It was a fairly busy week in the junior mining sector and closely followed Sirius Minerals PLC (LON:SXX) had director share purchase news.
It confirmed this week that they have bought shares through the recent funding initiatives.
Some 2.9mln new shares were acquired by directors in the group’s open offer share sale, which allowed shareholders to buy two new shares for every 25 existing shares they owned.
Chairman Russell Scrimshaw took the majority, acquiring 2.55mln shares to increase his holding to 43.52mln shares or 1.04% of the company, while chief financial officer Thomas Staley picked up 42,400 shares taking his holding to 572,400 shares.
Non-executive directors Keith Clarke, Elizabeth Noel Harwerth, Lord John Hutton, Jane Lodge and general counsel Nicholas King all also took up new shares in the open offer.
Also this week, multi- commodity firm Premier African Minerals Limited (LON:PREM) revealed it had made further progress at the RHA mine in Zimbabwe - reporting a 300% increase in the open pit resources there.
The firm said this supported its planned production levels of up to 10,000 metric ton units of tungsten per month when installation and commissioning of the upgrades underway at the mine are complete.
Open pit resources and inventory now stand at 20.8 million tonnes at an increased grade of 2.34kg per tonne.
The group's first underground resource in developed areas was put at 1.3 million tonnes at 4.25kg per tonne, and a 40 year mine life is indicated. The total therefore of underground and open pit is 22.149 million tonnes.
Elsewhere, hard on the heels of the success enjoyed in Turkey at the high-grade Hot Maden gold project, Mariana Resources Ltd (LON:MARL, TSE:MRY) kicked off a modest drill programme on a second asset in the country.
It is the Ergama copper-gold property in Balikesir Province. Its potential is being assessed by sinking initial seven-holes.
The main targets are near-surface, porphyry-style copper-gold mineralisation within the central portion of the block and high grade gold-silver mineralisation.
Work is expected to be complete by the end of January with the assay results scheduled sometime in the first quarter.
In analyst comment, UBS analysts reckon that metals and mining was a sector to follow in 2016, but the broker also reckons there might be more of the same good news in 2017.
Upgrading the sector to ‘overweight’, Jo Battershill this week suggested earnings momentum will lead to strong free cashflow, healthy balance sheets and improved returns.
In addition, on a macro level, China's construction pipeline underpins solid demand, global economic policies may be more accommodative than expected and a chastened industry will maintain its newly-found producer discipline.
Elsewhere, construction materials firm Breedon Group plc (LON:BREE) said it had acquired Sherburn Minerals Group for up to £15.7mln and reported strong trading in the last ten months.
It comes after it bought Hope Construction Materials, a group formed from the merger of rivals Tarmac and Lafarge, which almost doubled the size of the business and significantly expanded its geographical footprint in the north of England.
Sherburn complements the existing cement plant at Hope and will allow the expansion of that business through the importation of cement and ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) through Sherburn's two terminals in north-east England and eastern Scotland, the firm said.
Sherburn reported underlying earnings (EBITDA) of £1.8 million on revenues of £16.1 million in the year to end March. It has more than 21mln tonnes of mineral reserves and resources.
In a separate announcement, Breedon said sales volumes of aggregates in the ten months to October 31 this year increased 25%, asphalt by 1% and concrete by 96%.