Sierra Leone-focused Sula Iron & Gold PLC (LON:SULA) has been awarded the Ebola Medal Award for its efforts to help combat the spread of the virus.
Sula provided teams on the ground with essential equipment and supplies, including providing provisions for the young men stationed at check points.
In other news, Trinity Exploration & Production PLC (LON:TRIN) has agreed a further extension to the moratorium on principal repayments relating to its outstanding debt balance of $13mln with its lender.
It has been extended until next Friday (8 April) and will be the 25th extension with lender Citibank.
Elsewhere, interims from African Potash Limited (LON:AFPO) chart a year of transformation for the AIM-listed group as it has morphed from a mining exploration and development firm to a supplier of fertiliser.
Crucial to this change has been a deal with African free trading group COMESA. It expects to supply 500,000 tonnes a year to member countries and signed a number of deals 2015.
Meanwhile, Africa-focused oil and gas explorer Canadian Overseas Petroleum (LON:COPL, CVE:XOP) confirmed it ended 2015 with some US$2mln of cash.
The group continues to focus its attentions on a proposed drill programme offshore Liberia where it is partnered with ExxonMobil, as well as a variety of new opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.
In biotech, AIM-listed Advanced Oncotherapy PLC (LON:AVO) said it is now testing the Proton Source for its LIGHT (Linac Image Guided Hadron Technology) system in situ in France. Once the testing process has been complete it will be shipped to AVO’s facility in Geneva.
Cheaper and smaller than the current units, which are almost prohibitively expensive, the LIGHT system has the ability to propel protons at the speed of the larger machines.
Stellar Diamonds PLC (LON:STEL) said it will be focused on moving the Tongo project in Sierra Leone into funding and development this year as it posted half year results.
The final stages of the application are now completed and the group awaits the recommendation of the Minerals Advisory Board to the Minister of Mines.
Over at Premaitha Health PLC (LON:NIPT), it has landed a tenth customer for its IONA diagnostic, Europe’s first CE-marked non-invasive DNA-based pre-natal test for Down’s Syndrome.
The customer is an unnamed laboratory in France, the second signed up by local distributor AdGeniX.
Quartix Holdings PLC (LON:QTX), the supplier of subscription-based vehicle tracking systems, said its new financial year has got off to a solid start.
It is forecast to make a pre-tax profit of around £6.7mln in 2016 on revenues of around £22.6mln.
And finally, Cerillion PLC (LON:CER), which started trading on AIM earlier this month, has announced its first contract win as a publicly listed company.
The customer is a multi-service communications provider in the Americas and is in respect of a major upgrade to the Cerillion platform.