Asia-focused gold miner Oxus said the year to June has been one of the most "challenging" in its history as it swung into losses.

The group has been hit with financial and legal challenges in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and in the United Kingdom and has been forced to spend much of its management and financial resources to resolve the issues.

It posted pre-tax losses of US$8.9m compared to the profit of US$2.3m in the same period last year, which included exceptional charges of US$19.7m. Revenue fell for the year to US$2.39m from US$3.38m before, resulting primarily from the loss of anticipated fee income following the sale of the Jerooy project.

Even so, the sale of the Kyrgyz, Romanian and Turkish assets to Kazakgold created direct value in the form of dividends. Dividend in specie was declared equivalent to 17.98 cents per share.

Disruptions caused by the State audit had an impact on the operations of Amantaytau Goldfields (AGF), which increased losses for the year to US$6.42m from US$3.21m before.

"Although AGF’s operations were returning to normal towards the end of the year, the lengthy period of disruption at AGF, as well as other ongoing corporate matters, inevitably had a serious negative impact on the Group’s earnings and expenses during the year as a whole, which led to a substantial loss overall," said the group

"Oxus believes these issues are now largely behind the group and that it can once again take a more positive view of the future," it added.