Bill Howell has admitted he had not chosen a propitious time to take the helm as chairman of ECR Minerals PLC (LON:ECR).
He took the gig, however, because he was impressed by the professional approach and commitment of directors Stephen Clayson and Dick Watts, and the company’s small team of dedicated staff, he said in today's results statement.
He said he was was also in accord with ECR’s strategy of careful management of its limited financial resources to conduct targeted, step–by–step exploration of small but economically viable gold deposits.
“My decision has so far been vindicated by the completion of the inferred resource estimate of 63,500oz gold in surficial oxide material at the Danglay prospect in the world–renowned gold mining Baguio District of the Philippines, with significant further exploration potential; and the possible opportunity, subject to the outcome of further discussions, of a small gold processing operation in Argentina,” Howell said.
The current bear phase in mining markets has not yet ended, Howell conceded, though he drew some comfort from the fact the slide in the gold price appears to have abated.
The news was less downbeat from Seeing Machines Limited (LON:SEE), the driver fatigue monitoring technology firm that is steadily diversifying away from its mining industry roots.
In its results it revealed further success in targeting the car market with a follow-on order from its partner, Takata, the Japanese vehicle parts firm, for its driver monitoring system.
The news did not quite overshadow the near 600% rise in revenues and a decisive move into the black, but it did tie in with news from another small cap favourite, Telit Communications PLC (LON:TCM), which is also moving deeper into the cars market.
The machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless communications specialist is already enjoying a boost from the rise of the (industrial) Internet of Things, and it revealed in well-received results this morning that its automotive business unit saw revenues increase by 60% to $39.6mln in 2015.
“Our position in the automotive segment was greatly enhanced by the acquisition of the ATOP business in 2014, which included highly skilled engineering and support staff. ATOP, which is fully integrated into Telit, has become the cornerstone of the automotive division. It has extended the group's market reach and is catering to the Connected Car trend, driven by factors such as safety, regulation, and smart infotainment,” said Oozi Cats, chief executive officer of Telit.
Slightly less sexy technology is pushed by Escher Group Holdings (LON:ESCH), which develops software applications for post office counter automation and distributed network communication.
The group moved into the black in 2015, with profit before tax of $1.1mln versus a loss the year before of $0.5mln, on the back of a 4% increase in revenue to $22mln.
If the advance in the top line seems a bit mundane, the 32% increase in maintenance revenue to $7.6mln from $5.7mln the year before should make the market sit up and take notice.
The contribution from maintenance almost overtook the money it got ($7.87mln) from software development and consulting services.
Speaking to Proactive Investors, chief executive officer Liam Byrne said the company had changed a lot in the last year, having heroically completed three large-scale implementations in the US, Malaysia and with Deutsche Post.
Moving on to the maintenance phase of those projects frees up a lot of management time to focus on new growth areas, including an increasing emphasis on digital and interactive services that could see the company further diversify away from its post office counters heritage to sectors such as small banks and e-government services.
There is, as ever, lots of resource sector news about, with Keras Resources PLC (LON:KRS) and Manica miner Xtract Resources PLC (LON:XTR) to the fore.
Full-year results from Keras, the company formerly known as Ferrex, were fine and dandy but all rear-view mirror stuff; of more interest to the market – judging by the 6% rise in the share price – is the assertion that 2016 will be characterised with maiden cash flows, with gold production expected in the second quarter.
Xtract's update on the metrics at its Manica gold project, meanwhile, was the hot small-cap news item of the morning, and it therefore behoves me to suggest that private investors are manically following the story.
New in-house estimates have increased the net present value (NPV) and underlying earnings potential of the project in Mozambique.
The NPV has been increased to US$70mln compared to US$50mln as stated in a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) by vendor Auroch Minerals.
The internal rate of return (IRR) is now put at 50% compared to 58%, assuming a gold price of US$1,250 per ounce.
Low-cost airline Fastjet PLC (LON:FJET) has been in the news a lot of late, and probably wishes it were otherwise, and it was in the wars again this morning after issuing a profit warning.
The company said it no longer expected to be cash flow positive this year.
Meanwhile, sector peer Ryanair Holdings PLC (LON:RYA) has revealed the frankly surprising news that only one customer in a thousand complained about its services in February. Well, technically speaking it was 1.1 complaints per 1,000 customers, and up from 0.61 in February 2015.