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Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom RSS feed en Mon, 21 May 2012 12:03:34 +0100 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Genera CMS action@proactiveinvestors.com (Proactiveinvestors) action@proactiveinvestors.com (Proactiveinvestors) <![CDATA[News - COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Ariana Resources, ECR Minerals, Stratex International, Metals Exploration, New World Oil & Gas, ReNeuron ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43061/company-snapshot-ariana-resources-ecr-minerals-stratex-international-metals-exploration-new-world-oil-gas-reneuron-0000.html

This morning, gold miners Ariana Resources (LON:AAU), ECR Minerals (LON:ECR) and Stratex International (LON:STI) had positive new to report to investors including bonanza grades from Ariana’s Red Rabbit gold project in Turkey.

The result from the Kiziltepe sector of Red Rabbit included the highest grades ever recorded from the deposit.

The grades included 13.1 grammes per tonne gold over 12.1 metres and 187,6 g/t silver including an interval of 3.2 metres grading 38.7 g/t gold and 511 g/t silver and one metre at 65.9 g/t gold and 760 g/t silver.

Exploration drilling has also determined that the Arzu North vein system extends to the southeast beneath cover.

These new results highlight significant potential within the "gap zone" – and the company is now planning a follow-up deeper drilling programme.

“The scale of the project continues to grow with further zones being identified that will only improve the economics of the project which we are advancing towards production,” said managing director of Ariana Kerim Sener.

“The fact that these results derive from an area of cover along a strong geophysical anomaly corridor suggests that there is significant potential in this zone.”

The result presented by ECR confirmed the presence at depth of high grade gold mineralisation within quartz veining over a 500 metre strike length at its El Abra prospect within the Sierra de las Minas gold project in Argentina.

The company added that the mineralisation remains open along strike and down dip.

“Further drilling is merited at El Abra in order to better define the mineralisation encountered and, dependent on the success of such drilling, to obtain sufficient data to complete an initial resource estimate,” said managing director of ECR Patrick Harford.

The “promising” results reported today included intersections of 3.9 metres grading 11.6 g/t gold, three metres at 11.1 g/t gold and one metre at 20.5 g/t gold.

Peer Stratex said the results from its on-going channel-chip sampling on the Pandora epithermal gold vein in Djibouti were “extremely encouraging”.

The highlights included intersections of 1.9 metres at 20.35 g/t gold, three metres at 11.66 g/t gold, 2.6 metres at 11.91 g/t gold and 13.9 metres at 5.35 g/t gold.

“The continuity of multi-gram gold grades now exists over more than 1,000 meters of strike, together with well-defined high-grade portions within the structure,” said executive director for East Africa David Hall.

The next key milestone is to commence drilling before the end of the year, and investigate the potential for continuity of these grades at depth.

Fellow precious metals focused group Vatukoula Gold Mines (LON:VGM) told investors that cash generation from operations jumped 57 percent to £4.38 million during the six month period to end February, during which it defined an inferred resource of 142,000 ounces of gold.

The company has discovered a new high mineralised system during exploration drilling, the most significant intersection from which was 124.7 g/t gold over 0.46 metres.

Revenues during the period reached £30.4 million, up 21 percent from a year earlier, while gold productio0n was flat at around 30,000 ounces.

“Our focus remains on building towards long-term cost effective sustainable gold production, at a target level of 100,000 ounce gold per annum, and we are pleased with the steady progress we have made toward that goal in the six months under review,” said chief executive of Vatukoula David Paxton.

Elsewhere in the mining sector, chairman of Metals Exploration (LON:MTL) I R Holzberger said he was pleased with the progress made by the company last year.

The full year report highlighted the approval of the Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility (DMPF) for the Runruno gold-molybdenum project in the Philippines by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

This has enabled FCF Minerals Corporation to move into the design, development and construction phase of Runruno.

New World Oil & Gas (LON:NEW) also released its full year report this morning, calling 2011 a year of “outstanding progress” at both an operational and a corporate level.

The said it has exceeded objectives set out in its AIM admission document by progressing two oil and gas projects within two months of listing and completing a third in proven hydrocarbon regions.

The company’s Blue Creek project in Belize currently has unrisked prospective resource of 294 million barrels of oil with an estimated net present value of US$7.1 billion.

New World also has two projects in Denmark, one of which has recoverable resources of 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas.

“All of the investments made during the year satisfied these criteria and we are very pleased with our progress over the period,” said chairman of New World William Kelleher.

“We feel that the potential of Blue Creek may be significant, in that it lies in close proximity to and displays structural similarity to the recently discovered and producing Spanish Lookout and Never Delay fields.”

Other news in the oil and gas sector included an operational update from Trinidad from Leni Gas & Oil (LON:LGO) and an update from Red Emperor Resources, which has decided to participate in the Shabeel North well in Puntland, Somalia.

The Shabeel North well is set to spud in the first week of June and will follow the Shabeel-1 well.

The company made the decision was made after reviewing final logs from Shabeel-1.

As a result, Red Emperor will maintain its 20 percent stake in the in each of the Dharoor Valley and Nugaal Valley production sharing agreements.

In the meantime, LGO has mobilised a workover rig to start field operations on the re-development of the onshore Goudron Field in Trinidad.

The company has previously said that it plans to re-develop the Goudron oilfield in partnership with state owned company Petrotrin.

Re-development will start with the working over of up to 50 existing wells and will be followed by the drilling of additional wells.

The field currently has a proved and probable (2P reserves) estimate of eight million barrels including 1.9 million barrels in the proved category.

“We are confident that with an increased level of investment and the application of new technologies we will be able to raise production substantially, which will contribute directly to the Ministry of Energy's immediate objectives of increasing oil production in Trinidad,” said chief executive of LGO Neil Ritson.

Away from mining and oil and gas, ReNeuron (LON:RENE) announced that chief executive Michael Hunt will present to the World Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine Conference in London today.

Hunt will provide a summary of the company’s stem cell technologies and its ReN001 stem cell therapy targeting stroke disability. 

The group also noted that Osiris Therapeutics’ stem cell treatment for graft versus host disease, Prochymal, gained marketing approval in Canada last week, marking the world's first marketing authorisation for a manufactured stem cell drug.

“We believe that this is a defining moment, opening up the therapeutic paradigm of stem cell treatments of this kind,” said Hunt.

“Our own stem cell treatments are also off-the-shelf in nature, so it is particularly reassuring to see that this completely new approach to medicine is being increasingly endorsed by regulatory authorities around the globe.”

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 08:03:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43061/company-snapshot-ariana-resources-ecr-minerals-stratex-international-metals-exploration-new-world-oil-gas-reneuron-0000.html <![CDATA[News - MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 seen flat after G8 summit ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43049/market-preview-ftse-100-seen-flat-after-g8-summit-0000.html

Financial bookmakers are expecting a flat start in London markets today. The FTSE 100 is set to open at 5,265, down only three points from Friday’s close.

The meeting of the Group of 8 that took place over the weekend fell short of calming jittery investors. G8 leaders said they wanted Greece to stay in the euro zone and that Europe has to find a balance between austerity and stimulus.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that Greece and other debt laden countries should reduce budget spending to resolve their fiscal problems.

Traders are now looking to the next EU summit, which will kick off on May 23.

“The G8 summit over the weekend failed to provide any guidance for investors, with those in attendance simply repeating well used comments about keeping the Eurozone intact and ensuring Greece doesn’t fall off a cliff,” said analyst at forex.com Chris Tedder.

“It now appears the countries in attendance are renewing calls for the larger and healthier Eurozone nations, like Germany, to assist their struggling neighbour countries, which comes at a time when debt markets appear to be questioning the health of Italy and Spain.”

Asian markets were in buying mode today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 17 points (0.2 percent) to 8,628 and China’s Shanghai Composite Index tacked on 14.5 points (0.6 percent) to reach 2,359.

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 07:03:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43049/market-preview-ftse-100-seen-flat-after-g8-summit-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Gold posts weekly gain despite stronger US dollar ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43043/gold-posts-weekly-gain-despite-stronger-us-dollar-0000.html

Despite a surge in the US dollar, gold managed to post a weekly gain of over US$10 per barrel thanks to support from speculation that the Federal Reserve is considering introducing further stimulus to support the economic recovery in the US.

Minutes from the latest meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released this week showed that several policymakers said they would be in favour of further stimulus if the recovery lost momentum.

More stimulus from the Fed would weaken the US dollar and lift demand for gold, which is seen as an inflation hedge and an alternative investment to the greenback.

In other news, the World Gold Council said gold demand from China surged 10 percent to a record 255.2 tonnes in the first quarter.

The WGC added that China will soon become the world’s biggest consumer of the yellow metal.

Meanwhile, demand from the current largest buyer of gold India slipped 29 percent to 207.6 tonnes year on year during the quarter.

Gold ended the week at US$1,592/oz, up US$12 from a week earlier. Silver fell to US$28.72/oz from US$28.89/oz and platinum declined to US$1,451/oz from US$1,461/oz.

Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) rose to 4,894 pence 4,851 pence over the past five days of trading, while fellow FTSE 100 constituent, silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES), dropped to 1,358 pence from 1,417 pence.

In the FTSE 250, platinum miner Lonmin (LON:LMI) slipped to 778 pence from 900.5 pence and gold producer African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) declined to 338.3 pence from 348.9 pence.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 16:05:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43043/gold-posts-weekly-gain-despite-stronger-us-dollar-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Oil falls on euro zone worries, rising inventories ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43042/oil-falls-on-euro-zone-worries-rising-inventories-0000.html

Oil prices fell sharply this week with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark and Brent crude shedding over US$4 per barrel under pressure from the political turmoil in Greece and rising inventories in the US.

Early in the week, emergency coalition talks between five parties called by president Karolos Populias failed to result in an agreement and the debt-laden country will hold a new election on June 17.

There are concerns that anti-austerity parties could secure enough votes in the next election to form a government and renounce the country’s commitments under the bailout deal, which could force it out of the euro zone.

Late in the week, Moody’s slashed its ratings on 16 Spanish banks including major Santander, while Fitch reduced Greece’s credit rating to CCC from B-minus.

Fitch also warned that it could downgrade all euro zone members if Greece exits the monetary union.

In other news, GoldmanSachs now expects the Chinese economy to expand 8.1 this year compared with 8.6 percent previous, while the forecast for the current quarter was reduced to 7.9 from 8.5 percent.

China is currently the world's second largest consumer of oil behind the US.

Speaking of the US, the Department of Energy reported this week that America’s crude stocks added 2.1 million barrels last week to reach 381.6 million barrels, which is the highest level in more than two decades.

Demand for oil futures was also hit by comments from Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi.

He said last weekend that oil supply in the global market currently outstrips demand by between 1.3 and 1.5 million barrels per day and that demand would increase in the second half of the year.

According to the minister, Saudi Arabia wants oil prices to fall to US$100 per barrel.

