Edenville Energy plc (LON: EDL), the company developing a coal project in southwest Tanzania, announced today the Company’s unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30th June 2019.
Key Period Highlights
· Executed equity placing to raise £510,000 (gross) in April 2019 to advance coal production
· Coal wash plant upgraded and now fully operational; including a Lamella water treatment plant, the introduction of a coal sizer and installation of a pre-screening plant, thereby enabling greater efficiency and productivity
· Started to re-treat fine coal, recovering approximately 40% of coal material above 8mm for either direct sale or subsequent blending with existing coal stocks to increase saleable product
· Completed the land compensation for the New Northern Mining Area (the “Northern Area”)
· In June 2019 the Company established the new road to the Northern Area and commenced stripping and exposing of coal
Post Period Highlights
· Coal mining commenced in the Northern Area
· Encouraging coal sampling results. Analysis of unwashed Northern Area coal returned energy values averaging 6,200kcal/kg, with the highest being over 6,800kcal/kg. These energy values are significantly higher than those seen in previously mined areas, which averaged approximately 5,000kcal/kg; the yielding of +6,000 kcal/kg GCV from unwashed coal provides the opportunity to sell coal without the requirement to put it through the wash plant
· Large coal measures of approximately 20m (and up to 40m) in thickness, 4 metres from surface, have been exposed in the Northern Area, compared to measures of approximately 3.5m in thickness in previously mined areas
· Mining now focused in the Northern Area given lower strip ratio, improved economics and better quality of coal
· Purchased two 30 tonne trucks from TATA, to be used in mining load and haul, moving away from contractor haulage to owner operated haulage
· In September 2019 the Company raised an additional £300,000 by way of a placing of 600,000,000 new ordinary shares, envisaged to provide sufficient capital until the Company turns cash flow positive from operations
· Appointment of mining industry expert Alistair Muir as a Non-Executive Director replacing Arun Srivastava
Jeff Malaihollo, Chairman of Edenville Energy, commented:
“During 2019 the Company has achieved encouraging operational progress at the Rukwa coal project. The completion of the various upgrades to the wash plant are already providing greater recoveries, a reduction in consumables and should also enable greater throughput as mining operations continue to expand. The opening up of the Northern Mining Area has yielded materially positive results, with thicker seams and higher quality coal than previously experienced at Rukwa. As a consequence the Board believes both the economics and the profitability of operations should improve further as we continue to increase coal sales to new and historic customers.
“From a corporate perspective, the Company has recapitalised itself and formed a solid foundation from which to further build and achieve our primary short term objective, to become cash flow positive from operations during H1 2020.
“Whilst additional work naturally remains to be done, we are confident of reaching those value-enhancing milestones for shareholders in the timeframes previously outlined. We would like to thank all of our shareholders for their continuing support and we look forward to the remainder of 2019 with confidence.”
CEO’s report
Operational Report
Production of Coal
During the period the Company’s primary focus was on the coal mining operations at the Company’s Rukwa Coal Project in southwest Tanzania.
January 2019 got off to a good start with the addition of a second excavator to open up the mine along with the existing machine. The Lamella Plant was operational and the newly constructed pre-screen plant started processing test material in January 2019 and became fully operational in February.
In January 2019 the Company decided to carry out an Open Offer to existing shareholders in order to raise the remaining capital needed to open up the Northern Mining Area and subsequently increase production. However, the Open Offer, at 0.12p per share, was poorly received and only approximately 10% of the planned £619,099 was eventually raised. This left the Company in a challenging situation on how best to meet customers’ orders and expand the operation.
From February 2019 the Company took measures to conserve capital and continue supply to key customers whilst seeking alternative funding arrangements. As announced on 1 April 2019, production was adversely impacted in H1 2019 with approximately 18,772 tonnes of Run of Mine (“ROM”) coal processed to produce 4,411 tonnes of washed coal and 11,134 tonnes of fine coal between 1 January 2019 and 30 June 2019.
On 29 April 2019 the Company announced a conditional fundraising of £510,000 along with certain cost saving measures and started to make preparations to apply some of this funding to the Project development. The main areas targeted were the opening up of the pit in the Northern Area, which has higher quality coal and thicker and easier to access coal seams. At the same time we made small upgrades to the plant and infrastructure, such as an improved water pumping system and installation of a coal sizer prior to the plant. At the end of the period land compensation work and the building of the road to the Northern Area were completed. In addition, overburden stripping, which exposed coal, was undertaken in the Northern Area and mining subsequently commencing in July 2019.
