Exploration company Glencar has reported a pre-tax profit of just under $1.3m for last year, following a loss of almost $600,000 a year earlier.
But the operating loss widened from $700,000 to $1.1m, mainly due to the fall of sterling against the dollar. The pre-tax profit was mainly due to an accounting change after South African company Gold Fields took a 51% stake in the Sankarani joint venture.
Earlier this year, Dublin-listed Glencar announced plans for a joint venture with Gold Fields. Under the deal, Gold Fields could take a stake of up to 65% in Glencar's Komana licence in Mali in return for spending up to $32m on the project. As part of the deal, Gold Fields will eventually invest $3.2m in Glencar for a stake of 15%.
Glencar says drilling carried out at Komana during the year led to a more than doubling of the resource estimate to 1.25 million ounces of gold.
Meanwhile, exploration company Petroneft has reported a net loss of $7.9m for last year, up from a loss of $3.2m in 2007. The bigger loss was mainly due to currency losses on a loan to a Russian subsidiary.
Petroneft is focused on developing its Licence 61 oil site in Siberia. It says drilling on this prospect has led to a 16% increase in its proved and probable reserves to 70 million barrels of oil.