The kingdom, which is currently the world’s largest exporter of crude oil, increased its output by 0.2 million barrels to 10.1 million barrels per day in April, the highest level in three decades.

US light, sweet crude for June delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), ended the week at US$91.48/oz.

July Brent crude closed at US$107.14/barrel on the ICE Exchange on Friday.

BP (LON:BP.) dropped to 391.5 pence from 415.5 pence over the past five days of trading and fellow supermajor Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) declined to 2,044 pence from 2,132 pence.

Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) pulled back to 1,336pence from 1,463 pence, while BG Group (LON:BG.) fell to 1,245 from 1,336.5 pence a week ago.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 15:27:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43042/oil-falls-on-euro-zone-worries-rising-inventories-0000.html <![CDATA[News - FTSE 100 news summary: ICAP, G4S, HSBC, Barclays, Tullow Oil, Antofagasta, Polymetal, Evraz, Serco Group ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43041/ftse-100-news-summary-icap-g4s-hsbc-barclays-tullow-oil-antofagasta-polymetal-evraz-serco-group-0000.html

On Friday, interdealer broker ICAP (LON:IAP) confirmed it is acquiring PLUS Stock Exchange, the smaller company equity exchange, for £1 in cash subject to PLUS Markets Group (LON:PMK) shareholder consent and approvals from the Financial Services Authority.

Early in the week, PLUS said it was to wind-down and close after failing to find a buyer or new funding.

PLUS is one of only five RIEs (Recognised Investment Exchange) in the UK. 

It provides listing and quoting services to around 140 companies and generates revenue of approximately £3 million a year. The business is presently loss making.

PMK had announced earlier this week it was to wind down and close after it failed to find a buyer or new funding.

In a statement, ICAP said it operates regulated platforms running the world's largest electronic trading platforms and also operates 10 multilateral trading facilities.

In addition, ICAP already acts as a broker in exchange products and is a full member of the world's largest exchanges.

Other new sin the top flight included security services group G4S (LON:GFS) expects to achieve further growth this year after seeing revenues climb 7.5 percent in the March quarter.

Excluding the impact of the contract to provide security at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in London, revenues were up six percent from a year earlier.

At the secure solutions business, which accounts for the bulk of group sales, organic revenue growth reached seven percent including a strong performance in the UK, which got a boost from the £200 million Olympic Games deal.

The cash services division achieved revenue growth of four percent including a ten percent jump in developing markets revenues.

In the banking sector, HSBC (LON:HSBA) is on track to meet targets for its 3-year turnaround plan, it announced at its group strategy investor day.

It revealed it made US$2 billion in cost savings after the first year of the programme through radical restructuring.

The company plans to save US$3.5 billion by the end of 2013.

Europe’s biggest bank says it will focus on the regions with the best growth prospects, which will in turn make the company easier to manage and control.

“We will continue to simplify HSBC, enabling us to integrate systems and operate to high global standards internationally,” said chief executive Stuart Gulliver.

“We will continue to run off our legacy assets, including the U.S. consumer and mortgage lending book.”

UBS this week issued a note on sector peer Barclays (LON:BARC), whose share price has suffered in recent weeks due to concerns over its exposure to Spain.

Since it reported first quarter results last month, the share price has plunged around 20 per cent, which the broker says makes it an attractive investment.

As a result, it is upgrading its recommendation to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’.

However, UBS has also cut its target price for UK bank to 215 pence from 272 pence.

UBS analyst John-Paul Crutchley said: “Recent share price retrenchment has largely been driven by concerns over Barclays exposure to Spain where we think a more realistic approach to impairment over the last few years should limit the impact of higher provisioning from the proposed Royal Decree to between £50-£70m.”

In oil and gas, Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) this week confirmed that a drill ship has been contracted to begin work next month on further exploration of the Zaedyus discovery in French Guiana.

It follows the drill success late last year. The plan initially is to appraise the Zaedyus-1 well and explore for deeper objectives. This will be followed by an exploration wildcat well.

“Planning is also ongoing to acquire two large 3D seismic surveys,” Tullow added in a statement this week. 

Shell (LON:RDSB) with a 45 per cent stake in Zaedyus is taking operatorship of the breakthrough discovery, which is a facsimile of the producing Jubilee field off the coast of Ghana.

Tullow is the next biggest shareholder with 27.5 per cent and Total has 25 per cent.

Meanwhile, mining group Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) released its quarterly results.

The mining giant revenues in the first three month of the year reached US$1.76 billion, up from US$1.27 billion a year earlier with the increase reflecting higher copper and gold volumes and prices.

The volume of copper produced during the quarter was 162,900 tonnes, a 25.5% increase on the 129,800 tonnes produced in the March quarter of 2011.

Sector peer Vedanta released its full year results this week, which showed that revenues in the year to end March jumped 23 percent from the previous year to US$14 billion.

However, earnings per share dipped 46 percent to US$1.42 due to lower attributable profit from subsidiaries.

“This has been a transformational year for the group, in which we completed the Cairn India acquisition, announced the consolidation of the group, and delivered strong production growth,” said chairman of Vedanta Anil Agarwal.

After taking into account revenue from acquisitions in 2011 and 2012 including the Moody International acquisition, and a slight positive currency effect, total reported revenue surged 40 percent.

The group added that it has had a positive start to the year with the high single digit organic revenue growth being driven by the four largest divisions.

“We expect our performance this year to be in line with our expectations although we remain alert to any potential rapid change in market conditions which could impact our growth,” said chief executive of Intertek Wolfhart Hauser.

Precious metals miner Polymetal International (LON:POLY) has sold Amikan Holding Limited, which owns the Veduga gold deposit in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia, to Polygon Gold.

In return for the asset, Polymetal has received US$20 million in cash and 750 shares in Polygon, giving the group an 81.8 percent stake.

Polymetal said it planned to provide certain technical and regulatory assistance to Polygon and may dilute its stake if “external financing is raised”.

Veduga has an open pit reserve estimate – which is compliant with the NI43-101 standard – of 1.05 million ounces of gold at a grade of 5.5 grammes per tonne (g/t).

“We believe this transaction allows Polymetal, through its more than 80 percent stake in Polygon, to benefit from the development of this high-quality asset while preserving management's focus on the company's existing project pipeline,” said chief executive of Polymetal Vitaly Nesis.

Russian steelmaker Evraz (LON:EVR) released an interim management statement this week.

The group told investors that its total steel product sales in the first quarter reached 3.9 million tonnes and revenues were in line with the same period of 2011 as prices were broadly flat.

The group had US$453 million in the bank at the end of March, down from US$801 million at the end of 2011, mainly due to an increase in working capital, which will be revised by the end of the second quarter.

Serco Group (LON:SRP) also updated investors on its performance.

The government services group said its full year guidance remains unchanged and that improving conditions around the globe, if they continue, could lift its organic revenue growth in 2013 as well as result in further improvement into the medium term.

“This would support the continued delivery of strong financial performance by Serco,” the group told investors in the report.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 14:33:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43041/ftse-100-news-summary-icap-g4s-hsbc-barclays-tullow-oil-antofagasta-polymetal-evraz-serco-group-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Mid and small cap news: PV Crystalox Solar, Blinkx, Medgenics, Motive Television, ANGLE, Lamprell, Spirax-Sarco ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43040/mid-and-small-cap-news-pv-crystalox-solar-blinkx-medgenics-motive-television-angle-lamprell-spirax-sarco-0000.html

PV Crystalox Solar (LON:PVCS) was at the centre of attention on Friday after seeing its value more than double after announcing a cash settlement over a terminated wafer supply deal that exceeds its market cap.

The group revealed that it has reached an agreement over the termination of the supply deal and will receive €90 million, which will be recognised as income in the first half this year.

Meanwhile, PV has reduced its first half guidance for shipment volumes to 55-70 megawatts (MW) from 80-100 MW previously, saying it was unable to reach agreement on acceptable wafer prices and volumes for the second quarter with its customers.

This was due to a 70 percent decline in wafer prices over the past year resulting from industry overcapacity and significant inventories.

Video search engine Blinkx (LON:BLNX) also generated interest, reporting that revenue increased 73 percent, year-on-year, boosted by increased advertising streams and the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets growing online video demand.

Blinkx improved revenue in the year ended March 31 2012 to US$ 114.4 million from US$ 66.1 million, while underlying pre-tax profit increased to US$10.7 million from US$ 8.3 million. 

Chief executive and founder Suranga Chandratillake: “The proliferation of powerful connected devices and high-speed broadband networks has catalysed consumer appetite for web video.” 

During the year the company acquired Burst Media, an online media and technology company and Prime Visibility Media Group, an online and digital advertising agency.

Biopharmaceutical juniors Medgenics (LON:MEDG, AMEX:MDGN) and Silence Therapeutics (LON:SLN) also were among the most followed stocks in London markets this week.

Medgenics achieved a major milestone with clearance to begin a phase IIb trial of EPODURE to treat anaemia in kidney failure patients, while Silence said its lead drug targeting solid tumours has stabilised the condition of a number of cancer patients in early stage trials.

The approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marks a major moment in the development of the Medgenics’ Biopump technology.

“This timely acceptance of our first Investigational New Drug to the FDA marks a significant milestone for our Biopump protein platform," chief executive Andrew Pearlman told investors.

"We are very pleased with our U.S. regulatory progress and with the interactions with the FDA, allowing us to proceed with the launch of our first US trial.

“This trial is significant for Medgenics as a company as well as for patients with anemia, as we anticipate EPODURE could provide a better treatment for anemia in the future.”

These clinical trials will take place in multiple centres and be the first study in the States using the firm's proprietary Biopum technology.

The Biopump removes the need for hundreds of injections and involves a tiny sliver of the patient's tissue being taken.

It is modified to carry the gene to enable it to continuously produce the required protein to treat the condition.

"Treatment of anemia in dialysis patients with EPODURE is intended to replace frequent injections of EPO or other erythropoietic stimulating agents," the company said on Thursday.

Gene therapy specialist Silence said the results ‘strongly indicate’ disease stabilisation and safety in terminally ill cancer patients using the drug, which is called Atu027.

The drug, which is aimed at treating solid tumours in cancer patients, is currently in phase I clinical trials.

Ten of the thirty-three patients trialling the drug, called Atu027, experienced stable disease after three months.

Tony Sedgwick, Silence's chief executive, said the new data demonstrates that Atu027 can be safely administered at doses above those believed to be effective.

“Moreover, the data also strongly indicate that Atu027 is impacting the disease course and in particular providing disease stabilisation."

Two patients with neuroendocrine cancers had disease stabilisation for nine and 12 months respectively.

One of these patients also experienced partial regression of liver metastases, which shows cancer spread.

Biomarkers that are used to monitor the progression of the disease and  effectiveness of the treatment also showed improvements, while identification of sVEGR-1 as a possible biomarker was also a significant new advancement, Sedgwick added.

Another patient in the study with breast cancer also showed regression of liver metastases.

The study was designed to evaluate up to a total of eleven escalating doses of Atu027 in around 33-36 patients.