The Company’s target is to firstly reach a steady state production rate of 6,000 tonnes per month of washed coal product, which we believe will enable the Tanzania operations to break even. Following this the second target is to reach 10,000 tonnes of washed coal produced per month which will provide positive cash flow for the Company. The Directors believe the Company remains on track to become cash flow positive from existing operations during H1 2020.
The fine coal is effectively produced as a by-product and, to that end, we are continuing discussions with the previously outlined buyers of fine coal. The introduction of the pre-screen means that some of the stockpiled fine coal can now be reprocessed. During the period we targeted areas of stockpiled fine coal that contained economically recoverable coal to feed through the pre-screen. Approximately 4,500 tonnes of the fine stockpile have been treated yielding 1,800 tonnes of sized coal.
Until recently, the Company had been relying on trucks supplied by contractors, which had sometimes proved to be an expensive and inefficient option. To this end, as announced on 21 August 2019, Edenville took the decision to purchase two 30 tonnes trucks which are now used to provide the backbone of load and haul operations at the Project. The wash plant is currently operating on a two shift basis, with the new trucks currently supplying the plant on one shift with the other shift being used to process coal from stockpiles. As the Northern Area continues to develop the focus of mining is moving to this area and a double shift operation of extracting coal from the Northern Area will start once training of operators is completed by mid-October 2019.
Production in H2 2019 started well with the plant producing 1,134 tonnes of washed product, principally in the first half of July 2019, as the effects of the upgrades began to show. The wash plant was reaching production rates of over 100 tonnes per day from a single shift during this period. However, during the second half of July and the majority of August 2019, mining was adversely affected by the lack of available contractor trucks and a delay on the delivery of our own trucks, which in turn compromised the plant’s production ability. With the arrival of our own trucks in late August 2019 this issue has now been resolved and the available coal supply is steadily increasing, with further increases in production rates anticipated in the short term. This will subsequently enable increased sales to identified customers, many of whom require a surety of supply, which the Company should now be able to offer. As production of washed coal increases the Directors expect unit sales costs to progressively fall. Post period end approximately 1,510 tonnes of washed coal has been shipped between 1 July 2019 and 20 September 2019.
Coal to Power Project
In October 2018 the Company submitted a Request for Qualification (“RFQ”) for coal fired generation projects in Tanzania to Tanzania Electric Supply Company (“Tanesco”), which Tanesco officially accepted as being complete and complying with their requirements. However, two weeks later, for reasons not given by Tanesco, the RFQ was cancelled and subsequently reinstated for a resubmission date in December 2018. Edenville resubmitted their RFQ documents in line with the criteria set forward by Tanesco, which appeared identical to the previous criteria. On 14 February 2019 Tanesco informed the Company that it had been unsuccessful in moving through the RFQ process to supply power to Tanesco. No clear explanation has been given for this decision to date. As far as the Company is aware no other privately held coal projects in Tanzania progressed successfully through the process.
The AFR RI-3A Tanzania – Zambia Transmission Interconnector project, which is being part financed by the World Bank, is continuing to move forward which we believe will have positive implications for our proposed coal to power project. The financing agreement for credit is now in place and the procurement plan is continuing to progress. As previously stated the Company’s long term plan is to provide electricity to this transmission grid once it is completed and we are continuing to work towards this goal. Currently completion is stated as being in 2024.
However, in the short to medium term the focus of the Company is on it coal mining operations and the sale of coal to Tanzanian and other customers in East Africa.
Financial Results
For the six month period ended 30 June 2019 the Company had revenue of £151,140 (H1 2018: £59,310).
The Group made a loss after taxation of £888,045 (H1 2018 loss of £544,959). The net assets at 30 June 2019 amounted to £6,367,559 (30 June 2018 £7,568,436).
The total comprehensive loss for the period was £887,339 (H1 2018 loss of £387,412), which included a gain of £706 (H1 2017 gain of £157,457) arising from the translation of the Tanzanian subsidiary accounts from US Dollars to Sterling.
Rufus Short
Chief Executive Officer
