Quite busy on the mining front this week. Here are some highlights.
Big news for Eurasia Mining (LON:EUA) and its permit for its West Kyltim project, in Russian Far Easthas given the company a big shot in the arm.
Indeed, approval from Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev’s office came through in near record time having landed on his desk just two weeks ago.
It was the final regulatory requirement for the Urals alluvial platinum project to move to the production stage.
Eurasia now becomes the second western junior to receive a permit in Russia in the space of a month.
Three weeks ago Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) received a permit for its Kun-Manie project, the first western junior almost anyone could recall getting a licence.
Eurasia Mining’s chief executive Christian Schaffalitzky said there had been a sea change in attitudes in the country over the past 12 months .
To potash and Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) caught headlines as it expects to complete a definitive feasibility study for the York Potash project by the fourth quarter.
Project financing, for the mine’s first stage, is expected to follow in the first quarter of 2016.
Planning approval was granted last week for York Potash, a proposed underground mine inland, between northern seaside towns Scarborough and Whitby, and the company is now advancing towards the construction phase of the project.
Although construction work at the Yanfolila gold project in Mali has been grabbing all the focus lately, Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM) hasn’t forgotten about the bigger fish that it has to fry at Dugbe in Liberia.
The company has signed a Mineral Development Agreement with the government of Liberia, which locks in a workable 3% royalty rate, 25% corporate tax including credits for expenditures, and a 50% reduction in fuel duties that rises to 75% if gold remains under US$1,500 per ounce.
In return, the government has been granted a 10% free carry in Dugbe.
The intention from both sides is clear: as Yanfolilia steams into production, Dugbe should not be forgotten.
Meanwhile, W Resources (LON:WRES) has completed the latest round of infill drilling at its La Parrilla tungsten project in Spain.
The results from the drilling will feed into an updated resource and initial reserve for the property, which is due for release towards the end of the year.
That in turn will form the basis for the start of mining, due in 2016.
The company already has some production from the reprocessing of mine waste from old workings.
Mwana Africa (LON:MWA) this week said it had instigated a round of head office cost cutting following boardroom changes last month.
The Zimbabwe -focused nickel and gold miner has made twelve positions redundant, including a senior manager and corporate office staff. Advisers and consultants have also been cut back.
New chairman Yat Hoi Ning said: "Shareholders voted for change at the EGM and with the help of our new directors this process is now well underway.
“We expect that our restructuring will take a couple of months as we address a number of legacy issues.
“Our management team is focusing on reducing costs to mitigate the impact of the current weak pricing environment for gold and nickel, but I am confident that we can deliver a stable platform upon which to build a new, and stronger corporate culture."
Toronto-listed gold, silver and antimony miner Mandalay (TSE:MND) is "delivering the goods", reckons RFC Ambrian, which expects production to grow 20% to 180,000 gold equivalent ounces for 2015.
This will be split almost equally between the three mines - Costerfield, Australia, Cerro Bayo, China and Bjorkdal, Sweden.
But the broker does not see much upside to the group's current share price and until there is more on potential net asset value growth moves its recommendation to 'hold' from 'buy'.
"All of these mines have been acquired since late 2009 and are representative of the company’s strategy of identifying undervalued operating assets with potential for further value-enhancement through optimisation and reserve additions," highlighted analyst Jim Taylor.
He reckons cash costs this year will average US$757 per ounce across the three operations.
Copper explorer SolGold (LON:SOLG) has started drilling its 12th hole at Cascabel in Ecuador.
The hole will test the test the southeast strike extension of the high grades uncovered in hole number five at Alpala, one of the main targets at Cascabel.
Nick Mather, chief executive, said: "There is good indication that Cascabel should continue to report consistent drilling results along the lines of those already seen."
Hole 12 is located 95 metres (m) southeast of the Hole 5 collar and has commenced drilling towards the southwest at 87 degrees.
Back to Canada, and Mkango (CVE:MKA) will seek a dual–listing on the Aim market of the London stock exchange following a C$1.5 mln placing of units at C$0.025 per unit.
Each unit will consist of one share and half a warrant priced at C$0.05.
The fundraising supersedes a previous C$500,000 funding announced in April.
The company said that the new money would be used to make further progress on its Songwe Hill rare earths project in Malawi, specifically to optimise the process flow sheet, and to continue with its environmental, social, and health impact assessment, which is a key part of the ongoing feasibility study.
Some money will also be earmarked to cover general running costs in Malawi.
Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) is tidying up land ownership at its Red Rabbit project in Turkey ahead of the start of construction at the Kiziltepe mine.
The emerging miner said all freehold land at the tailings dam and process plant sites of Red Rabbit had now been acquired, while 95% of the total required for the project has now been purchased and what remains will be bought in coming months.
Detailed site surveying work has been completed at the process plant area and for access roads.
Meanwhile, drilling of the foundations area of the process plant site is due to kick off once trees have been felled by the Department of Forestry.
Ariana managing director Dr Kerim Sener said the current work represented "significant progress on the critical path to construction".
In other news, South Africa-focused miner DiamondCorp (LON:DCP) revealed it had raised the maximum under its open offer and placing at £5.27 million to advance the economics of the Lace mine.
The open offer followed a placing last month, which raised just short of £3.2mln priced at 10p.
The offer was at the same price and applications were received for 64% of the shares on offer. Around a further 7.5mln were available under an "excess application facility" and applications were received representing 4.9 times the excess shares available.
DiamondCorp went ahead with the placing after deciding to end a US$7mln royalty financing deal with South African group Acrux.
London's only listed graphite mining company, Stratmin Global Resources (LON:STGR), has sold its entire inventory of sub-94% carbon in graphite (CIG) finished product, it emerged this week.
Shares rose as the company said it had cleared the warehouse of CIG product that was produced before the company made the breakthrough of consistently producing graphite at a minimum grade of 94% CIG – deemed a critically important crossover point in terms of achieving a premium pricing point.
The company is now confident in its ability to produce at the 94% CIG grade, but this sale demonstrates its enhanced marketing capability for varying CIG grades, thereby increasing potential profitability levels, the company said.