AUSTRALIAN miner Southern Gold lost more than US$430,000 operating in the Kingdom over the last year, according to its annual report, but remains in a “strong position” for future development.

Although still largely conducting exploration activities, it reported losses of A$449,467 (US$430,634) in its Cambodian business for the twelve months ending June 30, according to data released Friday.

The firm singled out several findings in northeast Cambodia for note, including a previously announced sample of 11.36 grams of gold per tonne of rock at a depth of 1 metre at it is Anchor project near Snoul, in Kratie province.

“In a country with no history of large scale commercial gold and base metal mining, Southern Gold is in a strong position holding both tenements and having expertise to further explore the region,” it said on its website.

Southern Gold wrote off exploration expenditures of A$1.48 million (US$1.42 million) for its Australia and Cambodia tenements during the year, and posted an A$1.23 million loss over the period.

But it claimed promising results for an Australian property, adding that its first Bulong South gold resource statement was “believed to be the first

in a story that will grow substantially”.

Gold prices have been testing all-time highs in recent weeks, briefly climbing above US$1,300 a troy ounce in New York on Friday.