On Friday, human tissue specialist Asterand (LON:ATD) said it expects to ask for shareholder approval for the sale of its non-BioSeek Tissue Based Solutions business in the next few weeks.

It is also considering options for its other subsidary, BioSeek which provides cell-based human disease models for drug discovery. 

Asterand said: “The board also continues to explore a number of alternatives in respect of the BioSeek business including the continuation of the business on a stand-alone basis or the sale of the business after the potential disposal of the Tissue business.”

Away from the biotech sector, security group Westminster Group (LON:WSG) said the new academy opened in central England by its subsidiary Longmoor offers ‘tremendous potential’ for the expansion of its training services.

Longmoor, which is the close protection (CP) and risk assessment division of Westminster, has opened the academy in response to the increasing demand for its CP courses.

The new academy will enable it to further expand the range and scope of its courses, both residential and non-residential.

Elsewhere in the markets, Motive Television (LON:MTV) revealed that it is in talks with six English Premier League football clubs over the use of its Video2Go (V2G) product.

V2G provides the ability to load recorded movies and other pre-recorded content to smartphones, iPads and other tablets passively and without the need for an Internet connection. 

This, said Motive, is an opportunity for clubs to “provide a wide range of interesting and useful content to their fans”.

According to V2G distributor Digital Media Europe, several of the major teams have expressed interest in the technology’s ability to help monetise take-away content ranging from game highlights & statistics, player interviews and even digital match programmes.

Technology investor ANGLE (LON:AGL) also had news to report this week. Geomerics, the computer games software associate of ANGLE, has received the final milestone in a £2.3 million corporate partnership deal.

Geomerics’ speciality is Enlighten, a special effect for computer games that enables real-time games to be shown with realistic lighting.

Customers include industry giant Electronic Arts, which used Enlighten in its best seller Battlefield 3.

In March, ANGLE said three new customers had also signed up to use the product, which is generically known as middleware.

ANGLE, which has a 31 per cent stake in Geomerics, said the corporate partner and Geomerics continue to work closely together.

The name of the Corporate Partner and some of the terms of the deal, which was first announced in July 2010, remain subject to strict confidentiality, it added.

In the meantime, this week’s news in the FTSE 250 included interim management statements from bakery Greggs (LON:GRG) and engineering group Kentz (LON:KENZ).

Greggs blamed wet weather in April and early May for disappointing trading figures released this week.

Britain’s largest bakery chain reported a dip in like-for-like sales of 1.8 per cent in the 19 weeks to 12 May.

Total sales, however, grew 4.3 per cent, boosted by the launch of 25 new stores.

Chairman Derek Netherton said: “The trading environment for all retailers has remained extremely challenging, and high street footfall has remained relatively weak.”

Netherton also launched an attack on George Osborne’s so-called ‘Pasty Tax’, which he claimed is “unworkable”.

The chancellor announced plans at the Budget in March to extend VAT sales tax to freshly baked savoury products that are sold warm.

But Netherton believes that baked savouries that are sold warm but allowed to cool should be exempt from the tax.

Kentz said its full year performance will be slightly ahead of expectations as it continued to grow revenue and backlog in the four months to 30 April.

Current prospects consist of projects with values up to US$100 million while the overall pipeline for prospects stands at US$ 10.8 billion at the end of April 2012.

It added it expects to continue achieving an average natural growth on contracts of 25 per cent in 2012.

Backlog grew to US$2.46 billion in the period from US$2.4 billion in the four months to 31 December 2011.

Chief executive Christian Brown said: "Kentz is pleased to report that the group has experienced good growth in the first four months of the year and anticipates that the full year performance will be marginally ahead of expectations.”

Another FTSE 250 constituent Lamprell (LON:LAM) closed down nearly 57 percent on Wednesday after issuing a profit warning.

The firm, which provides services for offshore and onshore oil firms, said it expected that a delay in  revenues, along with added costs would mean it would post a small loss in the first half of this year.

"During the year to date the group's financial performance has been adversely affected mainly by progressive delays in key specialised vendor equipment deliveries for new build jackup projects together with the progressive slippage in the timing of expected new project awards and delayed client deliverables," it told investors.

In addition, the FTSE 250 firm said it had recognised further costs linked to the final specialised equipment commissioning on two wind farm projects - both of which are due for delivery in the second quarter.

Another midcap, peristaltic pump specialist Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LON:SPX), announced that unfavourable exchange movements have taken the shine of good organic growth since the start of the year.

In an interim management statement, the company reported organic growth of 6 per cent year-on-year during the period from January 1 to April 30 2012.   

However, total sales increased 3 per cent due to unfavourable exchange movements, particularly in recent weeks, that reduced sales on translation by 2 per cent, and due to the impact of two small business disposals in mid-2011.  

At constant currency, operating profit was modestly ahead of the comparable period in 2011. 

This reflected the contribution from the higher sales, largely offset by higher material costs - the effects of which are expected to reduce in the second half of the year-, lower volumes in its main European factories and the impact of the economic downturn in Latin America, the company said.

In the meantime, Renishaw (LON:RSW) told investors that its full year profits are set to be ahead of the 2010/11 financial year.

Investors cheered the update, sending shares in the measuring and medical device manufacturer up 12 percent to 1,500 pence in early deals, valuing the engineering group at £1.1 billion.

Revenues for the first three months of 2012, which is the third quarter of the group’s financial year, reached £81.6 million, up four percent from a year earlier, taking the overall revenues for the nine months of the year to £228.8 million.

This was nine percent ahead of the £210.6 million revenues posted for the first nine months of the previous year.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 13:57:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43040/mid-and-small-cap-news-pv-crystalox-solar-blinkx-medgenics-motive-television-angle-lamprell-spirax-sarco-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Oil and gas news summary: Range Resources, Cove Energy, Chariot Oil & Gas, Enegi Oil, Genel Energy, Tethys Petroleum ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43039/oil-and-gas-news-summary-range-resources-cove-energy-chariot-oil-gas-enegi-oil-genel-energy-tethys-petroleum-0000.html

Range Resources (LON:RRL) and partner Red Emperor Resources (LON:RMP) this week updated investors on their closely followed exploration campaign in Puntland, Somalia.

On Thursday, the companies told investors that drilling at its highly anticipated Shabeel-1 well in Puntland, Somalia had been suspended for further testing.

Operator Horn Petroleum said the drill had reached a total depth of 3,470 metres, having encountered a metamorphic basement at 3,430 metres. The original target for the well was 3,800 metres.

Keith Hill, chief executive of Africa Oil, which has a 60 per cent stake in Horn Petroleum, said: “We are very encouraged by the results of the Shabeel well which appears to have confirmed oil bearing sands in two zones.

“This has very positive implications for the prospectivity of the basin."

A day later, Managing director of Range Peter Landau said Shabeel-1 could produce up to 130mm barrels of recoverable oil.

He added that based on Range's internal technical team's review of the net pay zone and results to date, a successful flow test could result in 70 to 130mm barrels of recoverable oil from the well.

Of that, 14 to 26mm bbls would be attributable to Range.

“The zone needs to be commercially flow tested and this will be undertaken after the completion of the second well, Shabeel North, which will spud early June,” he said.

“It is also important to remember that this is the first hydrocarbon well drilled in the Dharoor Valley for over 50 years and it is a massive credit to all involved, namely Horn Petroleum, the Puntland Government and the local Puntland communities that the well has been successfully drilled to date,” he said in an interview with Open Briefing.

Earlier in the week, Cove Energy (LON:COV) announced a major new discovery off the coast of Mozambique.

It follows some spectacular results from the Golfinho exploration well in the now world class Rovuma Basin, which point to a recoverable resource of 17 to more than 30 trillion cubic feet of gas. 

Golfinho, which is 20 miles north-west of the existing Prosperidade Complex, tested at around 100 million cubic feet a day.

Anadarko is the operator of Area 1 Rovuma Offshore, which hosts Golfinho, with a 36.5 per cent stake. Cove, meanwhile, is one of the lesser shareholders with 8.5 per cent.

However the figures involved with this discovery are so large that this week’s announcement is bound to have a material impact on Cove’s valuation. 

Chief executive John Craven said: “We are thrilled at the success of the Golfinho exploration well, our eleventh successful well offshore Mozambique. 

“This new gas accumulation is independent and separate to the Prosperidade gas complex and with successful appraisal could be advantageously developed, given its close proximity to shore and the fact that it completely enclosed in Area 1".

On Monday, peer Chariot Oil & Gas (LON:CHAR) saw its shares fall almost 40 percent in early trade after it plugged and abandoned the Tapir South exploration well, off the coast of Namibia.

Hydrocarbons were discovered, but not in sufficient quantities to be commercial.

Chief executive Paul Welch said: “Whilst the results of the Tapir South well are disappointing, this is the first well of a longer term drilling campaign within a frontier region and only the second well ever to have been drilled in the Namibe basin. 

“Our understanding of this basin is rapidly improving and we expect this well to provide more information on the character and maturity of the potential source rocks when we carry out detailed analyses on the recovered samples. 

“These analyses will provide invaluable information for improving the assessment of source risk on other prospects in close proximity whilst also furthering our knowledge of the region.”

Enegi Oil (LON:ENEG) did better on Monday, seeing its shares shoot up 30 percent after it said its Garden Hill South discovery in Canada is larger than first thought.

It follows the latest results from well PaP#1-ST#3, which were independently assessed by McCaffrey Consulting Services.

McCaffrey said it is yet to see pressure depletion from PaP#1-ST#3, suggesting the reservoir is larger than first estimated.

There are also knock-on implications for daily flow rate, which is also expected to increase.

A 2007 competent persons report suggested GHS estimated there were 61.5 million barrels of oil in place as well as 117 BCF of gas.

Ophir Energy (LON:OPHR) also had positive news to report to investors this week. The company and partner BG (LON:BG.) have made another major gas discovery offshore Tanzania, the fifth consecutive hit on their blocks in the region.

The Mzia-1 well in Block 1 intersected a 178m gas bearing column and 55m of net pay in the Upper Cretaceous, Ophir said.

The mean average resource was estimated at 3.5 TCF with "significant" potential upside.

BG and Ophir had already discovered an average 7 TCF of gas from their first four wells of the offshore Tanzania programme, but said this week the Mzia-1 result will add substantially to this total as well as opening the Rovuma Delta Upper Cretaceous intraslope play.  

Ophir holds 40 per cent of Blocks 1, 3 and 4; BG operates the blocks with a 60 per cent stake.

In other news in oil and gas, Kurdistan–focused Genel Energy (LON:GENL) sharply increased production in its latest quarter and expects output to stay at the higher level over the remainder of the year.

Net production for the first quarter of 2012 averaged 45,500 barrels daily, 27 per cent higher than a year ago.

Revenue guidance for 2012 remains unchanged at US$250-300 million supported by strong sales into the domestic market, it added.

The company, which is run by former BP boss Tony Hayward, intends to drill seven wells across its acreage in the next twelve months.

