Europe-focused miner, Orogen Gold, widened its losses in the first half of 2011, dropping £554,000 into the red.

This compared with a loss of £435,000 in the first half of last year for the firm formerly known as Medavinci, which was relaunched in March.

However, the company is positive about its future prospects having begun exploration activity at its first project in Serbia, Deli Jovan.

"We are enthusiastic about the prospects for the Deli Jovan gold project and are looking forward to the results of our exploration programme over the coming months," said chief executive Ed Slowey.

"We also continue to look for new gold projects in Europe geologically similar to Deli Jovan that meet our investment criteria and create value through leveraging our extensive management expertise," he added.

The firm's share price fell 3.5% following the announcement.

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