Bermudian-based Gold Reserve Ltd has reported a narrower annual loss and stronger liquidity after a year marked by private share placements, continuing tax audits in Canada and the United States, and a cybersecurity breach that cost about $1 million to fix.

The resource company — which continues to pursue more than $1.1 billion owed by Venezuela under a long-running arbitration award — recorded a net loss of $15.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, down from $23.1 million in 2023, according to its newly released annual report.

Gold Reserve’s cash and cash equivalents rose sharply to $42.8 million, up from $8.5 million the previous year, after the company raised $51 million through two private placements in June and July 2024. Total assets nearly doubled to $79 million, and shareholders’ equity increased to $65 million.

The company attributed higher expenses of $17.4 million, up from $8.3 million, to legal and accounting costs tied to enforcement of its arbitral award against Venezuela and other corporate matters, as well as the one-off cost of responding to a cybersecurity incident in April 2024.

Gold Reserve said the breach stemmed from a firewall configuration vulnerability that allowed an unauthorised third party to access its network. Management “immediately responded to the incident under the direct oversight of senior executives”, the report stated, adding that the company has since strengthened its firewall architecture, introduced multi-factor authentication and expanded its endpoint detection capabilities.

The miner also faces tax scrutiny in Canada and the US. The Canada Revenue Agency has proposed reassessing earlier tax years to include hundreds of millions of dollars in income tied to its Venezuelan award and data sale — an outcome that the company warned “may lead to substantial doubt about [its] ability to continue as a going concern”. Meanwhile, the US Internal Revenue Service has questioned the firm’s earlier deductions and is pursuing adjustments now under appeal.

Gold Reserve completed its continuance from Alberta to Bermuda in September 2024 and now lists on the TSX Venture Exchange, OTCQX and Bermuda Stock Exchange under GRZ.BH.

Last year, the board appointed Paul Rivett as executive vice-chairman and chief executive, succeeding longtime executives Rockne Timm and Robert Coleman, both of whom retired but remain as consultants.

Although Gold Reserve continues to await proceeds from US court-supervised sales of assets linked to Venezuela, the company said it believes its working capital is enough to sustain operations for the next 12 to 24 months.