In the meantime, Tethys Petroleum (LON:TPL, TSE:TPL) has been awarded a new oil field in Uzbekistan, from which it says there is good potential to increase production.

The Chegara field currently has limited production from three wells and lies 14 km south-west of the firm's existing North Urtabulak asset.

It has been the subject of minimal drilling and Tethys believes that with more work, it can increase production "substantially".

The deal at Chegara is for a 25 year production enhancement contract.

Tethys also announced this week it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NHC Uzbekneftegaz concerning a potential exploration agreement for a block in the North Usyturt basin in Uzbekistan.

Elsewhere in the sector, Thailand focused oil and gas firm Coastal Energy (LON:CEO, CVE:CEN) said it recorded record production, cashflow and earnings in the first quarter of 2012.

Total production increased by 125 per cent to 22,773 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the three months to March 31, it told investors.

That compared to 10,125 boepd in the same period in 2011.

Offshore production reached 21,031 barrels a day with the inclusion of both platforms at Bua Ban North, while onshore, production was 1,742 boepd - an increase from levels seen in the fourth quarter - as natural gas demand recovered after flooding in Thailand late last year.

Finally, Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) has raised £150,000 from its equity drawdown facility as it prepares to test its recent discovery in East Africa.

Solo issued 32.3 million shares at a “small premium” to the market price and will use the money to fund its 25 per cent share of the testing of the Ntorya-1 well gas discovery in the Ruvuma Basin in Tanzania

In February, Solo and partner Aminex (LON:AEX) reported the  discovery in a 25 metre (80 foot) gross sandstone interval at Ntorya.

The drawdown has been taken from at three year £10 million equity line facility with Dutchess Opportunity Cayman Fund.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 12:48:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43039/oil-and-gas-news-summary-range-resources-cove-energy-chariot-oil-gas-enegi-oil-genel-energy-tethys-petroleum-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Mining news summary: Condor Resources, Bullabulling Gold, Anglo Asian Mining, Continental Coal, Bellzone Mining ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43038/mining-news-summary-condor-resources-bullabulling-gold-anglo-asian-mining-continental-coal-bellzone-mining-0000.html

Gold miners Condor Resources (LON:CNR) and Bullabulling Gold (LON:BGL) were among the top performers in the mining sector on Friday with both companies adding around 10 percent.

Chairman of Condor Mark Child described himself "really pleased" with the results of the tests carried out on two samples from its La India gold project in Nicaragua.

The tests showed that both gravity concentration and leaching with cyanide are effective methods of processing the mineralisation at La India.

However, a combination of both processes achieved the highest recovery of the precious metal, with over 90 per cent recovery for both samples.

Chief executive and chairman Child told investors: "We are really pleased with the results of the metallurgical testwork carried out by Met-Solve Laboratories in Canada. 

"The two 25kg samples were taken from artisanal miners stockpile and returned higher than expected calculated head grades of 13.9 g/t and 17.2g/t, although this is not inconsistent with the grade reported in the historic production which is estimated at 575,000 oz gold at 13.2g/t from La India project.”

The latest assay results received by peer Bullabulling confirmed the potential to expand the company’s already impressive 3.2 million-ounce resource base.

The company completed 24 reverse circulation holes on the Gibraltar Trend. The best results included a 13 metre section at 2.87 grams of the precious metal per tonne and 3 metres at 6.82 grams.

A total of five holes have so far been drilled on the Geko project, returning 2.02 grams and 2.21 grams from two separate intercepts of 14 metres.

The group has also carried out 2,659 metres of scout drilling.

Another precious metals miner Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ) has agreed a US$7.5 million loan for the initial part of a leaching plant upgrade at its flagship gold mine in Azerbaijan.

The International Bank of Azerbaijan has agreed to lend the money, which will be used on the early stages of construction at the plant.

Chief executive Reza Vazari said last week that a new agitation leach plant is a natural development for the mine and would ultimately provide the best return for shareholders.

The new plant for the Gedabek mine will be designed to treat 100 tonnes of ore per hour and will improve gold recoveries.

It is expected to cost US$52 million.

Staying with gold miners, Minera IRL (LON:MIRL, CVE:IRL) said its Don Nicolas gold-silver project in Argentina has reached another major milestone as the permitting process has now started.

The company told investors this week that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) has now been completed and presented to the secretary of mining of the Santa Cruz province of Argentina, marking the start of the permitting process.

According to the company, permitting, which is expected to take six months, should proceed expeditiously given the “outstanding” support from the authorities in Santa Cruz.

“The completion of the EIA and commencement of permitting marks another significant milestone in the development of the Don Nicolas Project in Patagonia,” said executive chairman of Minera Courtney Chamberlain.

Elsewhere in the sector, Red Rock Resources (LON:RRR) is to start mobilising for its iron ore exploration project in north-west Greenland as the area moves into its period of twenty-four hour sunshine.

The project is aiming to define a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate for one or more of the Melville Bugt iron ore target areas by gathering up to between five and six thousand metres of diamond drill core.

It will also continue the detailed reconnaissance mapping it started during its maiden field season last year.

“The promising mapping, assay and geophysical survey results obtained by Red Rock Resources at Melville Bugt during 2011 indicate the potential for economic quantities of both magnetite and haematite iron ore mineralisation,” it said.

In other news in the mining sector, Continental Coal (LON:COOL) has entered into an exclusive option for the potential acquisition of a 50 per cent joint venture interest in a producing hard coking coal mine in Colombia.

The move is in line with the company’s strategic objective to diversify its coal mining operations geographically and into the higher margin coking coal market, and it will complement its existing thermal coal mining, development and exploration projects in South Africa.

The potential cost of this acquisition is US$15 million.  

Taking the option would enable Continental to operate, develop and expand an existing business, which consists of five mining concessions/contracts covering over 1,500 hectares, including the existing underground mine that has been in operation for 24 years and adjacent exploration ground.

Meanwhile, Bellzone Mining (LON:BZM) expects to report on progress regarding the economic studies and resource development at its flagship project, the Kalia iron ore mine in Guinea, in the next few months.

The group announced its results for the full year to end-December 2011, which saw a massive fundraising in March to the tune of US$236 million.  The cash balance at the end of the year stood at US$153.1 million.

Kalia is planned to commence production in 2014 and be producing iron ore and iron ore concentrate at a rate of 50 million tonnes per annum in 2018. 

The project has a 6.16 billion tonnes magnetite JORC resource and an oxide JORC resource of 193 million tonnes.

Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) said it could make a potential smelter fee saving of US$76.2 million after recalculating the magnesium oxide content of samples from its Kun-Manie nickel and sulphide project in the far east of Russia.

The group conducted a detailed analysis of 24 concentrate samples, which concluded the average magnesium oxide content was 11.5 per cent and not the 16 per cent previously calculated.

As magnesium oxide in concentrate incurs a smelter penalty, the lower figure has a knock-on, positive impact on potential profits. 

It also points to additional nickel and copper production in the order of 8,303 tonnes and 9,250 tonnes respectively.

In the meantime, Connemara Mining (LON:CON) has completed an airborne survey over a block of five licences in the Wicklow and Wexford areas of Ireland which may have uncovered previously unknown potential gold targets.

The work is part of a joint venture between Connemara and Hendrick Resources of Canada under which the latter will earn a 75 per cent interest in the licences by spending €1 million.

The magnetic, very low frequency and radiometric survey is being processed by Terraquest in Canada. 

Initial analysis carried out on the raw data by Hendrick in Canada indicates the presence of previously undetected blind targets.  Final results are due within six weeks.

This week’s research included broker notes on gold miners Medusa Mining (LON:MML) and Ortac Resources (LON:OTC) from Fairfax and Seymour Pierce respectively.

Fairfax has raised its target for Medusa and said the current market represents a "golden opportunity" to buy into the stock.

The broker has also raised the production forecast for the firm for the year to June this year to 65,000 ounces - from 60,000 previously.

And it raised its price target to the stock to 610 pence a share from 573 pence (current price: 317 pence), on the back of anticipated reduced cash costs at the company's flagship Co-O mine in the Philippines.

It comes after a presentation by Medusa at the City broker.

The company is updating investors on progress at Co-O, the new Bananghilig gold project and the copper porphyry exploration in the Philippines," said analyst John Meyer.

Fellow precious metals miner Ortac has in the space of less than a week reported an increased resource estimate at its flagship project in Slovakia, followed by a £20 million equity funding agreement.

The subsequent share price fall though is baffling analysts at Seymour Pierce, who have a ‘buy’ rating on the stock.

They believe that given the low risk investment opportunity, there is significant value to be found in Ortac.

“In our view both these developments help to further derisk Ortac’s offering as it pushes on with its evaluation of Sturec. This in turn makes the recent downward trend in the share price difficult to comprehend,” said Seymour Pierce analyst Asa Bridle.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 11:41:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43038/mining-news-summary-condor-resources-bullabulling-gold-anglo-asian-mining-continental-coal-bellzone-mining-0000.html <![CDATA[News - FTSE 100 closes sharply lower on Friday ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43037/ftse-100-closes-sharply-lower-on-friday-43037.html The FTSE 100 took another battering today, closing the last trading day of the week at  5,267.62 points, down 70.76 – or 1.32 per cent lower.

In a week dominated by fears over the future of Greece and mounting concerns that the debt-ridden country could bring the euro zone to the point of breaking down, London’s main index lost nearly 300 points.

Compounding the worries was Moody’s slashing the ratings on 16 Spanish banks including the country’s biggest bank Santander, which was slashed to A2.

Meanwhile, Fitch lowered Greece’s rating to CCC from B-minus as a result of the political turmoil in the country.

Greece will hold a new election in June after coalition talks between five parties and president Karolos Populias collapsed earlier this week.

It is feared that anti-bailout parties could secure enough votes to form a new coalition in the June election, putting Greece’s membership in the euro zone and the future of Europe’s single currency into jeopardy.

In London, the Spanish downgrade hit banking stocks with Lloyds (LON:LLOY) down 6.1 pct at 25.95p and fellow taxpayer owned bank RBS (LON:RBS) down 5.1 pct at 19.99p.

Miner Xstrata (LON:XTA) was also among the biggest fallers, down 4.3 pct at 914.70p, and luxury brand Burberry (LON:BRBY) saw a 4.2 pct sell-off, ending the session at 1,373p.

Top among the few risers on the main index were Polymetal International (LON:POLY), which put on 2.8 pct to 799p, and silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES), closing 2.1 pct higher at 1,358p.

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 17:50:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43037/ftse-100-closes-sharply-lower-on-friday-43037.html <![CDATA[News - PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Transeuro Energy, Medusa Mining, Heritage Oil, Range Resources, Facebook ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43036/proactive-news-summary-transeuro-energy-medusa-mining-heritage-oil-range-resources-facebook-0000.html  

Today’s main story by Proactive Investors was dedicated to Transeuro Energy (CVE:TSU), whose CEO David Worrall said the group has put together an innovative, flexible funding package that guarantees the company access to funding as required and manages and minimises dilution for equity investors.

