Maiden profit for VANE Minerals

VANE Minerals moved into profit for the first time as revenues shot up in the first half of 2012.

Revenue in the six months to June 30th surged 174% to £3.40m from £1.24m in the first half of 2011.

The copper, gold and silver miner's maiden profit before tax was £0.39m, versus a loss the year before of £1.04m.

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So unused to making a profit is the company that the template it used to announce its results on the London Stock Exchange's official news service has "loss per ordinary share" as the default entry for the section of the income statement covering earnings per share.

Notwithstanding the above, the company's earnings per share in the first half were positive at 0.04p, versus a loss of 0.32p at the interim stage last year.

The maiden profit "reflects the importance of our relationship with our Mexican joint venture partners, in which we have invested in excess of $300,000 alone on developing the La Colorada asset since we entered into the joint venture legal contract. This is in addition to a wider investment in the building and development of our Merrill Crowe facility, the ongoing development of our SDA mill, the identification of a resource at La Colorada and further preparatory work on the assets within the joint venture area," said David Newton, Chief Executive Officer of the AIM-listed tiddler.

Shares in VANE jumped 0.25p to 1.18p on the results.

JH