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Morning news wrap: Fresnillo, Lonmin, Admiral Group, Caza Oil & Gas, smartFOCUS, lastminute.com

2nd Mar 2010, 7:44 am Morning news wrap: Fresnillo, Lonmin, Admiral Group, Caza Oil & Gas, smartFOCUS, lastminute.com

In the FTSE 100, miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) reported record attributable silver production of 37.9 Moz (million ounces) for the full year, which marked a 9% year on year improvement. Attributable gold production was 5% higher at 276,584 oz. Revenues climbed 18% to US$850 million.

Platinum producer Lonmin (LSE: LMI) has signed two separate contracts with the Xstrata-Merafe Chrome Venture and ChromTech for the construction of chrome recovery plants to treat the current tailings from UG2 concentrators at Lonmin’s Marikana operations.

Car insurer Admiral Group (LSE: ADM) reported a record full year profit of £218.8 million, marking a 7% year on year improvement, while revenues were 18% higher at £1.08 billion.

In AIM, Philippines operating nickel miner Rusina Mining (ASX: RML; AIM: RMLA) and laterite nickel specialist European Nickel (AIM: ENK) said that the due diligence contained in their merger implementation agreement have been satisfied and the scheme of arrangement transaction was no longer subject to those conditions.

Zinc explorer Connemara Mining (AIM: CON) said that hole 36 in Limerick intersected 5.35 metres at 13.2% zinc and 3.2% lead from 202.7 meters depth.

Turkey and Ethiopia operating gold miner Stratex International (AIM: STI) said that the in-house resource estimate determined by Stratex for the first zone to be drilled within the Öksüt project, the Ortacam Zone, totalled 147,814 oz of oxide gold ('Au') at a cut-off grade of 0.2g/t for all categories.

US focused oil and gas junior Caza Oil & Gas (AIM: CAZA) has contracted Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. to drill the Matthys-McMillan Gas Unit #2 development well located in the Wharton West Wilcox Field.

Direct marketing software developer smartFOCUS (AIM: STF) announced that online travel and leisure retailer lastminute.com has selected its multi-channel marketing software and services to drive proactive customer life-cycle management and reactive marketing based on interactions through lastminute.com's website.

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