The three-part, C$33 million package, includes a loan, a convertible bond, and a share purchase agreement, which will allow the Company to bring up to seven wells into production, three in Ukraine and up to four in Canada.

In addition the facilities provide spare capital for acquisitions and new ventures. 

“We can call down on the remaining tranches of the loan agreement and on the equity as a contingency item to manage overruns and to do additional work, but we won’t disadvantage existing shareholders by paying for it now, upfront,” said Worrall.

“We will use it as and when we want and hopefully that will be when the share price is significantly higher.

“But securing access to the funds means we can plan future campaigns with confidence and make commitments to our government partners in Ukraine.”

 Worrall moved to allay fears over the share purchase agreement, a form of funding which is commonly mis-understood by market, and is wilfully misrepresented in other quarters.

“Yorkville has agreements in place with other companies it supports, which have led to increases in stock prices,” he said. 

“They work closely with companies to ensure the additional shares are placed carefully and gradually without disrupting normal market activity. And they have committed not to short the stock at any time.” 

“We think what we have done is particularly suitable to funding for junior oil and gas companies,” said Worrall.

Medusa Mining (LON:MML, ASX:MML) also emerged among the most followed stocks of the day after broker Fairfax upped its price target for the stock and said the current market represented a "golden opportunity" to buy into the company.

The broker has also raised the production forecast for the firm for the year to June this year to 65,000 ounces - from 60,000 previously.

And it raised its price target to the stock to 610 pence a share from 573 pence (current price: 317 pence), on the back of anticipated reduced cash costs at the company's flagship Co-O mine in the Philippines.

It comes after a presentation by Medusa at the City broker.

The company is updating investors on progress at Co-O, the new Bananghilig gold project and the copper porphyry exploration in the Philippines," said analyst John Meyer.

He pointed out that exploration at the Co-O mine continued to progress and that the JORC resource should continue to expand to replace ounces that have been unearthed and to extend the overall resource to something over 2 mln ounces - from 1.96 million previously.

The recent Bananghilig gold discovery, where production is targeted for 2016, should also extend to over 1 million ounces although mine planning will be for a potential 200,000ozpa operation for a five year mine life at a $550/oz cash cost, he said.

In terms of copper, Meyer added that the team was working to prove up a significant body of mineralisation with a view to selling its copper portfolio and distributing the majority of proceeds to investors.

Two other stories covered today’s news from oil and gas groups Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL) and Range Resources (LON:RRL).

Range’s Shabeel-1 well in Puntland, Somalia could produce up to 130mm barrels of recoverable oil, the company’s MD said in an interview today.

Drilling of Shabeel-1 has been suspended pending testing, with Range saying it had been a significant success to date with the discovery of a 12 to 20 metres net hydrocarbon pay zone in the Jesomma sands.

Managing director Peter Landau added that based on Range's internal technical team's review of the net pay zone and results to date, a successful flow test could result in 70 to 130mm barrels of recoverable oil from the well.

Of that, 14 to 26mm bbls would be attributable to Range.

“The zone needs to be commercially flow tested and this will be undertaken after the completion of the second well, Shabeel North, which will spud early June,” he said.

“It is also important to remember that this is the first hydrocarbon well drilled in the Dharoor Valley for over 50 years and it is a massive credit to all involved, namely Horn Petroleum, the Puntland Government and the local Puntland communities that the well has been successfully drilled to date,” he said in an interview with Open Briefing.

“Globally, the average discovery rate is between one in five and one in 10 for a ‘wildcat’ well, which essentially is what Shabeel-1 is, hence we consider the well successful to date with both the net pay and the confirmation of an active petroleum system.

“Whilst the market and short term traders may have been anticipating further success in the deeper sections of the well, what we have discovered is extremely significant and the chances of a commercial hydrocarbon operation in Puntland are far greater now than when the well was spudded.

“And it must be remembered that we did encounter additional potential net pay sands in a Jurassic aged formation over a 184 metre section at a depth of 3,246 metres to 3,430 metres. The fact that hydrocarbons were encountered at a number of levels is particularly significant moving ahead.”

Peer Heritage, a constituent of the FTSE 250 index, told investors that it was happy with the results of the Miran West-3 well in Iraqi Kurdistan and was well funded for its 2012 work programme.

In the year to date, Heritage was focused on its operation in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, where it successfully tested the Miran West-3 well, which flowed gas at a rate of 22 million cubic feet per day.

It is estimated that this well will be capable of producing 50 mmcfpd of wet gas and 1,000 barrels of oil per day of condensate when it goes online.

After Miran West-3, the rig will move to the location of the Miran West-4 appraisal well, which will spud in early June this year.

The group also released its production figures, showing that output jumped to 605 barrels of oil per day in the first quarter, up 40 percent from the same period of 2011, but down 38 percent from the final three months of 2011 due to mechanical issues on well 363 in Russia.

Well 363 was the first horizontal well to be drilled in the Zapadno Chumpasskoye field with further wells planned for the second half of this year.

On the financial front, Heritage ended the period with US$154 million in the bank, which it said is “more than sufficient” to cover existing work programmes into 2013.

The cash position excludes amounts of US$405 million related to the ongoing tax dispute in Uganda.

In the meantime, social network Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) began trading on the NASDAQ exchange today.

The most anticipated float ever has been priced at $38, or £24 a share.

Facebook, now a household name, has added a further 96.4 million shares to the table, bringing the total number on sale to 484.4 million, it has emerged.

The IPO is set to raise US$18.4 billion for the company.

Mark Zuckerberg, who invented the concept in his bedroom at Harvard, stands to become one of the richest people on the planet.

Fellow founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin will also become paper-billionares, along with Napster founder and former employee Sean Parker.

The massive demand for the stock has meant several of the firm's early supporters have decided to sell their stakes.

For example, Peter Thiel, one of the websites earliest backers, will cut his 2.5 per cent stake to less than one percent by selling 16.8 million shares, while investment giant Goldman Sachs has more than doubled the shares it is selling to 28.7 million, from 13.2 million previously.

 

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 16:51:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43036/proactive-news-summary-transeuro-energy-medusa-mining-heritage-oil-range-resources-facebook-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Gold rallies on US stimulus speculation ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43033/gold-rallies-on-us-stimulus-speculation-0000.html

Gold rallied today, lifted by hopes of further stimulus measures from the Federal Reserve and a report from the World Gold Council, which said demand from China surged 10 percent to a record 255.2 tonnes in the first quarter.

The WGC added that China will soon become the world’s biggest consumer of the yellow metal.

Meanwhile, demand from the current largest buyer of gold India slipped 29 percent to 207.6 tonnes year on year during the quarter.

Gold also benefitted from minutes of the latest policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

The report revealed that several policymakers said further stimulus measures were possible to support the ongoing recovery in the US.

Further stimulus would weaken the US dollar and bolster demand for gold, which is seen as an alternative investment to the greenback.

Gold traded at US$1,593/oz, up US$19 from Thursday’s close. Silver added 73 cents to reach US$28.78/oz and platinum advanced US$8 to US$1,457/oz.

Today’s top risers in the sector were:

Patagonia Gold (LON:PGD), up 14 percent at 28.5 pence at midday

GoldStone Resources (LON:GRL), up 10.5 percent at 4 pence

Condor Resources (LON:CNR), up 10.5 percent at 4 pence

Triple Plate Junction (LON:TPJ), up 8 percent at 2.11 pence

Archipelago Resources (LON:AR.), up 5 percent at 56.8 pence

The top fallers were:

Premier Gold Resources (LON:PGR), down 16 percent at 0.42 pence at midday

Highland Gold (LON:HGM), down 9 percent at 100.6 pence

Touchstone Gold (LON:TGL), down 6 percent at 15 pence

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 16:37:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43033/gold-rallies-on-us-stimulus-speculation-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Greek instability hits oil prices ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43031/greek-instability-hits-oil-prices-0000.html

Oil prices continued their freefall today with futures in New York on course to extend their losing streak to six sessions thanks to a new wave of downgrades in Europe and a bearish comment on China from Goldman Sachs.

The investment bank now expects the world’s second largest economy to expand 8.1 this year compared with 8.6 percent previous, while the forecast for the current quarter was reduced to 7.9 from 8.5 percent.

In the meantime, Moody’s cut its ratings on 16 Spanish banks including major Santander, which was downgraded to A2.

Fellow rating agency Fitch lowered Greece’s rating to CCC from B-minus and threatened to downgrade all other euro zone members if the debt-laden country does leave the monetary union.

Greece is due to hold a new election next month after coalition talks that followed the inconclusive May 6 election failed to result in an agreement.

It is feared that anti-austerity parties could secure enough votes to form a government and renounce the nation’s obligations under the bailout deal, which would almost certainly lead to Greece’s exit from the euro zone.

Oil futures faced more pressure from this week’s inventories data, which showed that crude stocks in the US added 2.1 million barrels last week, while expectations were for a smaller increase.

US light, sweet crude for June delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), fell 58 cents to US$91.98/barrel in morning trade in New York.

July Brent crude declined 23 cents to US$107.26/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.

Today’s top risers in the oil and gas sector were:

Frontera Resources (LON:FRR), up 29 percent at 0.599 pence at midday

Trap Oil (LON:TRAP), up 8.5 percent at 24 pence

Xtract Energy (LON:XTR), up 8 percent at 0.405 pence

Sound Oil (LON:SOU), up 5 percent at 1.15 pence

Matra Petroleum (LON:MTA), up 4 percent at 2.6 pence

The top fallers were:

Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA), down 9 percent at 7.15 pence at midday

Gasol (LON:GAS), down 8 percent at 0.55 pence

Regal Petroleum (LON:RPT), down 8 percent at 20.53 pence

Borders & Southern Petroleum (LON:BOR), down 7 percent at 65.75 pence

President Petroleum (LON:PPC), down 6.5 percent at 28.5 pence


]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 16:01:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43031/greek-instability-hits-oil-prices-0000.html <![CDATA[News - FTSE 100 falls, but Dow Jones and S&P 500 rise in early trade - UPDATE ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43027/ftse-100-falls-but-dow-jones-and-sp-500-rise-in-early-trade-update-0000.html

UK stocks fell sharply today as a couple of fresh downgrades of Greece and Spanish banks added to fears that the euro zone debt crisis is spiralling out of control and a breakup of the monetary union could indeed become a reality.

The FTSE 100 stood at 5,293 this afternoon, down 45 points (0.85 percent) from Thursday’s close.

Moody’s slashed the ratings on 16 Spanish banks including the country’s biggest bank Santander, which was slashed to A2. Meanwhile, Fitch lowered Greece’s rating to CCC from B-minus as a result of the political turmoil in the country.

Greece will hold a new election in June after coalition talks between five parties and president Karolos Populias collapsed earlier this week.

