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Botswana Diamonds shares sparkle as it begins exploration programme with Alrosa

Last updated: 15:00 13 Feb 2018 GMT, First published: 09:11 13 Feb 2018 GMT

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Botswana Diamonds PLC (LON:BOD) said it has kicked off its first half exploration programme with Russian diamond miner and explorer Alrosa PJSC, pushing its shares up 7% to 1.18p.

The programme will focus on previously identified geophysical targets in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve with the aim of turning them into drill targets.

It will use soil samples and magnetic surveys to supplement the airborne gravity and airborne magnetic data obtained in earlier work.

In 2013 Botswana made a deal with rough diamond producer, Alrosa, to co-operate on exploration using Alrosa's technology in Botswana.

Reach4Entertainment Enterprises PLC (LON:R4E) shares dropped as it said Gate Ventures plans to sell a 23.5% stake in the media and entertainment company.

Gate Ventures wants to sell its entire shareholding via an accelerated bookbuild placing to institutional and other investors.

The book for the placing will open with immediate effect and is expected to close no later than 5.30pm on Tuesday.

1.05pm: Intercede gains on Middle East government contract 

Intercede Group PLC (LON:IGP) shares climbed 9% to 29.50p after the software company said an undisclosed Middle Eastern country has selected its MyID mobile identity technology.

The MyID software allows citizens to generate a new digital identity on a government smartphone app, which can be used to access public services, healthcare, banking and e-commerce.

The contract has an initial order value of more than £1mln and will generate recurring fees. Intercede expects 50% of the initial contract to be received in the next 30 days and the remainder by the financial year through March 2019.

“I am pleased that the recent investment we have made in new mobile identity technology is starting to generate significant orders,” said chairman and chief executive Richard Parris.

MobilityOne Ltd (LON:MBO) shares rose as it said its Bangladesh subsidiary has developed a mobile banking app for the country’s Meghna Bank.

The app, developed by Mobility i Tap Pay (Bangladesh) Limited (MiTP), can be used for fund transfers, prepaid mobile reloads, ticketing and bill payments.

Meghna is a commercial bank, which started operations in Bangladesh in 2013.  

MiTP and Meghna have a revenue-sharing arrangement in place for transaction fees incurred by users of the mobile banking app or point of sales terminals.

Shares edged up 10% to 4.40p.

11.00am: SerVision shares drop as is seeks new investors

SerVision PLC (LON:SEV) shares fell after saying it still has a long way to go to trade at break-even and warning that it needs to raise funds.  

The manufacturer of digital security said while its 2017 revenues “rose strongly”, it was nowhere near its sales target of US$6.5mln that is needed to break-even.

It also said it will need to raise further finance in the near term or “face having to convert some of the existing debt into equity”. Net debt stood at US$3.7mln on January 31.

The company is currently in discussions with a potential new investor who is considering taking a significant equity stake in the business.

Shares dropped 22% to 0.98p.

Galileo Resources PLC (LON:GLR) shares moved higher after reporting encouraging results from its Star Zinc project in Zambia.

The company, which holds a 51% interest in the project, said drilling of 13 holes has intersected high-grade zinc mineralisation in the year to date.

The next phase of exploration will include further drilling and modelling of data in order to delineate the high grade mineralisation and metallurgical testing.

"This drilling programme has to date produced encouragingly high grade zinc intersections, that is leading us to revise our understanding of the geology of the deposit from that historically described by Charter Consolidated and others,” said chief executive Colin Bird.

Shares rose 11% to 1.7p.

9.10am: Mosman Oil & Gas shares rise on upbeat update

Mosman Oil & Gas PLC (LON:MSMN) shares gained after saying its US assets are all generating rising cash flow due to production improvements, lower costs and an increase in oil prices.

The Welsh project in Texas produced 3,558 barrels in the four months to January. The first phase of workovers has established production of up to 40 barrels per day.

An investment decision on a horizontal drilling programme will be taken later this year after a reserves report.

Shares rose 25% to 1.12p.

UK online car dealer Pendragon PLC (LON:PDG) hiked its 2017 dividend as revenue grew, sending its shares higher.

Revenue rose by 4.5% to £4.7bn as an increase in used car sales offset a drop in new car sales.

Pre-tax profit fell 10% to £100.3mln as gross margins declined.

The company declared a final dividend of 0.8p per share, up from 0.7p a year earlier.

Shares in cancer detection company Oncimmune Holdings PLC (LON:ONC) fell after reporting a wider loss and flat revenues in the half year to November 30, 2017.

