Unconventional gas specialist Tlou Energy Limited (LON:TLOU) has brought Independent Power Corporation PLC on board to develop a 100Mw power plant at Lesedi in Botswana.
UK-based IPC has already received letters of interest for in-principle funding for both the power station and its infrastructure.
The IPP Project will be supplied with gas from Tlou's Lesedi coal bed methane project. The two companies will now work on a detailed submission to the country’s energy ministry. Shares rose 14% to 10p.
Regency Mines Plc (LON:RGM) shot forward 26% to 0.76p as associate Carbon Minerals Corporation signed sales contracts for metallurgical coal and for fines from the Rosa mine in Alabama. Progress remains on schedule at Rosa for coal sales in this quarter said Regency, which owns 20% of CMC.
Power socket and cable specialist Volex PLC (LON:VLX) will beat profit expectations this year to April even though its largest customer has been reducing shipments.
That will mean sales come in at the lower end of guidance of US$320 to US $330mln, but profits and margins will at least match a year ago Volex said. Shares rose 9% to 43.4p.
Blue chip insurers Admiral Group PLC (LON:ADM) and Direct Line Group PLC (LON:DLG) slipped on a warning of big one-off charges in 2016's results as the discount rate used by courts in England and Wales to calculate personal injury damages awards was lowered.
After a review, the Lord Chancellor announced today that the figure used, commonly referred to as the Ogden discount rate, will be cut to -0.75% from +2.5% currently. Direct Line dropped 6% to 341.5p, while Admiral eased 2% to 1,833p.
Wireless solutions and remote tracking specialist Starcom Plc (LON:STAR) shed around a third of their value as it expects to write down the value of its inventory by US$450,000 in its full-year results. Shares slumped 28% to 2.15p.
11.00am...Vehicle tracker Quartix steps on the gas
Vehicle tracker Quartix Holdings plc (LON:QTX) jumped 8% to 350p as revenues grew 19% to £23.3mln in the 12 months ended December 31. Fleet, its largest operation, expanded by 15%, while insurance grew by 25%. Profit before tax was up 9% to £6.5mln.
Thor Mining PLC (LON:THR) said the cash receipt of A$1.5mln, received after the period end, from completion of the sale of the Spring Hill gold project, has strengthened the cash position significantly and it will accelerate exploration field work. Shares rose 3% to 0.77p.
Placings and fund raises take a toll on the small caps.
The recently announced placement undertaken by Galantas Gold Corporation (LON:GAL)(CVE:GAL) is to close in two parts to comply with Canadian stock exchange regulations. Shares dipped 3% to 7.15p.
Infrastrata PLC (LON:INFA) slumped as it unveiled a placing to raise £750,000 at a price of 0.5p per share.
Money will repay a loan from Baron Oil and fund the first stage of the engineering work at its Islandmagee project.
To get the gas storage facility up and running will require Infrastrata to find a further £3mln with a similar amount to come from contractor loans and EU grants.
Shares fell 26% to 0.5p.
By contrast, the prospect of receiving the outstanding £300,000 from Infrastrata buoyed Baron Oil PLC (LON:BOIL), which rose 12% to 0.475p.
OneView Group plc (LON:ONEV) was on the back foot after its mixed trading update Friday and plans to raise money to meet additional working capital needs from its recent major contract win with Discount Tire.
Shares in the retail software group dropped 22% to 3.5p.
An exception was junior miner ECR Minerals PLC (LON:ECR), which perked up 5% on news that Chinese group Shenyang Xinliaoan Machinery is to take a 29.9% stake.
It will pay 1p for each of the shares – which are subject to a 12 month lock-up agreement – raising £554,000 for ECR.
Proactive news headlines
Blur Group PLC (LON:BLUR) revealed the top 100 UK lawyer that signed up for its platform earlier this month has listed its first project. It's a six-figure (dollar) programme of records management and archiving services.
LGO Energy PLC (LON:LGO) expects to start new drilling operations in Trinidad within the next week. First to be drilled will be the GY-682 well which is expected to go straight into production. Shares rose 8% to 0.122p.
Union Jack Oil PLC (LON:UJO) has raised £1.4mln in a placing and plans to increase holdings in existing onshore UK projects. Shares fell 11% to 0.142p.
Petropavlovsk PLC (LON:POG) was steady after an update on IRC, in which Petropavlovsk holds a 31.1% interest in, showed the iron producer is making “steady progress” both operationally and financially.
Harvest Minerals Ltd (LON:HMI) has significantly upgraded the resource on the Arapuá Fertilizer Project in Brazil. The higher-confidence indicated resource rises 37% to a JORC-compliant 1.2mln tonnes at a grade of 4.4% potassium oxide (K2O) and 3.45% phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5). Shares eased 5% to 13.18p.
Mosman Oil And Gas Limited (LON:MSMN) has increased its investment in Gem International (CVE:GI) via a new funding round from the Canada-listed diamond explorer. Gem raised C$900,000 in total and Mosman is putting up C$80,000 to give it a stake of 16.5%.
Mosman executive chairman John Barr met with several significant shareholders in Gem before making a decision and said he was happy with plans to extend its option in Angola to include areas with possible kimberlite pipes as well as alluvial areas. Shares were flat at 0.81p.
Green Dragon Gas Ltd (LON:GDG) rose 2% to 130p as the China–focused coal bed gas specialist increased reserves by 6% in 2016, its eleventh straight annual rise. The most certain category of reserves, 1P, rose 6% to 184 Bcf, with 2P reserves 2% higher at 549Bcf across all blocks where it has an equity interest.