Chromex Mining confident for mid-term as it generates first revenue

AIM-listed Chromex Mining PLC said whilst chrome demand has slowed in the last few months, it believes the outlook remains robust in the medium to long term, as it reported revenue of £440,000 in the year to end-September 2008 compared with nil previously.

The South Africa focused group widened its pretax loss to £1.4 million from 495,000 a year earlier.

CEO Russell Lamming said: “The Chinese market, the main buyer of chrome, has been under pressure, however we believe that it will recover sooner than the rest of the world. I am therefore confident that Chromex is well placed to take advantage of its position as a leading chrome producer."

Since the year end, the company has doubled the SAMREC resource estimate to 31.9 million tonnes of chromite at Stellite, increasing the total chrome resources controlled by Chromex to in excess of 40 million tonnes.

It has also begun construction of a new processing facility at Stellite designed to process circa 40,000 tonnes per month of ROM ore, after securing a loan facility of £2 million in January 2009.

The company has a healthy cash position of £2 million, which places Chromex in a strong position to weather the current economic storm and take advantage of the upturn in demand for beneficiated chrome products, it added.