A fairly busy week on the small cap mining front this week with some big news from Lydian International Ltd (TSE:LYD).
The Toronto-listed miner revealed it was on the brink of breaking ground at its massive Amulsar mine.
The group has made a formal decision to begin construction.
Chief executive and president Howard Stevenson told investors: "Lydian is now rapidly advancing on a number of fronts to achieve a summer start to construction at Amulsar.
"Basic engineering is advancing and we plan to tender several key contracts during the coming weeks in anticipation of breaking ground."
Elsewhere, W Resources unveiled a maiden resource estimate for the São Martinho gold deposit, part of the CAA Portalegre licence in Northern Portugal.
The project is estimated to host 111,987 ounces of contained gold resources, based on 3mln tonnes of mineralisation at a gold grade of 1.04 grams per tonne.
This resource estimate is based on only a limited amount of drilling data, and it represents a starting point from which the company intends to upgrade both the quality and size of the gold resource.
Meanwhile, a notable riser on Friday in London was Metminco Ltd (LON:MNC, ASX: MNC) as a trading halt was requested in Australia as it emerged there were negotiations concerning its Los Calatos copper project in Peru.
The firm has become aware .."that price sensitive information concerning advanced, but incomplete, negotiations regarding the Los Calatos Partnership Process (announced 21 October 2015) may be in the public domain," it said in a brief statement.
Shares will continue on AIM and the ASXC trading halt will end no later than June 14, it said, when it expects to "advise the outcome of these Los Calatos Partnership Process negotiations" but added there could be no guarantee the negotiations will be successful.
Tungsten miner Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) has completed the underground shaft at its RHA mine, while its plant contractor has committed to complete remedial work by early next month.
Delays to RHA’s plant coming on line meant the Zimbabwe-focused group posted a loss of US$7.86mln (US$537,000) in 2015 after impairment charges of US$844,000 on other exploration and evaluation assets in the country.
RHA has now commissioned the new shaft and expects to build tonnage from underground mining to 9,000 tons per month from June.
In Brazil, Horizonte Minerals has been awarded the first, and most important,of the permits required for a nickel mine at Araguaia.
“It’s a big milestone for us,” was what Horizonte chief executive Jeremy Martin said last week.
Of all the licences involved in getting a mine built and into production the preliminary licence is what Martin refers to as “the big one”.
Two more permits will be required before production can actually officially commence, but the key now, continues Martin, is that the project has official recognition.
And it’s important not to underplay the significance of this. For the Para State authorities, well-used to mining in the richer Carajas region to the north, the prospect of over 1,000 new jobs in a poorer, less well developed area, is a key attraction.
Meanwhile, Sirius Minerals PLC has “firmed up” an agreement to supply its POLY4 fertiliser to China.
The deal with Yunnan Dian Huang Peony Industrial Group replaces one it had with the Yunnan TCT Yong-Zhe Company.
The initial contract ran for three years, with an option for a seven-year extensions.
The agreement with Dian Huang is for a full decade, ramping up to 1mln tonnes of the polyhalite fertiliser from its mine in North Yorkshire. The price remains confidential.
"There is great potential for our multi-nutrient product in both Yunnan and China so firming up this supply arrangement is another positive step for us, especially at such a competitive time for the fertiliser industry,” said chief executive Chris Fraser.