SolGold (LON:SOLG), the mining exploration firm, reckons it may have found a second 1bn tonne target at Cascabel, its copper-gold porphyry project in Ecuador. The pronouncement follows some early work carried out on Aguinaga area, 1.6km north of Alpala, its most developed prospect.
There was a small dip in the share price of Diamondcorp (LON:DCP) after news that a four month delay to development work at the Lace mine in South Africa’s Free State is now likely.
That the shares didn’t fall more heavily is down to two separate, but related factors.
The first is that, actually, what has been achieved at Lace over the past year or so is really quite considerable, and the market knows that in the start-up of any mine there are bound to be one or two glitches.
In the case of Lace, the underground operators encountered unstable ground conditions that required the installation of steel arches to project employees and expensive drilling equipment from potential falls of ground.
The installation of those arches is now complete, but the work has put back preparations for the first major rock-blast by about four months.
Aureus Mining (LON:AUE TSX:AUE) has acquired three exploration licences adjacent to its recent commissioned New Liberty mine in Liberia.
The acquisitions boost the land owned by Aureus in and around its Bea Mountain licence by 20% to 1,683 sq km (from 1,402 sq km). The area has already returned gold in soil anomalies and has been worked extensively by artisanal miners, Aureus added.
Eurasia Mining (LON:EUA) has started on the mine model for its West Kytlim alluvial platinum project following award of its production permit.
Recent work at the Urals-located deposit in Russia has included mine technical design planning, forestry applications and additional exploration to enhance and expand the mine ore feed. The model includes electrically powered drag lines and plant with production scheduled to start in 2016.
Elsewhere, mobile software developer Globo (LON:GBO) has gone into administration.
Chad Griffin, Simon Kirkhope and Lisa Rickelton of FTI Consulting LLP were appointed as Joint Administrators of Globo Plc, by order of the court on 3 November.
The move into administration follows the disclosure of certain matters regarding the falsification of data and the misrepresentation of the company's financial situation, as reported in various announcements since the shares were suspended on 23 October 2015.
ITM Power (LON:ITM), the energy storage and clean fuel company, has achieved operational status for its Riverside, California hydrogen fuelling station in record time. This is the first electrolyser-based station to achieve this status under the California Energy Commissions (CEC) 2014 funding programme for hydrogen fuelling stations, ITM revealed.
OptiBiotix Health (LON:OPTI), a life science business developing compounds to tackle obesity, has filed two new patents relating to its cholesterol-reducing product.
The company said it now has 11 patents covering the product, with the latest patents reflecting the success of both human studies and manufacturing studies, plus the identification of additional health benefits (hypertension reduction) shown by its cholesterol reducing strain.
In the oil and gas sector, shares in Lansdowne Oil & Gas (LON:LOGP) advanced over 25% on Tuesday as investors seemingly gave the junior oil company more appreciation for its 20% owned Barryroe field.
This morning Providence Resources (LON:PVR), the project’s operator, announced that the Irish authorities had agreed to extend the current licence period until July 2017, and that the subsequent phase would also be given two extra years.
It gives the companies more breathing room as an ongoing process to bring in a new development partner.
Faroe Petroleum (LON:FPM) shares dropped around 8% after revealing that Blink, the final well in the 2015 exploration programme, was unsuccessful.
Blink was drilled down to a depth of 3,710 metres and encountered the targeted Upper Jurassic reservoirs but they were found to be ‘water wet’ in this location. The targets were analogous to the prior Pil, Bue, and Boomerang discoveries.
Sirius Petroleum (LON:SRSP) said its partner on the Ororo Field in Nigeria has received government sign-off to drill a first appraisal well on the acreage. The approval will expire in the next six months. Reports suggested the company wanted to be in production late this year, or early next.
Chief executive Bobo Kuti told investors: "I am delighted that we have been able to reach this major milestone towards developing the Ororo Field and building significant value for shareholders."
Onshore Africa focused Simba Energy (CVE:SMB) announced a private placing to raise up to C$2.1-million and a director appointment. The junior oiler will issue up to 42mln units, each of which will consist of one common share and one-half warrant, where each full warrant is exercisable at 7.5 cents a share for two years.