COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Sirius Minerals, Cove Energy, Magnolia Petroleum, StatPro, London Mining, Triple Plate Junction

Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) and Cove Energy (LON:COV) grabbed investors' attention this morning as Sirius revealed a maiden inferred resource of 1.35 billion tonnes at 88.7 percent for its York potash project, while Cove announced a major gas discovery offshore Mozambique.

Cove reported that the Atum exploration well in the northern part of Area 1 Rovuma intersected more than 300 feet of natural gas pay. The Area 1 block is now estimated to have recoverable gas resources of between 30 and 60 trillion cubic feet.

The company will now undertake a four well appraisal and testing programme.

“Given the continued predictive success utilizing the new northern 3D seismic I am confident that the associated appraisal programme will deliver more success,” said chief executive of Cove Energy John Craven.

Sector peers Magnolia Petroleum (LON:MAGP) and Wessex Exploration (LON:WSX) also had news to report this morning.

Magnolia provided an update on its operations in the producing Mississippi Lime and Hunton formations in Oklahoma, saying the Brady 17-27-12 1H and Lois Rust 7-27-12 1H wells are now both producing.

Initial production rates from the two wells have not yet been released by the operators.

This takes the total number of producing wells in the Bakken/Three Forks Sanish, North Dakota and the Mississippi Lime and Woodford/Hunton formations in Oklahoma to 77.

The SPS 6-26 well in Oklahoma has now been spudded and is currently drilling.

Magnolia also told investors that it has decided not to participate in two additional wells, Montecristo 6-1H and Beebe 24-W1H, and the number of wells waiting to be spud now stands at 10.

“I am delighted that, with the Osage Lynn and Solman, Magnolia is now operating its own wells,” said chief operating officer of Magnolia Rita Whittington.

“Importantly, our production from these two shallow wells is holding our Mississippi acreage, meaning it is now `Held By Production' and will not expire.

“We believe the Mississippi to have significant upside and we intend to drill down to this formation in due course.”

Meanwhile, Wessex has secured licence P1928 offshore the Hampshire and Isle of Wight coasts, between the company's existing onshore licences PEDL's 238 and 239, and just east of the giant Wytch Farm oil field.

The two year licence can be extended into a full traditional licence with a total duration of four years with the commitment to drill an exploratory well.

The area covered by the licence contains the Steelhead and Beluga leads, which Wessex said were “very interesting” and easily accessible to explore with slightly deviated exploratory wells onshore.

In addition, there are several small fault block leads in line with and off the eastern end of Wytch Farm oil field.

The initial work commitment of the licence consists of the purchase and reprocessing of some existing legacy seismic data, and acquisition of 70 kilometres of new 2D seismic data.

This seismic work will be started as soon as the relevant environmental studies have been done and appropriate official permissions have been obtained, the company added.

Elsewhere in the markets, Westminster Group (LON:WSG) and StatPro (LON:SOG) announced contract wins, while Asterand (LON:ATD) has agreed to sell its human tissue business for US$9 million.

Westminster has won a contract to provide advanced surveillance equipment to a Middle East Government valued at more than US$900,000.

Revenue from this project will be recognised in the current financial year, the security group added.

“I am delighted to be able to announce yet another project award from a new Middle East client following on from other recent and significant contract wins so far in 2012,” said chief executive of Westminster Group Peter Fowler.

“The range, frequency and geographical spread of our contract wins over the past few months is a testament to our growing international reach and reputation.”

The deal announced by StatPro is with South African investment manager Momentum Investments, which will now use its cloud based service, StatPro Revolution, to distribute fund performance analysis to new and existing customers.

Momentum, which currently had more than US$32 billion of assets under management at the end of 2011, is an existing user of StatPro's portfolio analytics and research services, StatPro Seven.

Momentum Investments is now one of the largest users of the StatPro Revolution service.

“Before StatPro Revolution, many investment managers were unable to distribute performance measurement, attribution and risk analytics in an interactive and cost effective way,” said chief executive officer of StatPro South Africa Marc Zandt.

“Our cloud-based platform enables Momentum Investments to have access to a market-leading service at a compelling price.”

Moving to, Asterand, the company has agreed to sell its human tissue business to two wholly owned subsidiaries of Stemgent, for US$9 million in cash.

The group expects the net cash proceeds from the disposal to be around US$7.6 million, which will be used to pay down in full the Secured Debt which amounts to just over US$9.04 million.

The board has unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the sale, adding that if the disposal is not passed, the group may be placed into administration.

In the mining sector, Nyota Minerals (LON:NYO) provided an update from its operations in Ethiopia and London Mining (LON:LOND) announced the settlement of a dispute with consultant Fraser Turner over additional royalty payments from the Marampa iron ore mine in Sierra Leone.

Nyota said its 14,650 metre infill drilling programme at the Tulu Kapi project in Ethiopia should to convert a further 260,000 ounces of inferred resources to indicated status by the end of the year.

This, said Nyota, should result in a significant upside to the definitive feasibility study (DFS) and confirm a mine life of at least 10 years.

The company also said that the first assay returns for the Bendokoro prospect include intersections of seven metres grading 2.15 grammes per tonne (g/t). Sampling has identified additional targets to be followed up with trenching during the third quarter of the year.

“The current exploration programme is progressing well and we look forward to providing a first Reserve calculation in the coming weeks, once all the elements of the DFS are complete,” said chief executive of Nyota Richard Chase.

“It remains the case that the submission to the Ministry of Mines to complement our application for a mining license will take place at the end of June.”

London Mining, which is focused on iron ore, will pay Fraser Turner US$2.35 million and a further £2.38 million, which will be satisfied in the company’s shares at a price of 238 pence per share.

The company will also pay a total royalty equal to 0.3 percent of the price received for iron ore sales from Marampa, net of the existing royalty payable to the government of Sierra Leone.

In other news in the sector, precious metals miner Triple Plate Junction (LON:TPJ) reported that drilling at Gumots, which is the second target to be drilled at the Morobe project in Papua New Guinea, did not intersect any appreciable thickness and there were no significant results to report.

Operator Newmont has decided to suspend active drilling for an anticipated six month period, whilst the project focus is directed at additional exploration field work to de-risk future drilling.

“It must be remembered that we have only drilled eight holes and at what is a colossal exploration project with many prospects,” said chief executive of Triple Plate Junction Fraser McGee.

“To have hit a massive intersection in the first few holes was always an ambitious hope. The programme initially commenced in July 2011 and we expect that it will continue for many years.

“I look forward to announcing the drill results from the ongoing programme at Manus Island, with Newcrest, and developments regarding our project at Wamum, with Barrick, during the next two months.”

Elsewhere in the markets, Plethora Solutions (LON:PLE) has submitted a dossier to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the approval of PSD502 as a new medicine to treat premature ejaculation.

Once PSD502 is approved, the company will be able to sell it in all 27 member states of the European Union.

According to Plethora’s estimates, the potential population of men in the EU with the disorder is approximately 30-45 million and a centralised approval by the EMA would permit the product to be marketed to this entire group.

Based on normal timelines, Plethora expects that approval should occur 12-18 months following submission.

“We believe the clinical data clearly shows that PSD502 is safe and effective and will become widely used,” said chief scientific officer of Plethora Mike Wyllie.

“Based on the quality of the data and the feedback from regulators we are confident that PSD502 will be approved.”