It is feared that anti-bailout parties could secure enough votes to form a new coalition in the June election, putting Greece’s membership in the euro zone and the future of Europe’s single currency into jeopardy.

Fitch warned that all euro zone members could see their ratings cut if Greece does leave the monetary union.

“Investors continue to avert risky asset classes such as mining and financial stocks in an effort to protect the value of their portfolios as stocks continue to head south,” said chief market strategist at City Index Joshua Raymond.

“The moves we have seen lately in the Volatility Index – a key gauge of market fear – is equally concerning and echoes the key risk aversion theme taking place.

“The S&P VIX rose to levels not seen since December last year, whilst the FTSE VIX also saw similar spikes.”

In the meantime, Goldman Sachs has reduced its projection for China’s economic growth to 7.9 percent from 8.5 percent, putting more pressure on equity markets.

Precious metals miners did well today after gold and silver prices extended yesterday’s gains. Polymetal (LON:POLY, up 2.7pct at 798p) led the blue chips at midday, while silver producer Fresnillo (LON:FRES, down 2.1pct at 1,358p) also made the leaderboard.

Building materials group CRH (LON:CRH, up 2.6pct at 1,110p) also did well this morning.

Meanwhile, the Spanish downgrade hit banking stocks with Lloyds (LON:LLOY, down 4.9pct at 26.3p) sliding to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile along with fellow taxpayer owned bank RBS (LON:RBS, down 2.8pct an 20.48p).

Investors also sold mining stocks on the back of the Goldman downgrade of China forecasts.

Xstrata (LON:XTA, down 3.8pct at 920.3p) was the heaviest faller in the sector, followed by Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, down 3.2pct at 953.5p) and ENRC (LON:ENRC, down 2.4pct at 462.5p).

Other notable fallers included hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG, down 2.4pct at 76.7p), hospitality groupWhitbread (LON:WTB, down 2.3pct at 1,790p) and beverage group Diageo (LON:DGE, down 2.3pct at 1,493.5p).

US markets

Equities on Wall Street recouped a small part of yesterday’s losses this morning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 15.5 points (0.1 percent) in early deals and the broader S&P 500 index tacked on two points (0.1 percent) to reach 1,306.

Social network Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has started trading on the NASDAQ Exchange at US$38 per share today, which values the group at US$104 billion.

Faceook has raised US$16 billion in the IPO.

UK corporate news

Back in the UK, other corporate news included a trading update from Kentz Corporation (LON:KENZ, up 1pct at 380.4p).

The engineering giant said its full year performance will be slightly ahead of expectations as it continued to grow revenue and backlog in the four months to 30 April.

Current prospects consist of projects with values up to US$100 million while the overall pipeline for prospects stands at US$ 10.8 billion at the end of April 2012.

It added it expects to continue achieving an average natural growth on contracts of 25 per cent in 2012.

Backlog grew to US$2.46 billion in the period from US$2.4 billion in the four months to 31 December 2011.

Fellow FTSE 250 constituent London Stock Exchange Group (LON:LSE, up 4.3pct at 1,006p) said operating profits soared 169 percent to £639.7 million in the year to March. And revenues improved 10 percent to £679.8 million.

Basic earnings per share reached 193.6 pence, up 243 percent from the previous year.

LSE has decided to increase its final dividend by six percent to 19 pence per share on the back of the strong financial performance. Total dividend for the year rose six percent to 28.3 pence share.

“We have delivered a 27 percent growth in operating profit and a 169 per cent uplift in profit before tax, seen strong performances across all four business divisions and made significant progress on our diversification strategy,” said LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet.

Another midcap Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL, down 2pct at 116p) said output jumped to 605 barrels of oil per day in the first quarter, up 40 percent from the same period of 2011, but down 38 percent from the final three months of 2011 due to mechanical issues on well 363 in Russia.

On the financial front, Heritage ended the period with US$154 million in the bank, which it said is “more than sufficient” to cover existing work programmes into 2013.

We are delighted with the Miran West 3 test results which give us great comfort on the extent of the primary gas reservoir and demonstrates its producibility,” said chief executive of Heritage Tony Buckingham.

“We are focused on the monetisation of the world class Miran Field, targeting the phased development of the field with export of the gas to the booming Turkish market.”

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 15:19:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43027/ftse-100-falls-but-dow-jones-and-sp-500-rise-in-early-trade-update-0000.html <![CDATA[News - FTSE 100 drops as euro zone fears mount ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43024/ftse-100-drops-as-euro-zone-fears-mount-43024.html  

UK stocks fell sharply today as a couple of fresh downgrades of Greece and Spanish banks added to fears that the euro zone debt crisis is spiralling out of control and a breakup of the monetary union could indeed become a reality.

The FTSE 100 stood at 5,293 this afternoon, down 45 points (0.85 percent) from Thursday’s close.

Moody’s slashed the ratings on 16 Spanish banks including the country’s biggest bank Santander, which was slashed to A2. Meanwhile, Fitch lowered Greece’s rating to CCC from B-minus as a result of the political turmoil in the country.

Greece will hold a new election in June after coalition talks between five parties and president Karolos Populias collapsed earlier this week.

It is feared that anti-bailout parties could secure enough votes to form a new coalition in the June election, putting Greece’s membership in the euro zone and the future of Europe’s single currency into jeopardy.

Fitch warned that all euro zone members could see their ratings cut if Greece does leave the monetary union.

“Investors continue to avert risky asset classes such as mining and financial stocks in an effort to protect the value of their portfolios as stocks continue to head south,” said chief market strategist at City Index Joshua Raymond.

“The moves we have seen lately in the Volatility Index – a key gauge of market fear – is equally concerning and echoes the key risk aversion theme taking place.

“The S&P VIX rose to levels not seen since December last year, whilst the FTSE VIX also saw similar spikes.”

In the meantime, Goldman Sachs has reduced its projection for China’s economic growth to 7.9 percent from 8.5 percent, putting more pressure on equity markets.

Precious metals miners did well today after gold and silver prices extended yesterday’s gains. Polymetal (LON:POLY, up 2.7pct at 798p) led the blue chips at midday, while silver producer Fresnillo (LON:FRES, down 2.1pct at 1,358p) also made the leaderboard.

Building materials group CRH (LON:CRH, up 2.6pct at 1,110p) also did well this morning.

Meanwhile, the Spanish downgrade hit banking stocks with Lloyds (LON:LLOY, down 4.9pct at 26.3p) sliding to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile along with fellow taxpayer owned bank RBS (LON:RBS, down 2.8pct an 20.48p).

Investors also sold mining stocks on the back of the Goldman downgrade of China forecasts.

Xstrata (LON:XTA, down 3.8pct at 920.3p) was the heaviest faller in the sector, followed by Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, down 3.2pct at 953.5p) and ENRC (LON:ENRC, down 2.4pct at 462.5p).

Other notable fallers included hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG, down 2.4pct at 76.7p), hospitality group Whitbread (LON:WTB, down 2.3pct at 1,790p) and beverage group Diageo (LON:DGE, down 2.3pct at 1,493.5p).

 

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 14:55:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43024/ftse-100-drops-as-euro-zone-fears-mount-43024.html <![CDATA[News - Friday's most followed: PV Crystalox Solar, Pursuit Dynamics, Blinkx, LSE Group, Severfield-Rowen ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43020/fridays-most-followed-pv-crystalox-solar-pursuit-dynamics-blinkx-lse-group-severfield-rowen-43020.html It was no surprise that PV Crystalox Solar (LON:PVCS) topped the list f the most searched for UK stocks on Google Finance this morning after seeing its market value more than double.

Shares in the group jumped 120 percent to 9.3 pence this morning after it announced a supply deal settlement of €90 million, which significantly exceeded its market cap of around £19 million at Thursday’s close.

PV also reduced its first half guidance for shipment volumes to 55-70 megawatts (MW) from 80-100 MW previously, saying it was unable to reach agreement on acceptable wafer prices and volumes for the second quarter with its customers.

This was due to a 70 percent decline in wafer prices over the past year resulting from industry overcapacity and significant inventories.

On message boards, investors also noted that the group had another €22.6 million in the bank at the end of 2011, however, losses for the year reached €67.5 million.

“The Group will accelerate its cost reduction programmes, continue its cash conservation strategy, whilst preserving the Group's operational capabilities,” said PV chairman Maarten Henderson at the time of the full year report.

Other companies that emerged among the top performers in London markets this morning included fluid technology firm Pursuit Dynamics (LON:PDX), video search engine Blinkx (LON:BLNX) and small cap miner Amur Minerals (LON:AMC).

Pursuit surged six percent after responding to the decline in its share price.

The group said it knew of no reason for the decline, but added that following the announcement of the extension of its agreement with Procter & Gamble, its discussions with P&G are nearing an outcome and it will update investors before or on May 24.

Meanwhile, Amur surged 11 percent after identifying potential smelter fee savings of US$76.2 million and Blinkx advanced 65 percent to 45.25 pence as it unveiled a 73 percent jump in revenues for the year to end March.

Further metallurgical test work results from Amur’s flagship Kun Manie project in Russia’s Far East showed that the average magnesium oxide content was 11.5 per cent and not the 16 per cent previously calculated.

As magnesium oxide in concentrate incurs a smelter penalty, this will help the company save money.

The results also point to additional nickel and copper production in the order of 8,303 tonnes and 9,250 tonnes respectively.

“Today's news is solid evidence that another milestone has been attained to advance the project given the potential for improving the prefeasibility cash flow models,” said chief executive of Amur Robin Young.

“As the recoveries and magnesium content vary among the three planned pits, it is imperative that we include these considerations in updates for the mining reserves and associated value per ore tonne.”

The full year report from Blinkx showed that revenues increased to US$ 114.4 million from US$ 66.1 million, while underlying pre-tax profit rose to US$10.7 million from US$ 8.3 million.

During the year, the group got a boost from increased advertising streams and the rising popularity of smartphones and tablets including Apple’s iPad growing online video demand.

Blinkx also noted that the acquisitions of online media and technology company Burst Media and advertising agency Prime Visibility Media Group during the year has raised its potential to deliver video content and advertising to over 2,000 new publishers.

The company also added new brand advertisers such as Disney, IBM, JP Morgan and Lucozade.

“The proliferation of powerful connected devices and high-speed broadband networks has catalyzed consumer appetite for Web video,” said CEO of Blinkx Suranga Chandratillake.

The company noted that research firm comScore has estimated that 181 million people in the US watched nearly 37 billion videos online in March this year.

“We expect that advertisers will continue to follow these audiences by allocating more of their spend to digital channels over the coming years,” Chandratillake added.

London Stock Exchange (LON:LSE) also did well in early trade after unveiling its full year figures.

The owner of the London Stock Exchange said operating profits soared 169 percent to £639.7 million in the year to March. And revenues improved 10 percent to £679.8 million.

Basic earnings per share reached 193.6 pence, up 243 percent from the previous year.

LSE has decided to increase its final dividend by six percent to 19 pence per share on the back of the strong financial performance. Total dividend for the year rose six percent to 28.3 pence share.

