There was a lot of mining news in the world of small caps today.
Starting with coloured gemstones miner and marketer Gemfields (LON:GEM) won plaudits in the City for a resource upgrade at emerald mine Kagem.
The total amount at the mine in Zambia, 75% owned by Gemfields, is now estimated at 1.8bn carats (ct) worth of emeralds and beryl.
In other gemstone-related news, Firestone Diamonds (LON:FDI) remains on track for first production from its Liqhobong mine during the fourth quarter of 2016, it told investors, revealing it has received its first draw-down of US$7.6 million under the financing facility with Absa bank.
In other mining news, Kibo Mining (LON:KIBO) and Metal Tiger (LON:MTR) revealed today the Pinewood uranium joint venture had kicked off and they see a positive shift in the uranium space.
The Pinewood project is a 50:50 exploration joint venture in Tanzania.
In the UK, Wolf Minerals (LON:WLFE) has taken operational control of its new tungsten and tin mine at Hemerdon, near Plymouth, after the completion of commissioning.
Elsewhere, West Africa-focused International Mining & Infrastructure Corporation (LON:IMIC) is to get its hands on a loan of up to US$1mln for working capital, it reported.
Sticking in Africa, Nigeria-focused Sirius Petroleum (LON:SRSP) confirmed it has now issued warrants that would convert into a 100mln shares that can be exercised once the stock hits 2p.
Staying in the energy sector, oil and gas junior Chariot Oil & Gas (LON:CHAR) continues to look for partners across its portfolio, saying the past year had seen "fundamental" changes across the industry.
Trinity Exploration & Production (LON:TNI) has embarked on a cost reduction and redundancy programme that will see the exit of chief operating officer Craig McCallum.
Hurricane Energy (LON:HUR), which is developing the Lancaster field, said its farm-out process was continuing as it reported a much reduced loss in its latest half year.
Velocys (LON:VLS), the gas to liquids specialist, said it had settled its US patent infringement case with FTSE 100 catalytic converter maker Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT), which is making a payment of an undisclosed sum of cash as part of the deal.
Elsewhere, Surrey County Council has given permission to drill an underground well at Holmwood, Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG) announced today.
In the tech space, Mobile software specialist Globo (LON:GBO) has provisionally agreed to buy the business and assets of a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and mobile software security provider.
The company to be acquired is based in Europe and is valued at €14mln, but has not been named in the announcement at the request of the sellers.
Meanwhile, MySQUAR (LON:MYSQ), the Myanmar-language social media and entertainment platform, said its MyChat social media app is now averaging around 100mln screen views per month.
To pharma – where Ergomed (LON:ERGO), which provides drug development services to the pharma sector, is one of six finalists for the 'Best CRO' (contract research organisation) award at the 11th Annual Scrip Awards 2015.
In other news, Back office optimisation software specialist eg Solutions (LON:EGS) has raised earnings guidance for the full year.
The company, which is currently in a heavy investment phase to seize the significant market opportunity open to it, now expects to break even this year.
Finally, Cake and food ingredients group Real Good Food (RGF) (LON:RGD) blamed falling commodity prices for lower revenue but said it had started the year well.
RGF said total group revenue was down on a like-for-like annual basis, but added it was generally very satisfied with the way that trading had started during the early part of the new financial year.