Ormonde Mining's losses increase

Losses widened last year at Ormonde Mining as the exploration firm increased investment in its flagship copper and gold project in Spain.

Ormonde said it had made "significant progress" on the La Zarza prospect over the year and hoped to bring it to the "feasibility" stage this year. This would allow the company to raise the funds it would need to bring the project into production.

Ormonde estimates that La Zarza contains 85,000 tonnes of copper, 486,000 ounces of gold and 6.9 million ounces of silver

Fraser Gardiner, director of Ormonde, said the firm was "very confident" that production and the consequent revenue flows were now within the firm's reach.

Ormonde generated an operating loss of €451,000 last year, marking an 18 per cent increase on 2004. This came as capital investment grew from €587,000 to €1.76 million. Operating income was nil.

Mr Gardiner said the firm made an effort to minimise its overheads so that "in-the-ground" investment could be maximised.

He acknowledged however that further fund-raising from shareholders would be "inevitable" at this stage of the company's development.

Ormonde also has a Spanish prospect at Salamanca, with the firm hoping to draw gold from this less-advanced project, too.

In the meantime, it is looking at creating "a more immediate cashflow mining operation" from "tungsten-bearing tailings" in the same area.