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Proactive weekly mining news summary including Mariana Resources, Baobab Resources, Savannah Resources, Xtract Resources and African Eagle

Published: 08:30 12 Apr 2014 BST

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Mariana Resources (LON:MARL) told this week how it received a US$600,000 VAT refund from the Argentine authorities that it will use for further exploration of its Santa Cruz province gold and silver licences.

Glen Parsons, Mariana’s chief executive, said the additional funds were especially timely as mining activity in Argentina had picked up again recently.

It will use the funds primarily on the Los Cisnes silver-gold project, which has already indicated bulk tonnage and high-grade potential and where a surface programme is underway to define drill targets.

Trenching work scheduled for April and May will also see 54 trenches dug to help decide where to put the drills.

Parsons told Proactive Investors that Mariana has slowly been increasing the workflow [at Los Cisnes] since the end of last year to move it forward.

Meanwhile, Baobab Resources (LON:BAO) received encouraging results from a second round of metallurgical testwork on ore from the Tenge block of its Tete pig iron project in Mozambique.

A final alloy of almost 99% iron was produced from the bench-scale beneficiation, reduction and smelting tests, far purer than required for a commercial pig iron product.

Critically, said the company, the tests indicated that titanium and vanadium could be removed from the pig iron as separate by-products.

Assuming a final composition containing 4% carbon, the test work results showed a high qualitypig iron product is possible with over 95% Fe after the removal of vanadium.  

Savannah Resources (LON:SAV) shares got a boost late on Thursday as it announced a US$6.3mln investment from New York-based asset manager Bergen, which will fund its expansion into a highly prospective copper belt in Oman.

The firm is acquiring Gentor Resources Ltd, which has a 65% interest in one block and the right to earn up to a 70% interest in another.

Savannah has agreed to place up to US$5.9mln worth of its shares and to issue US$400,000 unsecured convertible instrument to Bergen Global Opportunity Fund, it said.

Savannah's chief executive David Archer said: "The deal not only underwrites the proposed acquisition announced today of Gentor Resources Inc's Oman copper project portfolio and the associated mid-term exploration investment but will also support further initiatives in our core geographies of Mozambique and Oman in our core commodities of heavy mineral sands and copper."

Yesterday, Xtract Resources (LON:XTR) has decided not to go ahead with the acquisition of the Namakwa uranium deposit in South Africa.

After completing due diligence, Xtract said the project did not meet its investment criteria. 

In November, Xtract paid Aardvark Uranium US$100,000 for a 90 day exclusive period to carry out its diligence work, a deadline that was subsequently extended until yesterday (10 April).

In addition, Xtract, which is now focused solely on Chile, on Thursday announced rapid progress at its Chepica copper gold mine in Talca, which is expected to move in to profit this quarter.

Shares in London’s listed graphene companies rose on Monday on the back of two joint venture deals from Graphene NanoChem (LON:GRPH).

The group unveiled JVs with Malaysia’s Scomi Oiltools and Emery Advanced Materials to produce a range of specialty chemicals.

The deal with Scomi is to produce and supply a range of specialty chemicals, including PlatDrill and other graphene-enhanced green chemicals, exclusively for the oilfield chemicals market.

The agreement signed with Emery meanwhile is to develop a new generation of specialty chemicals for plastic additives, biolubricants and rubber.

Graphene is an ultra-thin material which is tougher than diamond. It was discovered by a pair of scientists at Manchester University, who were subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Strategic Minerals (LON:SML) revealed this week it had bolstered its balance sheet by raising around  £1mln through a subscription from new investors, as it unveiled cost cutting measures. 

Investors have subscribed for 125mln shares of the iron group at 0.8p each - that's around a 28% discount to Wednesday's closing price. It said the funds would mainly be used for working capital.

The firm added that it had issued 45 million Strategic shares to Glencore AG, also at 0.8p, in exchange for an obligation owed to them.

A corporate review has resulted in streamlining overheads and significant savings, it said.

Savings are estimated to be around £650,000 on an annualised basis compared to the 2013 financialyear and are expected to come into effect from the second quarter of 2014.

There was also news from Iodine producer Iofina (LON:IOF). It has appointed co-founder and former chief executive Lance Baller as its chairman.

He rejoins the group after leaving to attend to personal health issues.

Sierra Leone-focused diamond and gold explorer Golden Saint (LON:GSR) appointed a senior geologist.

She is Mona Sulaiman, who has a geology degree and is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. She will take up the role on April 14.

Shares in African Eagle (LON:AFE) shot higher this week as mining entrepreneur Nick Clarke took his stake to over 26% through the acquisition of shares held by three other directors.

The one-time nickel explorer became a shell company last year after it sold the assets and liabilities of its Dutwa project in Tanzania to Clarke.

On Wednesday, his vehicle, Salkeld Investments, bought some 216mln shares owned by directors Julian McIntyre, Mark Thompson and Paul Colucci for 0.225p per share.

Clarke and Kola Karim, who is currently group managing director and chief executive of Shoreline Energy International, an Africa-focused energy and infrastructure company, will also now replace McIntyre, Thompson and Colucci and another director, Venkat Siva, on African Eagle’s board.

Following the purchases Clarke’s stake in African Eagle will rise to 26.18%.

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