There is little doubt the big news of the day is the green-light being given for a massive potash project in a national Park in York.
Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) shares soared over 70% in opening deals on Wednesday after it received the go-ahead to build the proposed York Potash project.
It was announced locally last night that a special planning committee of the North York Moors National Park Authority approved planning permission. A narrow vote, eight for and seven against, favoured the proposed development.
Chris Fraser, Sirius Minerals’ chief executive, described it as a “major step forward”.
"This is really just the beginning for the company,” he said in a statement, and he is not wrong, as the company has to raise a pile of money to finance the development of the project.
Raising money is a fact of life for resource companies, and today a few were hitting the funding trail.
Tethys Petroleum (LON:TPL, TSE:TPL) as inked a major new funding deal with Kazakhstan investors that promises to recapitalise the company.
AGR Energy, a vehicle for the Assaubayev family, has committed to a US$47.7mln share subscription which will see it take at least 32% of Tethys’ enlarged share capital.
Oilex (LON:OEX) revealed the company had requested a halt to trading in its Australian shares “pending the outcome of a proposed capital raising”.
Senior managers at Independent Oil & Gas (LON:IOG) are subscribing for £50,000 of new shares.
Just over 210,000 shares will be issued to chief financial officer Peter Young and chief operating officer Richard Jameson. The new shares are priced at 23.79p.
Ortac Resources (LON:OTC) has raised £600,000 through a share placing, which will allow it to exercise a previously announced call option to further invest in private firm Zamsort.
On the other side of the coin, Trinity Exploration & Production (LON:TRIN) has deferred principle payments on its debt for a further two weeks. The Trinidad oil and gas firm is currently in a formal sale process.
Small cap mining investor Metal Tiger (LON:MTR) has ploughed £75,000 into AIM-listed gold group Ariana Resources (LON:AAU).
Metal Tiger bought a further 8.3mln shares at 0.9p per share bringing its investment in Ariana so far this year to £250,000, or 27mln shares.
Rare Earth Minerals (LON:REM) has increased its stake in the owner of the Cinovec lithium deposit in the Czech Republic.
It now holds a 9.61% stake in European Metals, which owns 100% of Cinovec, and has become the largest shareholder.
In board room news, Alecto Minerals (LON:ALO) chairman Mark Wellesley-Wood is resigning following his re-appointment at Mwana Africa (LON:MWA), the firm said.
Iron ore explorer IronRidge Resources (LON:IRR) has appointed a former Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) geologist as the company's country manager for Gabon.
Lennard Kolff van Oosterwijk, known as Len, will replace the roles formerly held by Barry Stoffell and Amanda Geard who have left IronRidge.
In other resource news, Kibo Mining (LON:KIBO) has entered into a dynamic phase in its development with material progress being made across the asset portfolio, it told shareholders Wednesday.
The Tanzania-focused company provided an operational update at the company’s annual general meeting, with chief executive Louis Coetzee reporting on the “tremendous progress” made despite tough times in the natural resources equity environment.
KEFI Minerals (LON:KEFI) hailed a "very successful" second quarter, in which it continued to progress its flagship Tulu Kapi project in Ethiopia.
The firm was granted a 20-year mining licence and completed the 2015 Definitive Feasibility Study.
Dragon Oil (LON:DGO) shareholders have until the end of July to accept the £1.7bn takeover offer from Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC).
Madagascar Oil (AIM: MOIL) announced that Peter Godfrey has been appointed to the board of directors of the company as a non-executive director and as a nominated representative of Benchmark Advantage Fund.
Copper miner Weatherly International (LON:WTI) has completed its management shake-up with three new members joining its board.
Craig Thomas, who was the chief operating officer, has now officially succeeded Rod Webster as chief executive.
The other two appointments are Krzysztof Szymczak, managing director of mine contractor Logiman, and Raymond Jenner, a portfolio director of Orion Resource Partners, which has put up the money to build Weatherly’s new Tschudi mine in Namibia.
On to tech news, and Indus Capital Partners has lifted its stake in electronic invoicing outfit Tungsten (LON:TUNG) from a standing start.
First Norwich, now London!
London bus users will now be able to receive localised adverts on their smartphones after Proxama (LON:PROX) and Exterion Media hooked up 500 vehicles with proximity marketing beacons.
The two companies teamed up in May after a successful pilot in Norwich and the roll-out of beacons in London is the first step of a combined marketing programme that could eventually cover the whole country's bus network.
Shares in the Myanmar-focused social media group MySQUAR (LON:MYSQ) raced to a premium in its early trading on AIM, with shares changing hands at 10.75p.
The company raised £1.67mln listing shares on the junior market at 10p each, giving a market capitalisation on float of £18.5mln.
Digital video distribution and monetisation network Rightster (LON:RSTR) has been enlisted by Universal Studios to promote the film Minions.
The deal covers multiple territories in Asia Pacific, South America and Europe, and the two companies will work together to use audience data to select popular Instagram, Snapchat and Vine trailblazers, or “influencers”, who will be asked to showcase their creativity by developing and uploading unique Minions themed content.
CentralNic (LON:CNIC) is set to receive US$1mln after it struck a premium domain name sales agreement yesterday.
ServicePower (LON:SVR) has had a contract with a North American fire alarm and security business expanded to cover the work schedules of one thousand installers.
It will now supply intelligent, intra-day directions through its software to the customer's installation team as well its property arm.
In other news, consultancy firm Imaginatik (LON:IMTK) has signed a US$250,000 contract with a US-based energy company.
The contract builds on the three-year technology contract that concluded in March.
Graphene specialist Haydale (LON:HAYD) has extended its relationship with US tech marketing hot house InVentures.
Building on a 2014 consulting agreement, InVentures will now provide US arm Haydale Tech with financial, strategic and management planning advice to build it into a centre of excellence for graphene and other nanomaterials.
Action Hotels (LON:ACHG) has acquired the ibis hotel at Melbourne airport for US$8.8mln as it aims to double its total number of hotels from 9 to 18.