Loss before one-off and non-cash items came to £3.04mln, compared to £2.3mln the previous year, reflecting staff recruitment, product development and commercialisation activities.

Revenue was flat at £100,000, generated from early sales of its EarlyCDT(R) lung cancer detection platform.

Shares dropped 3.1% to 140.50p.

Amur Minerals Corp (LON:AMC) shares dipped 8% to 6p as it secured a new US$10mln convertible loan facility.

The loan is with Cuart Investments PCC Ltd and YA II PN Ltd in an investment consortium arranged by RiverFort Global Capital Ltd.

The funds will be used to progress development of the company's Kun-Manie project, including updating the resource and reserves statement and developing an optimised production schedule.

Proactive news headlines:

Mosman Oil And Gas Limited (LON:MSMN) produced 3,558 barrels in the four months to January from its Welch project in Texas. Cash flow from the project was also positive over the period. The first phase of workovers has established production of up to 40 barrels per day.

Eland Oil & Gas PLC (LON:ELA) has delivered another strong production update from the Opuama field in Nigeria. Overall the field, from its four wells, is currently producing at a rate of around 22,000 bopd.

SDX Energy Inc (LON:SDX) (CVE:SDX) told investors it has secured a drill rig for a programme of at least four new wells in Egypt. The company said the rig will be released from its present job in late February, meaning it should be available and mobilised ready for the first new SDX well in mid-March.

Ebiquity PLC (LON:EBQ) is to sell its advertising intelligence (AdIntel) business to Nielsen Holdings PLC for £26mln in cash. Ebiquity said the disposal would increase its focus on its Media Value Measurement (MVM) and Marketing Performance Optimisation (MPO) divisions, which historically have shown faster rates of growth than the Market Intelligence (MI) division.

Gfinity PLC (LON:GFIN) has announced that UNILAD esports team, backed by its global media namesake, will join the third season of the Elite Series, taking place in the Gfinity Arena in London next month. As part of an agreement, UNILAD will host content from the third season of the Gfinity Elite series across multiple channels during eight weeks of competition.

Tlou Energy Ltd. (LON:TLOU) has been asked by the Botswana government to re-tender for the 100MW Lesedi coal bed methane-powered power station contract. The Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security has requested that both short-listed bidding companies, Tlou and Sekaname, re-submit bids.

MaxCyte PLC (LON:MXCT) has appointed a new independent director who brings with him three decades’ of experience of the life sciences industry gleaned working with one of the pioneers of biotechnology. He is Richard Douglas, who was senior vice president of corporate development and corporate officer at Genzyme Corporation from 1989 until the business’ sale to Sanofi in 2011.

Pan African Resources PLC (LON:PAF) delivered just over 85,000 ounces of gold during the six months to December 2017. That was somewhat lower than the amount delivered in the corresponding period in 2016, as labour disputes, processing and underground development issues all took a toll. Nonetheless, the company was still able to turn in profits of £3.3mln, and to fund a dividend for the full year of 0.88p.

Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) has secured a US$10mln convertible loan to allow it to continue with work at the Kun-Manie nickel sulphide deposit in Russia. Amur will draw down US$4mln of the new money tomorrow.

Metal Tiger PLC (LON:MTR) yesterday provided an update with regard to the company’s investment in MOD Resources Limited (ASX:MOD), saying it currently holds 111.2mln MOD shares valued at present at A$6.00mln (circa £3.395mln) as at Friday’s ASX closing price of A$0.054 per share. The firm said this represents 5.87% of the issued share capital of MOD. Metal Tiger also holds 1,541,667 MOD warrants with an exercise price of $A0.06 and an expiry date of 15 April 2019.

Learning Technologies Group PLC (LON:LTG) the leading integrated e-learning services and technologies provider, announced that two of its directors sold shares in the company on 12 February 2018 in order to satisfy institutional buying demand. It said its chief executive, Jonathan Satchell and its chief strategy officer, Piers Lea both sold 3mln at a price of 75p each. Following these share dealings, Satchell is interested in 100,139,995 Learning Tech ordinary shares, representing approximately 17.4% of the company's issued share capital, and Lea is interested in 13,023,383 ordinary shares, representing around 2.3% of the issued share capital.

Oracle Power PLC (LON:ORCP) announced that its chairman Mark Steed yesterday purchased 657,500 ordinary shares of the company on the market, in two transactions - 650,000 shares at a price of 1.6p each; and 7,500 shares at 1.619p each. The group said, following these transactions, Steed's beneficial interest in the company stands at 1,000,000 ordinary shares, representing 0.0946% of the issued share capital.

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