It might have ‘silver’ in its name, but all Arian Silver Corp (LON:AGQ) investors could talk about this week was another metal after the AIM-quoted firm took out an option to acquire three lithium exploration projects in Mexico.
The metal – a key component of batteries used to power mobile phones, tablets, laptops and electric cars – is a good deal sexier than silver in the market’s view, judging by the 22% surge in the Arian share price over the past few days.
The Pozo Hondo, Columpio and Abundancia projects cover 1,600 hectares in Zacatecas which, according to Arian, is a region well-known for its lithium deposits.
Arian will pay up to US$200,000 in instalments over the next 12 months, including a non-refundable deposit of US$20,000.
Preliminary exploration is already underway and will be carried out alongside its silver exploration, Arian added.
Elsewhere, Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML) was in demand after it pulled the ol’ switcheroo trick on an iron ore supply contract at its Cobre asset in New Mexico.
The company originally had a deal in place with Galvin which agreed to take 350,000 tons of magnetite at market prices, but it failed to meet deadlines to complete the deal.
Strategic Minerals dusted itself down pretty quickly and arranged a new contract which will see it supply 400,000 tons over several years, also at market prices.
The new deal is expected to double annual sales at Cobre without affecting the group’s net profit margin.
Shares shot up 15% to 1.57p this week on the back of the news.
Gfinity Plc (LON:GFIN) enjoyed a strong week, too. Shares in the eSports firm gained more than 21% after it was named as Microsoft’s official global tournament partner for the upcoming Forza Racing Championship on the Xbox.
The London-based group is providing the platform that will host and broadcast the gaming competition, both online and offline.
It’s not the first time the US tech giant has partnered up with Gfinity either, with the two previously working together on the Halo World Championships.
Overall it was a good week for the junior market, with the AIM All-Share up more than 1.2%, or 12 points, to 943 – levels not seen for almost six years.
That was more than enough to see off the FTSE 100 which fell 0.5%, or 37 points, to 7,312 over the course of the shortened pre-Easter trading week.
Tricorn Group (LON:TCN) was another stock to hang your hat on this week as it advanced 12.3% following a bullish trading update.
The tube manipulation specialist – handy when there’s a delay on the Circle Line, no doubt – said revenue for the year just ended is expected to be up slightly on the year before.
Trading improved towards the end of the year and second half revenue was some 7.5% higher than the preceding six months and was up 20% year-on-year.
As always though, it wasn’t one-way traffic and there were a couple of sizeable fallers.
Subtitles specialist ZOO Digital Group (LON:ZOO) didn’t have to work too hard to figure out what shareholders were saying this week.
Last Friday, the company revealed it was in discussions with potential new investors and existing shareholders as it looks to drum up between £1mln and £2mln.
It didn’t beat around the bush either, telling the market that it was looking to raise this cash at a discount to the current share price.
That prospect weighed on the shares this week, which were down 15% to 11.25p.
Another heading lower over the past few days was resources investor Regency Mines Plc (LON:RGM), which shed almost 16% to finish up at 0.93p.
Given that shares have more than doubled in the opening few months of the year, it was inevitable that the run would come to an end at some point as investors look to take profits.
The shares weren’t helped as well by a small placing on Monday at a 20% discount to the then market price.