Ormonde Mining, the IEX-listed exploration group, has reported a pretax loss of €2.5 million for the year to the end of December.
The loss is mainly due to the writedown of early exploration work at its Spanish gold project Salamon and Trives.
The company also reported a three-fold increase in the estimated tungsten resource at Barruecopardo in Salamanca.
As previously announced this may allow the mine to sustain a 400,000 tonnes per year production rate, almost double earlier estimates.
Ormonde chaiman Mike O’Donoghue said he was pleased with the progress made by the company and said Barruecopardo should become a “low-capital, long-life tungsten operation”.
Tungsten has a high melting point and is used in light bulb filaments, heating elements, engines, as well as for toughening steel and a range of other purposes.
Mr O’Donoghue said metal commodity shortages remained and prices should rise once the global economy recovers.