“We have delivered a 27 percent growth in operating profit and a 169 per cent uplift in profit before tax, seen strong performances across all four business divisions and made significant progress on our diversification strategy,” said LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet.

“We have made great progress this year.

“We will continue to innovate across our markets, products and services and we expect to make further good strategic progress.”

Other popular updates included an interim management statement from structural steel group Severfield-Rowen (LON:SFR), whose full year performance is expected to be in line with expectations and marginally ahead of 2011.

The group told investors that cash generation has improved during the year, however, the timing of key projects will place a greater weight towards the second half. It added that trading conditions in the UK remain very tough and that recovery in its markets is still distance.

The order book in the UK remains strong at £216 million, slightly below the £221 million reported in March.

In oil and gas, Sound Oil (LON:SOU) was one of the most talked about companies after seeing its shares rebound this morning. The stock climbed seven percent to 1.18 pence, which values the company at £24.6 million.

Only ten days ago, the company made an application to produce gas from the Casa Tiberi discovery in Italy.

The firm formally applied to the Italian authorities for the San Lorenzo production concession - the aim being to develop and produce Casa Tiberi gas.

Sound Oil currently has interests in 17 licences in Italy. The 100 per cent Casa Tiberi discovery lies in the San Lorenzo concession, which is within the Montemarciano permit, on which Sound has 75 percent.

 

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 13:52:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43020/fridays-most-followed-pv-crystalox-solar-pursuit-dynamics-blinkx-lse-group-severfield-rowen-43020.html <![CDATA[News - COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Heritage Oil, EnQuest, Genel Energy, Mitchells & Butlers, Amur Minerals, Condor Resources, Tertiary Minerals ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42997/company-snapshot-heritage-oil-enquest-genel-energy-mitchells-butlers-amur-minerals-condor-resources-tertiary-minerals-0000.html

This morning, FTSE 250 oil groups Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL) and EnQuest (LON:ENQ) as well as Iraqi Kurdistan focused sector peer Genel Enegy (LON:GENL) updated investors on their operations.

Heritage said Production for the first quarter 2012 averaged 605 barrels of oil per day (bopd), an increase of 40 percent on the same period in the prior year.

The group had a cash position of US$154 million at the end of March, which is more than sufficient to cover its existing work programmes into 2013.

In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the company started drilling the MIran West-3 well, which flowed 22 million cubic feet of gas per day of wet gas.

It is estimated that once the well is completed and placed on production that it will be capable of delivering 50 mmcfpd of wet gas and 1,000 barrels per day of condensate.

The success of the Miran West-3 well continues to de-risk the Miran Field, having confirmed the presence of gas-bearing fracture networks at this location, as predicted by geophysical and geological models, said Heritage.

The group plans to spud the Miran West-4 well in June.

“We are delighted with the Miran West 3 test results which give us great comfort on the extent of the primary gas reservoir and demonstrates its producibility,” said chief executive of Heritage Tony Buckingham.

“We continue to pursue these programmes whilst also considering further value generating opportunities.”

Fellow midcap EnQuest said output reached 20,976 boepd in the first four months of the year, which was in line with expectations and confirmed its full year guidance of 20-24,000 boepd.

The group expects its output to average 25-30 boepd next year.

EnQuest also announced that it has decided to increase its interest in the Kildrummy discovery from 40 to 60 percent and in the Cairngorm discovery from 50 to 100 percent.

Meanwhile, Genel expects its output to average 45,000 barrels per day this year as a result of export restrictions by the Kurdistan government.

During the first quarter, group net working interest production averaged 45,500 bopd, up 27 percent from the same period of 2011.

Sales revenue guidance for 2012 remains unchanged at around US$250-300 million supported by strong sales into the domestic market.

Development drilling programme and facility upgrades at Taq Taq and Tawke are on track for the capacity target of 200,000 bopd for Taq Taq in 2014 and 100,000 bopd for Tawke by the end of 2012.

“We are pleased to be making good progress across all areas of our business,” said chief executive of Genel Tony Hayward.

“Operations are performing well and we continue to build production capacity at both Taq Taq and Tawke.

“We are adding proven reserves as our two producing fields are fully appraised and our high impact exploration drilling programme of 7 wells remains on track.”

The group added that it is evaluating a number of acquisition opportunities within the Africa and Middle East region.

Away from oil and gas, pub group Mitchells & Butlers (LON:MAB) also generated interest as it unveiled its interim results.

Revenues from retained estate reached £969 million in the 28 weeks to April 7, up 6.3 percent from the same period a year earlier, resulting in a 1.5 percent increase in operating profits to £138 million.

Earnings per share surged 10.6 percent to 12.5 pence.

Statutory pre-tax profits declined £1 million to £42 million and earinings per share declined 3.3 pence to 8.8 pence.

“We have remained firmly on the front foot with a relentless focus on actions that will drive the medium and long term success of the business,” said executive chairman of Mitchells Bob Ivell.

“We are continuing to deliver a resilient operating performance, maintaining the roll-out of our industry-leading brands and progressing our major business change programme.

“Despite challenging trading conditions, we remain confident that we can deliver a full year result in line with expectations.”

Mining companies Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) and Ncondezi Coal (LON:NCCL) also had news to report to investors today.

Amur reported additional metallurgical test results on the ores at the Kun Manie copper-nickel project in Russia’s Far East, while Ncondezi announced an agreement with the ministry of mineral resources of Mozambique for its Ncondezi coal project.

The projected life-of-mine MgO content at Kun Manie is now estimated at 11.5 percent compared with the 16 percent calculated by a study by SGS Mineral Services in 2007.

This reduction confirms the previous observations by the Company to reduce the MgO content and diminish the smelter penalty, which is currently modelled at US$66 per tonne of concentrate in the study.

“As the recoveries and MgO content vary among the three planned pits, it is imperative that we include these considerations in updates for the mining reserves and associated value per ore tonne,” said chief executive of Amur Minerals Robin Young

“This will allow Amur to compile a more representative optimisation of the associated mine production schedule.

“This optimisation will further improve the projected net present value of Kun-Manie anticipated by producing higher grades and values per tonne.”

Meanwhile, Ncondezi Coal said the signing of the agreement is “very encouraging as it sets out the key parameters and an agreed timeline for finalising the mining contract once the definitive feasibility study has been submitted to MIREM.

“With the DFS nearing completion, we have now commenced the permitting stage in anticipation of a development decision by year end,” said chief executive of Ncondezi Graham Mascall.

Fellow mining company Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ), which is focused on goal, has secured a further loan from the International Bank of Azerbaijan for US$7.5 million.

The company will use to loan to fund the early stages of construction of an agitation leaching plant to improve gold recoveries at its flagship Gedabek gold/copper/silver mine.

Commissioning is expected in the second half of 2013.

The company also said that it is in advanced discussions regarding additional debt funding and will update the market in due course.

Chairman of fellow precious metals focused group Condor Resources (LON:CNR) Mark Child described himself "really pleased" with the results of the tests carried out on two samples from its La India gold project in Nicaragua.

The tests showed that both gravity concentration and leaching with cyanide are effective methods of processing the mineralisation at La India.

However, a combination of both processes achieved the highest recovery of the precious metal, with over 90 percent recovery for both samples.

Staying with miners, Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) and Tertiary Minerals (LON:TYM) released their interim results covering the six month period to end March today.

Sunrise the £600,000 fundraising in February, which it said ensures that it can continue to advance the Derryginagh and Cue projects through 2012.

The company is currently evaluating the project’s potential for a modest scale mining operation producing a high-value white barite for use as industrial filler.

“There is a good demand in Europe for white barite but exports from China and India are in decline due to increasing domestic demand,” the company said in today’s statement.

“Consequently there is a niche opportunity for a new European supplier which we plan to exploit.”

In its interim report, Tertiary Minerals (LON:TYM) said its projects continue to deliver “promising results” and it expects to build on this as the projects progress through the feasibility stages.

“This year promises to be a busy and exciting year for the company. The Board anticipates strong news flow from a number of value-adding milestones and looks forward to updating shareholders in due course,” Tertiary told investors.

Tertiary currently has mineral resources – which are compliant with the JORC standard – of nearly four million tonnes of contained fluorspar across its two Scandinavian projects and mineralisation at both projects remains open.

A large drill programme is planned at the Lassedalen project following completion of the scoping study.

In other news, Altus Resource Capital (LON:ARCL) announced that its present unaudited asset value stands at £67 million, representing a 5.6 percent decline from the start of the year and an increase of 77.6 percent since its launch in June 2009.

At the end of April, the company’s portfolio included 25 holdings in junior mining and exploration companies, exposure to gold via exchange traded funds (ETFs) and an investment in Altus Global Gold.

The volatility of the gold price has been steadily declining and that, coupled with strong base demand for the metal from emerging market retail and central bank buyers, should improve the outlook for gold equities, Altus said in today’s statement.

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 08:02:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42997/company-snapshot-heritage-oil-enquest-genel-energy-mitchells-butlers-amur-minerals-condor-resources-tertiary-minerals-0000.html <![CDATA[News - MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 seen sharply lower ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42988/market-preview-ftse-100-seen-sharply-lower-42988.html  

Financial bookmakers are expecting a sell-off in London markets with the FTSE 100 set to open at 5,240, down 98 points (1.85 percent) from Thursday’s close, pacing losses in US and Asian markets on the back of fears that the euro zone could break up.

Moody’s decided to downgrade 16 Spanish banks including the country’s biggest bank Santander, which was cut to A2.

Fellow rating agency Fitch slashed Greece’s rating to CCC from B-minus amid the ongoing political crisis in the debt laden country, which is set to hold a new election in June after coalition talks failed earlier this week.

It was pointed out this morning that the most recent polls in Greece show that the pro-austerity New Democracy and Pasok could secure enough votes in the next election to form a government.

It was reported earlier in the week that the anti-bailout Syriza party was leading in the polls and was the likely winner of the June election.

In the meantime, Goldman Sachs has reduced its projection for China’s economic growth to 8.1 percent from 8.6percent, putting more pressure on equity markets.

“We had expected some sort of consolidation in risk assets given the steep falls of late, and perhaps we are too early (or just plain wrong!) But it feels that any bounces will be minimal and traders will be quick to put on new shorts if a move higher eventuates,” said chief market strategist at IG Group Chris Weston.

Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled 156 points (1.25 percent) to end the session at 12,442 and the broader S&P 500 index slipped 20 points (1.5 percent) to close at 1,304.

Likewise, Asian markets were in selling mode today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 256 points (2.9 percent) to 8,620 and China’s Shanghai Composite Index was down 33 points (1.4 percent) at 2,346 at the end of the session.

 

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 07:07:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42988/market-preview-ftse-100-seen-sharply-lower-42988.html <![CDATA[News - PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Facebook, Silence Therapeutics, Continental Coal, TomCo Energy, Craven House Capital ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42979/proactive-news-summary-facebook-silence-therapeutics-continental-coal-tomco-energy-craven-house-capital-0000.html

One of today’s main stories by Proactive Investors previewed tomorrow’s highly anticipated initial public offering of Facebook, which is expected to value the social networking giant at up to US$104 billion.

