Minmet swings into the black

Exploration company Minmet has swung into profitability in 2003, as it established itself as a gold producer with a range of exploration interests throughout Scandinavia, the Dominican Republic and South America.

The company reported a pretax profit of $0.54m (€0.45m) against a loss of $18.8m (€15.6m) in 2002.

It said 43,287 oz of gold was produced at Bjorkdal Gold Mine in Northern Sweden, with the new resource calculation expanding mineable tonnage by 21% and resource ounces by 16%.

In addition, its Dominican Republic assets are to be spun off and listed as GoldQuest Mining Corp, with $2.9m (€2.4m) expected to be raised via private placements and major mining companies equity participation.

Minmet also said it is in final stages of negotiating an amalgamation of its Brazilian property interests with those of a private Brazilian company to create a dedicated Brazilian entity that will raise third party funding with the intention of listing in London or Canada by end of 2004.