logo-loader

Proactive news summary - Strategic Minerals, ZincOx, Alexander Nubia, Golden Saint Resources and Botswana Diamonds

Published: 17:13 31 Mar 2015 BST

news350_551ac93a1680e

Mining stocks got a fair few column inches on Tuesday if such a thing exists on the web, with Strategic Minerals (LON:SML) confirming its move into the coal business with a deal to acquire a mine in New Zealand alongside the deal in China flagged on Monday.

In New Zealand, Strategic has agreed to buy the Tatu mine on the North Island for £128,000 largely payable by royalty payments on future production.

Meanwhile, In China, Strategic has signed a letter of intent over the Wanbao mine in Jilin Province that gives it a six months window for due diligence.

Egypt-focused Alexander Nubia (CVE:AAN) has kicked off drilling at its gold, copper, zinc and silver Hamama project, particularly aimed at investigating the oxide cap.

A rig is already on site and three holes have already been sunk. 

Between 20 and 30 diamond holes are expected to be completed with results expected to be released later in April or early May.

Botswana Diamonds (LON:BOD) shares lost over a third of their value after the African miner raised £280,000 by issuing shares at a deep discount. 

The precious stone explorer, which holds licences in Botswana and Cameroon, issued over 28mln shares at 1p apiece. 

That represented a 27.5% discount on yesterday's closing mid-price and sent shares 33% lower today to 0.93p. 

ZincOx Resources (LON:ZOX) has revised the terms of its short term debt to give it extra cash headroom, it said today.

The firm produces zinc by running EAFD (electricarc furnace dust) through its KRP plant in South Korea and has an off-take agreement with Korea Zinc, to which it has agreed to sell all production at market prices for ten years.

Korea Zinc also provides the group with two loans - a long term off-take deal and a short term development facility - the subject of today's restructuring.

The short term loan of US$15mln bore interest at 15% and was repayable in one shot in February, 2016. Its interest has been reduced to 9.5% while the accrued interest of US$3.9mln will now be added to the principal outstanding, making it US$18.9mln.

This debt amountg will be spread over six equal payments of around US$3.1mln every six months starting next February, ZincOx said.

In a similar vein, Shanta Gold (LON:SHG) signed off its new US$40mln loan facilities with Investec subject to final regulatory approval.

Some US$20 mln will be used to pay back from FBN Bank (UK) Limited with the remainder to be used as a standby facility. Interest on the five year loan is LIBOR plus 4.9% per annum.

Mike Houston, chief executive, said the new loan plus operating cash flow put Shanta in a healthy position as New Luika’s mine life is extended through opencast and underground mining. 

In oil, ENEGI (LON:ENEG) is seeing many more opportunities for its marginal field initiative in the North Sea as a result of lower oil prices.

The AIM-quoted oil company’s strategy is to use low cost, mainly un-manned and redeployable engineering solutions to develop marginal fields. Through this strategy it is working with joint venture company ABT Oil & Gas.

This morning, in the group’s interim results statement, it said that lower oil prices not only meant there are more projects that can be addressed by its low opex / capex solutions, but also the project’s themselves are larger.

Initial results from drilling on its Mancos Shale assets in Utah were encouraging said Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE), though attempts to tap the deeper conventional reserves have been halted.

Early analysis of the drill core from its first well at Mancos, State 1-34 in the Uinta Basin, indicated good natural fracturing, positive total organic content between 2.0% and 4.5%, strong residual and moveable hydrocarbon volumes and good storagecapacity.

Drilling into the deeper conventional intervals was deemed not to commercially viable but Rose emphasised that the Mancos Shale was the primary target.

Elsewhere, Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA) revealed a 176% jump in revenues to US$22.9mln during 2014, and while it has scaled back drill plans due to lower oil prices the company still sees potential to increase shareholder value significantly.

The company said its objective eventually is to again accelerate and expand its drilling programme in the Bone Spring play over the next two years.

“Caza has drilled or participated in 31 successful wells since the start of our Bone Spring drilling programme in 2012,” said chief executive Michael Ford.

“These operations resulted in added shareholder value and grew company cash flow, production and reserve values.

Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP) fell after a share sale raised US$40mln to bolster the group’s finances while it continues negotiations to potentially sell the company.

The Kurdistan-based oil company is issuing 85.9mln new shares priced at 32p each to new and existing institutional investors.

The cash injection adds to the company’s cash balance of around US$86mln, and comes amid uncertainty over payment schedules and after the company has called on some of its lenders to waive certain financial covenants.

CentralNic Group (LON:CNIC) shares dipped today despite it saying full year 2014 results would be in line with the trading update issued in December last year with profits in line with market expectations. 

The board added  it was pleased with the business performance at the start of 2015, which was also in line with expectations.

Caledonia Mining tackles 2023 challenges with optimism for 2024 as it...

Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (AIM:CMCL, NYSE-A:CMCL) chief executive Mark Learmonth tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion the company faced a challenging 2023, primarily due to poor production in the first half of the year at its core asset, the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe, and an underperformance...

54 minutes ago