COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Misys, Cluff Gold, Avocet Mining, Condor Resources, Kedco, Tangiers Petroleum

Investors in London were busy digesting updates from gold mining companies today. The announcements released this morning included an increase in mineral reserves at Avocet Mining’s (LON:AVM) Inata mine and Cluff Gold’s (LON:CLF) acquisition of a new gold project in Burkina Faso.

West African gold explorer Avocet has doubled the mineral reserve of its Inata gold mine, which now stands at 1.85 million ounces. The company also announced an updated mineral resource estimate of 3.46 million ounces.

The company noted that it managed to increase the reserves of the mine even after depletion of the Mineral Reserve by 93,000 ounces through mining since the last Mineral Reserve estimate as at June 30 last year.

Meanwhile, Cluff has agreed to buy Orezone Gold’s Sega gold project, which is located 20 kilometres away from the company’s Kalsaka project in Burkina Faso, for 11 million new Cluff shares and US$15 million in cash.

The new licenses host a gold resource of 450,366 ounces in the indicated category and an inferred resource of 147,344 ounces.

The company said the acquisition represents an opportunity to significantly increase the mine life of Kalsaka with limited upfront capital expenditures.

Other precious metals miners that had news to report today included Condor Resources (LON:CNR), Ovoca Gold (LON:OVG) and Nyota Minerals (LON:NYO).

Condor today announced further drill results from its La India project in Nicaragua, including wide high grade gold intercept on the India-California structure on La India vein set.

The intersections reported today included 4.19 metres grading 6.94 grammes per tonne (g/t) from the California vein and 7.37 metres at 6.31 g/t gold from the India vein.

Ovoca Gold also released an operational update. The company said that at it has discovered gold and silver mineralisation at the Podgorniy and Zet Prospects within its Rassoshinskaya license in Russia that warrants additional field work for 2012.

The best results included an intersection of 10 metres at 7.9 g/t gold and 10.9 g/t silver at Podgorniy and an interval of one metre at 14.2 g/t gold and 121 g/t silver at Zet.

Finally, Nyota Minerals, whose main asset is the Tulu Kapi gold mine in Ethiopia, has placed 161 million shares to raise £9.66 million.

Nyota said the placing has been supported by new and existing shareholders including Centamin Egypt (LON:CEY), which will now own a 14.08 percent stake in the company.

The placing will allow Nyota to progress Tulu Kapi after completion of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) but before project finance, as well as maintain momentum with exploration drilling of its Northern Block exploration properties.

“Although the market remains relatively untested for fundraisings in 2012, there are signs that many exploration companies intend to raise finance in the next four months and the Board of Nyota felt it essential that we ensure adequate working capital to maintain our focus on our objectives beyond the end of the current financial year,” said Nyota chief executive Richard Chase.

Clean energy group Kedco (LON:KED) also provided a funding update today, announcing that it has raised £403,000 through a placing of 31 million new shares at a price of 1.3 pence per share.

The proceeds will be used for working capital purposes and for continuing investment in the Company's portfolio of biomass electricity and heat generation projects.

Back to mining companies, VANE Minerals (LON:VANE) has confirmed that it has drilled a copper-molybdenum porphyry system at its McGhee Peak project on the Hillsboro-Chino-Tyrone-Bisbee porphyry mineral trend in southwest New Mexico.

The drilling has discovered two mineralised targets located one mile apart within a clearly identified porphyry system, containing copper, molybdenum and zinc.

Copper values ranged between 300 and 600 parts per million (ppm), while zinc values topped 200 ppm.

“These are encouraging results, showing a mineralised porphyry and confirming our geological theory that the porphyry systems that have been successfully discovered and mined at surface in this part of the U.S., also occur at depth,” said chief executive of VANE David Newton.

The company plans more drilling over the coming months to confirm whether this porphyry has economic potential.

In oil and gas, Wentworth Resources (LON:WRL) has spudded the onshore Ziwani-1 exploration well , the first new well to be drilled in the Mnazi Bay concession area since the MS-1X exploration well was drilled, logged and tested in 2007.

The well is targeting Miocene and Oligocene sandstones, similar to the reservoirs of the Mnazi Bay and Msimbati gas fields.

The well is expected to take 35 days to drill.

Wentworth, which holds a 52.225 percent participating interest in the well, will cover 30 percent of the costs.

“We are excited to start the year with a high impact work programme that has the potential to deliver significant asset growth and shareholder value in 2012,” said managing director Geoff Bury.

“The carried interest we enjoy in the Mnazi Bay concession provides full participation with reduced financial exposure.”

In the meantime, Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP) has secured regulatory approvals to transfer its interest in the Hassi Ba Hamou permit in Algeria to BG Group and Sonatrach.

It is part of a strategic exit from the country which will allow the company to concentrate on its assets in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

Oil and gas company with assets in Morocco and Australia Tangiers Petroleum (LON:TPET) has joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange today. The company said that along with its Australian listing, the London quote broadens its access to capital from international investors.

Elsewhere in the markets, software group Misys (LON:MSY) confirmed it is currently in discussions with Temenos Group AG over an all-share merger.

“Discussions are continuing and there can be no certainty that a transaction will ultimately take place, nor as to the terms on which any transaction might be constituted,” Misys said in today’s statement.

In other news, pub group Fuller, Smith & Turner (LON:FSTA) has bought 15 freehold, tied, tenanted pubs from Enterprise Inns for £22.9 million, which will be paid from the group’s existing bank facilities.

Under Enterprise's ownership, these pubs generated operating profits of £1.7 million in the financial year ending September 30 and had a balance sheet value of £18.4 million as of that date.

The group said the pubs will allow it to bring the Fuller's brand into areas of the west and south east of England, where it said it has been under-represented.

The acquisition takes the total number of pubs bought by Fuller, Smith and Turner over the past 12 months to 29.