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Oil & Gas News 

A raft of oil majors and smaller independents has been awarded licences, alongside state-owned behemoth Statoil, in Norway’s latest licensing round in mature areas. The licences are widely scattered with 34 located in the North Sea, 22 in the Norwegian Sea and four in the Barents Sea. Licence interests are being offered to a total of 42 companies, out of 43 bidders, with 27 of these in line for operatorships. 

Faroe Petroleum PLC (LON:FPM) today announced that it has been offered seven new prospective exploration licences on the Norwegian Continental Shelf under the 2011 Norwegian APA Licence Round. The Company has been awarded two licences in the prolific Halten Terrace hydrocarbon province of the Norwegian Sea – Licence PL645 and PL644 - and will work with Centrica, OMV, Repsol, and Skagen. Faroe Petroleum has also been awarded three licences in the northern North Sea.  These licences offer exciting exploration opportunities in a very active exploration area with established production infrastructure - Licence PL414B, PL627, and PL629. Although being a new area for Faroe Petroleum, the Company has also been awarded two licences in the Egersund basin in the Norwegian North Sea – Licence PL621 and PL620. These awards see Faroe Petroleum enter a number of exciting new joint venture relationships, and continue its very successful working relationship with Centrica, with whom it has made three discoveries in the past two years.

Valiant Petroleum PLC (LON:VPP) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Valiant Petroleum Norge AS, has been awarded operatorship and a 50% interest in Licence PL 617, Block 2/9 on the Norwegian Continental Shelf as part of the APA 2011 Licensing Round. The other partners are Premier Oil Norge AS (35%) and Bridge Energy Norge AS (15%). The award represents Valiant's first operated block in Norway.

Pancontinental Oil & Gas NL (LON:PCL) today announced that the 3D and 2D seismic survey acquisition has been completed in offshore Kenya licence areas L10A and L10B. The licences were awarded to Pancontinental and the other venture partners on 17 May 2011, with an effective date of 15 August 2011. The 3D seismic survey was carried out in the eastern portion of the areas commencing in November last year and this was followed by a 2D survey in the western portion of the areas. The surveys cover ten strong “leads” identified under “fast track” exploration programme by the operator BG Group. It is anticipated that the seismic data will be fully processed by Q3 2012 and the interpretation and mapping will be completed later in the year. The joint venture consists of; BG Group PLC (40% L10A, 45% L10B), Premier Oil PLC (20% L10A, 25% L10B), Cove Energy PLC (25% L10A, 15% L10B), and Pancontinental Oil & Gas NL (15% L10A, 15% L10B).

Mining News 

African Barrick Gold plc (LON:ABG) announced its fourth quarter report for the three months ended 31 December 2011. Gold production was 160,020 ounces in the quarter with sales of 158,869 ounces. Attributable gold production for the full year was 688,278 ounces 2% lower than 2010 and attributable sales of 699,539 ounces, 2% above production. Full year total cash costs are expected to be in line with guidance of $675 - $700 per ounce. The increased average realised gold price of $1,655 per ounce over the quarter and $1,587 per ounce for the full year had a positive impact on cash flow and earnings, with a year-end cash position of approximately $584 million. Average grade mined for the year was 3.3 g/t Au at an average recovery of 87.7%.

Discovery Metals Limited (LON:DME) reported assay results from a further five diamond drill holes of a 12 hole programme at the Zeta North East Prospect situated within the Company's Prospecting Licences in the Kalahari Copperbelt in north west Botswana. Significant results include 6.9 m @ 2.8% Cu & 5 g/t Ag; 7.6 m @ 1.4% Cu & 27 g/t Ag; and 5.9 m @ 1.9% Cu & 42 g/t Ag. Further resource delineation drilling is planned to begin in January 2012 to provide sufficient data for estimation of an Inferred Mineral Resource in the September quarter of 2012. 

Hochschild Mining Plc (LON:HOC) announced its production report for the 12 months ended 31 December 2011. The Company had of 22.6 million silver equivalent ounces in 2011, comprised of 15.0 million ounces of silver and 127.3 thousand ounces of gold. The Company expects the increase in its overall 2011 unit cost per tonne, excluding royalties, to be in line with previous guidance. Average realisable precious metals prices for the full year 2011 were $1,582/ounce for gold and $35/ounce for silver. The company’s 2012 production target is 20 million attributable silver equivalent ounces. 

