Arcon International Resources has announced a pre-tax loss of £3.59 million for the 16-month period to December 31st, 1997. The loss includes once-off restructuring costs and charges of more than £1.9 million.

Arcon did not give a detailed breakdown of the charge but the bulk of it relates to costs associated with refinancing Arcon's corporate bank facilities at lower interest rates and on more flexible terms. The refinancing will reduce the interest paid by Arcon by nearly a percentage point and could save the company $850,000 a year on its $75 million facility.

A further £144,000 relates to the costs of disposing of operations while mineral exploration costs relating to changing the company's accounting policy resulted in a charge of £227,000.

The company is also changing its year-end to December 31st.

Turnover for the period increased eight-fold to £13.2 million, due to the contribution of seven months of production at Galmoy.

Net cash inflow from operating activities was £4.5 million compared with an outflow of £129,000 in 1996.

Chief executive, Mr Tony O'Reilly Junior said more than 400,000 tonnes of ore has been processed at Galmoy and 23 shipments of concentrates (70,000 tonnes of zinc and 2,850 tonnes of lead) had been made to Arcon's customers.

Following the settlement of an industrial dispute at the mine earlier this month, production has recommenced and it is expected that concentrate shipments will resume within the next few weeks, he said.

The strength of the dollar and zinc prices were important to the success of the company and Arcon was optimistic that both would continue to perform favourably.

Mr O'Reilly said the company was now "in an exciting growth stage".

In addition to Galmoy, the company has invested in Princess Resources Limited, a Vancouver-listed company with exploration interests in China and East Africa.