A fairly busy week for the diggers, with some positive news for Eurasia Mining PLC (LON:EUA) to round off the week.
The group unveiled positive drill results from its Monchetundra project in the far northwest of Russia, which should lead to the definition of a reserve estimate, it said.
Core drilling and shallow sampling kicked off last summer and focused on the West Nittis and Loipishnune areas, which are prospective for high grade platinum group metals.
Elsewhere, Patagonia Gold (LON:PGD) said it was raising US$10mln though a placing to start work on a new gold mine at Cap-Oeste in Argentina.
Major shareholder and chairman Carlos Miguens is putting up half of the money through a subscription at 1.5p per share, while the rest will come from an open offer at the same price that Miguens will underwrite.
Also this week, Canada- focused Rambler Metals & Mining PLC (CVE:RAB LON:RMM) is set to become a mining vehicle for a group of Canadian mining veterans following a cash injection £10.45mln, it emerged.
Brad Mills and Mark Sander, the senior executives at gold and silver miner Mandalay Resources, are to join the Rambler board as two of four new non-execs.
Plinian, Mills’s private mining vehicle, has also advised Rambler on a share subscription by CEII, a mining-focused fund based in the Cayman Islands.
The share issue is at 4p, a discount of about 3% to yesterday’s close, while there is a warrant issue attached to that, if exercised, would take the total of raised to £20.45mln.
Meanwhile, Sirius Minerals PLC's (LON:SXX) 'direct dig and delivery' strategy allows its North Yorkshire polyhalite project to have very low production costs, chief executive Chris Fraser explained this week.
Speaking in a video by house broker Liberum, the potash mine developer boss, explained how the orebody at the Yorkshire site was so thick and such high grade that everything mined will be the finished product and there was no processing step other than a sizing one.
"For us one tonne of rock that we move in the mine through our infrastructure system is one tonne of product that goes on the ship," he said.
Turning to the yellow metal and Chaarat Gold Holdings (LON:CGH) has reworked the economics of its planned mine in the Kyrgyz Republic, resulting in a reduction of capital costs and a significant increase in its worth.
The feasibility study prepared by consultants NERIN Engineering and NFC places a net asset value of US$615mln on the Chaarat project, up from US$351mln.
The new figure assumes a US$1,250 per ounce gold price and an 8% discount rate.
The internal rate of return is put at 25%, while the initial investment required to get the mine up and running is now expected to be US$470mln, compared with US$684mln previously estimated.
The all-in sustaining costs of the Chaarat operation are estimated at US$605 per ounce, which would make the company one of the cheapest gold producers in the world...
Finally, Rare Earth Minerals plc (LON:REM) said ongoing drilling at the Cinovec lithium project in the Czech Republic was showing "excellent results" as it reported on European Metals' (ASX:EMH) latest update.
REM holds an indirect stake in the project via a19.8% direct holding in EMH, which owns the exploration rights to the Cinovec lithium-tin-tungsten project.
Infill hole PSn02 has returned an intercept of 188m averaging 0.46% lithium oxide, including a high-grade interval of 25m averaging 0.72% lithium oxide, and another one of 20m averaging 0.86%, the firm said.