VANE Minerals moved into profit for the first time as revenues shot up in the first half of 2012.

Revenue in the six months to June 30th surged 174% to £3.40m from £1.24m in the first half of 2011.

The copper, gold and silver miner's maiden profit before tax was £0.39m, versus a loss the year before of £1.04m.

The maiden profit "reflects the importance of our relationship with our Mexican joint venture partners, in which we have invested in excess of $300,000 alone on developing the La Colorada asset since we entered into the joint venture legal contract. This is in addition to a wider investment in the building and development of our Merrill Crowe facility, the ongoing development of our SDA mill, the identification of a resource at La Colorada and further preparatory work on the assets within the joint venture area," said David Newton, Chief Executive Officer of the AIM-listed tiddler.

Haike Chemical, the petrochemical, speciality chemical and biochemical business based in China, dived into the red in the first half of 2012.

"The first half performance was disappointing. Weakness in the global and domestic economy has presented us with a challenge and squeezed the profitability of most of our existing products," said Xiaohong Yang, Executive Chairman of Haike.

The group made a first half loss before tax of CNY 202m, versus a profit of CNY 53m the year before. Revenue held relatively steady at CNY 5,412m versus CNY 5,441m in the first half of 2011.

"We expect the second half performance to recover following stabilisation of the macro economies and a rebound in cyclical industries," Xiaohong Yang said.

JH

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