Its shares rose 2.7 per cent yesterday on the Alternative Investment Market in London, to close at 9.63p. It has a market value of just £10.4 million (€14.9 million).
Since the end of its half year, Minmet has cancelled its listing on the IEX in Dublin following the resignation on August 22nd of Davy as its sponsoring broker. It also announced plans to change its name to Achill Resources.
In addition, its chief executive, Michael Nolan, resigned on August 15th, while two new directors - Brian Maurice Gibbs and Peter Edwin Maddocks - were appointed to the board.
On August 20th, Minmet said a company called Westcoast Group, with which both Mr Gibbs and Mr Maddocks are associated, had acquired 6.9 million shares in the company at 18.5p each.
This represented a 44 per cent premium to the share price at the time of the purchase and gave Westcoast a 7.5 per cent stake.
Minmet said a decision on whether its sells its interest in the Bjorkdalsgruvan gold mine in Sweden to Gold-Ore Resources would be taken before the end of the year. If Gold-Ore exercises its options, Minmet will receive $2 million and a minimum of four million new Gold-Ore shares.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)