06:35 AM EDT, 05/14/2024 (MT Newswires) -- NGEx Minerals ( NGXXF ) overnight Monday reported that its first-quarter net loss widened due in part to higher exploration and project investigation costs.

First-quarter net loss came in at $19.7 million, or a loss $0.11 per share, widening from a loss of $15.2 million, or a loss of $0.09 per share. Exploration and project investigation costs rose to $22.5 million from $15.1 million.

The copper and gold exploration company also noted that it finished the 2023-2024 Lunahuasi drill program in April, with 12,952 meters of drilling in 15 holes. The program extended the high-grade mineralization and confirmed Lunahuasi's size potential.

"Our focus over the coming weeks will be on processing the remaining core collected from the final six holes of the 2023-2024 program and expediting the samples through the assay laboratory," said NGEx President and CEO Wojtek Wodzicki. "At the same time, NGEx will continue to update its geological interpretation of the Lunahuasi deposit, which will feed into the development of an exploration strategy for Lunahuasi's next program, set to begin early in the fourth quarter."