Monarch strugglesThere's no doubt Monarch Gold has been...

Monarch struggles
There's no doubt Monarch Gold has been struggling in recent times. Its quarterly report revealed the company, backed by West Australian mining identity Michael Kiernan, had taken a $7 million loan from one of Kiernan's other companies, India Resources. And last week his iron ore play, Territory Resources, was outed as having taken up more than a quarter of Monarch's recent $10 million placement.

You might think there wasn't much else for its half-year accounts to say. But unlike the quarterly cash-flow statements, the formal accounts have to receive a sign-off from auditors.

Monarch released its half-year results on Friday, reporting a $17.6 million loss, which was not unexpected.

But there were also some worrying comments involving the phrase "going concern".

Auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers warned that the company had a working capital deficiency of $13.1 million at December 31 and that its survival depended on it raising additional funding "as and when required".