Mariana Resources Ltd (LON:MARL) announced that it has signed an option to acquire from Argentinean private company Winki SA, the 9,124 Ha El Aguila gold-silver project adjacent to Mariana's Picadero Project in the Deseado Massif of Southern Argentina. The combined 34,000Ha Aguila-Picadero Project is 60 km south of Mariana's Las Calandrias and 50 km west of Extorre Gold Mines Limited's Cerro Moro gold-silver discoveries. The target area has widespread zones of strongly anomalous to high-grade gold and silver at surface with 5.5% of rock chips assaying from 5 g/t to 174.6 g/t gold. Limited previous exploration by Newcrest Mining Ltd Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation discovered gold and silver mineralisation at Aguila Main and Aguila Sur prospects. Historic drill intersections included 22m @ 0.94 g/t Au and 29 g/t Ag from 92m and 1.7m @ 9.0 g/t Au and 51 g/t Ag from 45.9m.

Ncondezi Coal Company Limited (LON:NCCL) announced that it has signed a new rail and port infrastructure study agreement with Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique ("RTCM"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc and Minas de Revuboe to further study greenfield port and rail options and related infrastructure. This is a continuation of the jointly funded order of magnitude infrastructure study which was completed in Q4 2011. RTCM will lead the necessary study work required to determine the feasibility of the Integrated Transport Corridor. The Agreement entitles Ncondezi to an export allocation on the ITD Project for all of the planned 10Mtpa export coal production from the Ncondezi Project. Ncondezi will not be required to contribute capital to the ITD Project feasibility or development capital costs.

Scotgold Resources Limited (LON:SGZ) announced that John Bentley, who has been Non-Executive Chairman of the Company since February 2009, has been appointed Executive Chairman. 

Sirius Minerals Plc (LON:SXX) announced that Richard Poulden has stepped down as Non-Executive Director to be replaced by Lord Hutton of Furness as a Non-Executive Director of the Company.

Tertiary Minerals Plc (LON:TYM) announced a maiden, JORC compliant, Mineral Resource Estimate for its Lassedalen fluorspar project in Norway. The Inferred Mineral Resource stands at 4 million tonnes grading 25% Fluorite (CaF(2)) containing 1 million tonnes of Fluorite. The company's total JORC Mineral Resources increased by 34% to 3.8 million tonnes contained Fluorite (CaF(2)) across its two fluorspar projects (Storuman, Sweden & Lassedalen). 

Weatherly International Plc (LON:WTI) announced its quarterly update for the second quarter of its 2011/12 fiscal year. The company treated 97,958 t of ore at its Central Operations at an average grade of 4.56% Cu and an average recovery of 92.83% to produce 5714 t of copper concentrate with 1421 t of contained copper. During the quarter, the Company delivered 1,680t of copper contained in 6,697t of concentrate to metal trader Louis Dreyfus. The average LME price recorded was US$8,149/t copper produced.

Oilfield Services News 

Rock Solid Images: Trading Update and Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 August 2011.

Rock Solid Images plc (RSI LN) has made a promising start to 2012 and is pleased with the growth it is seeing in its order book. The Company has recently announced a series of contract awards in its integration of seismic, CSEM and well data (WISE) and reservoir characterisation (WSS) business lines.

Highlights since the Company’s year-end in August 2011 include:

• Project awards and other new contracts across all business lines so far this financial year total £2.9 million with the revenues expected to be recognised before 31 August 2012;

• Continued sales of a 79 well multi-client rock physics study in the Barents Sea and commencement of a 61 well multi-client rock physics study in mid-Norway;

• Commencement of a strategic review to consider the options available to RSI and its WSS and WISE operating division; and

• Cash balance of £0.9 million at 31 December 2011.

RSI also presents its Preliminary Results for the 12 months ended 31 August 2011.

Highlights for the year include:

• Completion of the disposal of loss making marine CSEM acquisition business in November 2010;

• Re-focus of remaining business on geophysical data processing and interpretation, with particular emphasis on the geophysical characterization of un-conventional shale plays and on WISE integration of seismic, well log and EM information; and

• Change of name to Rock Solid Images plc and re-branding of trading entity to RSI.

In November 2010, the marine CSEM acquisition business was divested to new owners. This removed a huge financial burden from the business and resulted in a substantial reduction in losses for 2011 to £2.4 million compared to £17.1 million reported from the previous financial year.

Despite the sale of the EM acquisition business, revenues increased slightly over the previous year from £3.6 million to £4.0 million in the year to 31 August 2011.

The Company is now focused on high-end seismic and non-seismic data processing, analysis and integration to provide clients with quantitative information on which exploration, appraisal and development decisions can be based. The Company has invested in people and technology and is poised for both revenue and value growth.

Peter Reilly, Rock Solid Images Non Executive Chairman said:

“The key to your Company’s future success is increasing sales, developing efficient processing and interpretation teams and exploiting the best integrated software. We have been directing investment into all these areas. Your Company is now well positioned to leverage our technology and expertise in a number of high-growth areas such as un-conventional shale gas development and the emerging use of combined seismic and EM data to de-risk deep-water offshore wells. The announcement of recent contract awards shows that the RSI team is very much engaged in building the business and pursuing commercial opportunities.”