China-focused Century Global Commodities Corporation (TSE:CNT), which has a food and an iron ore business, reported a "substantial" working capital as at the end of 2017.
Posting third quarter financials, the group said as at December 31, it had C$24.9mln, which included cash, bank deposits and an investment portfolio of C$14.2mln, which was not tied to any funding commitment for any project development.
On the iron ore business, the firm noted that market began and finished 2017 at roughly the same price points (US$77.6/t and US$74.0/t respectively).
"There were two troughs below US$60/t in June and October. The commodity was recovering from the second trough down cycle by December and stabilized around the mid-$US70s for most of January 2018," it said.
"We are maintaining a market observer position for our iron ore business while retaining a small, lean mining team ready to rapidly advance our iron ore projects once a sustained market recovery is evident."
Elsewhere, the results of a Fall 2017 exploration program on claims acquired from the Canadian government, confirmed the character of this early stage project, the firm said
This is sufficient to warrant a further staged exploration program designed to identify, prioritise and test exploration targets on the three separate claim groups, it said.
On the food business, Century said: "Regarding our quality food business, we have successfully established a marketing and distribution network covering some strong international brands.
"This has attracted more international suppliers, offering us increased product opportunities that should form the basis of continued growth."
The loss for the three months to end December was C$1.11mln, versus a loss of C$1.98mln in the same period of 2016.