The shares will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol 'FB' as demand for the stock continues to snowball.

Analysts and experts reckon only the IPO launches of US giants Visa and General Motors have been bigger.

The float promises to be one of the most -talked about financial events of this year and analysts expect the price to spike as punters pile in.

Such has been the demand for the social networking giant's securities that it has offered more shares for the public to get their hands on.

Facebook, now a household name, has added a further 96.4 million shares to the table, bringing the total number on sale to 484.4 million, it emerged today.

Tomorrow's IPO will also see Harvard graduate Zuckerberg become one of the richest people on the planet.

The massive demand for the stock has meant several of Facebook's early supporters have decided to sell their stakes.

Peter Thiel, one of the websites earliest backers, will cut his 2.5 per cent stake to less than one percent by selling 16.8 million shares.

Meanwhile, investment giant Goldman Sachs has more than doubled the shares it is selling to 28.7 million, from 13.2 million previously.

Russian firm DST Global is set to sell 45.7 million shares up from 26.3m - while hedge fund Tiger Global has increased the number of shares it is selling to 23.4 million.

Not bad for a firm, that in 2004, had a mere million users -  all of them in US universities.

Two other articles covered today’s news from Continental Coal (ASX:CCC, LON:COOL) and Silence Therapeutics (LON:SLN), whose lead drug targeting solid tumours has stabilised the condition of a number of cancer patients in early stage trials.

SLN said this morning the results ‘strongly indicate’ disease stabilisation and safety in terminally ill cancer patients using the drug, which is called Atu027.

The drug, which is aimed at treating solid tumours in cancer patients, is currently in phase I clinical trials.

Ten of the thirty-three patients trialling the drug, called Atu027, experienced stable disease after three months.

Tony Sedgwick, Silence's chief executive, said the new data demonstrates that Atu027 can be safely administered at doses above those believed to be effective.

“Moreover, the data also strongly indicate that Atu027 is impacting the disease course and in particular providing disease stabilisation."

Two patients with neuroendocrine cancers had disease stabilisation for nine and 12 months respectively.

One of these patients also experienced partial regression of liver metastases, which shows cancer spread.

Biomarkers that are used to monitor the progression of the disease and  effectiveness of the treatment also showed improvements, while identification of sVEGR-1 as a possible biomarker was also a significant new advancement, Sedgwick added.

Another patient in the study with breast cancer also showed regression of liver metastases.

The study was designed to evaluate up to a total of eleven escalating doses of Atu027 in around 33-36 patients.

So far, across the nine completed dose levels, Atu027 was well tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities observed.

The phase I study of Atu027 is expected to complete in July 2012.

Silence Therapeutics is a biotech specialising in ‘gene silencing’ using siRNA treatment, whereby faulty genes can be controlled or shut down.

Later in the session, Continental said it has entered into an exclusive option for the potential acquisition of a 50 per cent joint venture interest in a producing hard coking coal mine in Colombia.

The move is in line with the company’s strategic objective to diversify its coal mining operations geographically and into the higher margin coking coal market, and it will complement its existing thermal coal mining, development and exploration projects in South Africa.

The potential cost of this acquisition is US$15 million.  

Taking the option would enable Continental to operate, develop and expand an existing business, which consists of five mining concessions/contracts covering over 1,500 hectares, including the existing underground mine that has been in operation for 24 years and adjacent exploration ground.

Continental has received an indicative proposal for a new debt and commodity linked facility to fund the approximate US$15 million potential acquisition cost.  Further details will be provided once terms are finalised and the company exercises the option.

One of our reports today took a closer look at oil shale firm TomCo Energy (LON:TOM), whose shares could be boosted by the activities of Red Leaf Resources - its neighbouring firm in Utah, according to broker Optiva Securities.

Analyst Jason Robertson highlighted global oil giant Total's US$320 mln investment for a 50 per cent participating interest in Red Leaf's Seep Ridge project, which lies just 15 km away from TomCo's Holliday block.

This investment is a "significant" event for TomCo and other firms advancing oil shale projects, he said.

Both firm's plan to use the same "in capsule" technology called EcoShale to extract the oil.

"Once Red Leaf moves into commercial production, which is anticipated in 2014, TomCo is expected to then move its project forward into production with output of 9,800 bopd. 

"Seep Ridge is similar in resource size at 90 to 120m barrels to Holiday Block, which has a JORC indicated resource of 123 million barrels."

Robertson noted that, given Total’s investment, the total value of the Seep Ridge project is around US$640 million, meaning that Holliday would be worth a similar amount, once a capital expenditure commitment is made.

TomCo has a 100 per cent interest in two oil shale leases - covering around 3,000 acres in the Beehive state, Utah - but the 123 million barrel indicated resource is part of its 1,000 acre Holliday block.

The firm's plans for this block were outlined by TomCo chief executive last summer.

The firm has a commercial agreement to use the EcoShale process, which has already been tried and tested on a pilot scale by Red Leaf.

In other news, Craven House Capital (LON:CRV) said it is buying 517,350 shares in Farm Lands of Africa Inc (OTC:FLAB) (FLA), taking its holding to 717,350 shares, or approximately 7.8 percent.

The emerging market investment group is buying the stock for US$1.55 per share from a number of existing investors, thus paying just over US$800,000.

As at close of business on May 16, the mid price of the common stock was US$4, valuing the Craven House’s total investment in FLA at US$2.87 million.  

FLA has recently changed its name from Farm Lands of Guinea Inc to reflect its ambition and progress in rolling out its business model beyond Guinea throughout West Africa. 

FLA plans to bring into cultivation several hundred thousand hectares of land across neighbouring countries including the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Niger and Senegal.

In August 2011, Craven House announced a US$1 million investment in FLA to enable it to survey, prepare and cultivate over 100,000 hectares of leased farmland in Guinea. 

FLA continues to make very encouraging progress in relation to their operations in Guinea and has recently received a letter of interest for a multi-million dollar financing facility from a major development finance institution operating in the area, the company said.

]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 16:51:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42979/proactive-news-summary-facebook-silence-therapeutics-continental-coal-tomco-energy-craven-house-capital-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Gold prices rebound on strong physical demand ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42978/gold-prices-rebound-on-strong-physical-demand-0000.html  

Gold rallied today as physical buying intensified after the yellow metal fell to multi-month lows yesterday.

Bargain hunters started buying gold after prices slipped below US$1,530 per ounce for the first time since December during yesterday’s session. Demand for gold was hit by the failure of coalition talks in Greece, which will now hold another election in June.

The euro remained under pressure today as the European Central Bank (ECB) suspended lending to some Greek banks that it said were insolvent and ECB president Mario Draghi mentioned the possibility of Greece leaving the euro zone.

Meanwhile, Spain held a debt auction today, selling €2.5 billion of three and four year notes with yields on bills maturing in 2016 topping five percent.

While hitting the euro, the Greek political turmoil and the surge in Spain’s borrowing costs boosted the safe haven appeal of the US dollar.

Gold is seen as an alternative asset to the American currency and tends to move inversely ot the greenback.

Gold traded at US$1,574/oz this afternoon, up US$34 from Wednesday’s close. Silver sugared 75 cents to US$28.02/oz and platinum tacked on US$24 to reach US$1,454/oz.

Today’s top risers in the sector were:

Greatland Gold (LON:GGP), up 19 percent at 1.14 pence at midday

Patagonia Gold (LON:PGD), up 14.5 percent at 25.19 pence

African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG), up 9.5 percent at 340.3 pence

Angel Mining (LON:ANGM), up 9.5 percent at 1.37 pence

Vatukoula Gold Mines (LON:VGM), up 9 percent at 44.7 pence

The top fallers were:

Premier Gold Resources (LON:PGR), down 20 percent at 0.46 pence at midday

Oxus Gold (LON:OXS), down 12 percent at 2.18 pence

Peninsular Gold (LON:PGL), down 10.5 percent at 13 pence

KEFI Minerals (LON:KEFI), down 9.5 percent at 2.15 pence

Kolar Gold (LON:KGLD), down 9 percent at 9.75 pence

 

]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 16:33:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42978/gold-prices-rebound-on-strong-physical-demand-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Brent crude falls on euro zone concerns, US oil futures rise ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42976/brent-crude-falls-on-euro-zone-concerns-us-oil-futures-rise-0000.html

Brent crude dropped today thanks to persistent worries about the situation in Greece, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark in the US managed to advance despite disappointing economic data.

Te European Central bank (ECB) has suspended lending to some Greek banks, which it said were insolvent. In the meantime, president of the ECB Mario Draghi mentioned the possibility of Greece existing the euro zone today, saying his preference would be for the country to remain in the monetary union, but that it wasn’t up to the central bank.

Greece is set to hold a new election in June after coalition talks between five parties ended without an agreement earlier this week.

Recent polls have suggested that the anti-bailout Coalition of the Radical Left is likely to win the new election with around 25 percent of the votes, which would put Greece’s membership in the euro zone and the future of Europe’s single currency into jeopardy.

The results of today’s auction of Spanish debt added to concerns about the European debt crisis.

The euro zone’s fourth largest economy sold €2.5 billion of three and four year bonds, seeing yields on its notes maturing in 2016 top five percent.

Brent crude, which is more exposed to the European debt crisis, dropped, while US crude futures rose ahead of the start of a reversal of the Seaway pipeline, which is expected to reduce a supply buildup in Cushing, Oklahoma – the main delivery point for NYMEX crude.

Speaking of supplies, yesterday’s report from the Department of Energy revealed that crude stocks in the US rose 2.1 million barrels to 381.6 million barrels, the highest level in more than two decades.

US light, sweet crude for June delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), rose 19 cents to US$93/barrel in morning trade in New York.

June Brent crude dropped 51 cents to US$109.24/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.

Today’s top risers in the oil and gas sector were:

Frontera Resources (LON:FRR), up 19.5 percent at 0.473 pence at midday

Sirius Petroleum (LON:SRSP), up 10.5 percent at 4 pence

Amerisur Resources (LON:AMER), up 7.5 percent at 21.23 pence

Premier Oil (LON:PMO), up 3.5 percent at 341.1 pence

Providence Resources (LON:PVR), up 3.5 percent at 550 pence

The top fallers were:

Xtract Energy (LON:XTR), down 14.5 percent at 0.381 pence at midday

Regal Petroleum (LON:RPT), down 7.5 percent at 22 pence

Antrim Energy (LON:AEY), down 7 percent at 40.25 pence

Empyrean Energy (LON:EME), down 7 percent at 7.3 pence

Gold Oil (LON:GOO), down 7 percent at 4.62 pence

]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 16:09:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/42976/brent-crude-falls-on-euro-zone-concerns-us-oil-futures-rise-0000.html