Savannah Resources Plc (LON:SAV) shares jumped on Monday after the multi-commodity explorer completed a scoping study at its Mutamba prfoject in Mozambique.
The study said Mutamba had the potential to be a “financially robust, long life mineral sands project”, which seemed to get investors excited.
Capital costs are likely to be relatively modest, with pre-production expenditure set at US$152 mln.
WATCH: Savannah Resources frames up 'very exciting' Mutamba project
The Mutamba Mineral Sands project is being developed by Savannah and Rio Tinto as part of a consortium agreement between the two parties.
Savannah has the right to earn up to a 51% interest, subject to key milestones being met, and by delivering the scoping study Savannah now holds a 20% interest.
Shares in Amerisur Resources PLC (LON:AMER) also advanced today after the South America-focused oil and gas explorer conducted a “very promising” short-term test at its Mariposa-1 well in Colombia.
The well was tested in natural flow and yielded a controlled flow rate of approximately 4,601 barrels of oil per day.
“The high wellhead pressure during the final flow period indicates strong further production potential,” said chief executive John Wardle.
“The company is now considering the results of the test together with our partner to confirm plans for a potential long term test, the potential for further appraisal wells on this structure and the potential to declare the well a discovery.”
Shares gained 6% throughout the day to trade at 25.9p.
At the other end of the junior market, Amedeo Resources PLC (LON:AMED) shed almost 11% after its full-year results revealed it is still yet to sell its Explorer 1 offshore drilling rig.
The rig was completed for YZJ Offshore at the end of 2016 but the buyer has so far been unable to secure the necessary financing so it’s still just sitting around.
Amedeo said it was confident the rig would be sold to either YZJ or another third party which has shown “serious” interest. Investors didn’t share the same enthusiasm, with shares tumbling to 19.6p.
On top of the continued delays to the Explorer 1 sale, the current offshore vessel sector “remains challenging”, as does the iron ore market which is Amedeo’s other sector of interest.
1.40pm...Sula Iron and Gold leaps higher as it announces new drilling programme at Ferensola
Sula Iron and Gold PLC (LON:SULA) has leapt higher today after it signed a new 5,000 metre drilling contract with Equity Drilling on its flagship Ferensola gold project in Sierra Leone.
The drilling will primarily focus on Sula's TZ0 and Sanama Hill targets.
The programme will aim to infill and extend the areas of known high grade mineralisation and to improve the confidence in the geological interpretation.
Sula may also undertake further scout drilling on targets within the Ferensola licence. Re-commencement of drilling is planned in the next fortnight subject to weather conditions.
Shares were up almost 11% to 0.44p.
e-Procurement SaaS provider EU Supply PLC (LON:EUSP) also jumped this morning thanks to a bullish statement from chairman David Cutler at the group’s AGM.
Cutler told investors that EU Supply has got off to a strong start so far in 2017, with revenues for the first four months up by 25% compared to the same period last year.
He added: “The directors believe that the continued strong growth demonstrates that EU Supply is well positioned to take advantage of this expanding market.”
The market liked the content of the speech, with shares advancing 20% to 16.5p.
Elsewhere, the ongoing war in Syria is impacting Gulfsands Petroleum plc (LON:GPX).
The junior oiler is the operator and holds a 50% working interest in the Block 26 Production Sharing Contract (PSC).
Block 26 is located in North East Syria, an area it says is relatively stable though due to European Union sanctions Gulfsands is not currently involved in the operations.
Gulfsands’ working interest in Syria is 2C Contingent Resources of 86.4 mmboe (reclassified from 2P reserves in 2015 due to EU sanctions) and it is ready to resume work there once sanctions are lifted.
As for last year, there was a loss in 2016 of US$19.8mln, including impairments of $8.1mln, of which US$5.3mln related to Chorbane in Tunisia, US$1.1mln to Llanos 50 and US$1.1mln to Putumayo 14.
Shares shed 8.5% to trade at 4.58p.
9.20am...Fusionex collapses as it unveils plans to cancel AIM listing
Shares in Fusionex International PLC (LON:FXI) collapsed this morning after the big data analytics specialist told investors it plans to de-list from AIM.
Fusionex said it felt undervalued by the market and that the “current political uncertainty in Europe is unhelpful”, making a UK listing “less attractive” than when it floated back in 2012.
The reasoning behind the proposed cancellation – which was announced after the markets closed on Friday – may not be quite so clear cut though, according to some reports over the weekend.
The Malaysia-based group’s broker, Peel Hunt, and PR adviser Buchanan, have both recently quit in protest at what The Telegraph described as a “backdoor attempt by [Fusionex’s] founder to seize control”.
Founder and chief executive Ivan Teh already has a 41% stake and he’s allegedly got the backing of a couple of other big shareholders which would take total support for the de-listing close to the 75% threshold.
Investors were rushing to sell their shares while they still could do so relatively easily, with the share price tanking 60% to 53p.
Elsewhere, Science in Sport PLC (LON:SIS) shares powered higher on Tuesday Morning after the sports nutrition specialist was awarded a patent for its WHEY20 protein gel.
The product is different to some of its competitors in that it’s a portable, highly-concentrated source of protein that doesn’t need to be kept refrigerated.
Importantly for SIS and its investors, sales of WHEY20 have been ahead of forecast so far this year, the company added. Shares were up 5% to 90.5p shortly after the opening bell.
SDX Energy Inc. (LON:SDX, CVE:SDX) was another on the move upwards, with shares advancing more than 6% to 60.3p in early deals.
The rise came after SDX hailed the “highly positive” test of its SD-1X well on the South Disouq licence, Egypt, which flowed a better-than-expected 25.8mln standard cubic feet (scf) of dry gas.
On top of the encouraging results, chief executive Paul Welch sounded pretty confident that there might be some pleasant surprises a bit deeper down the well.
“Not only do we have this excellent result in the upper Abu Madi section, we also remain very upbeat about the oil potential in the deeper Cretaceous horizon, where a working petroleum system was also discovered.”
Proactive news headlines ...
88 Energy Limited (LON:88E, ASX:88E) is on track to test its latest Alaska well late next month or early July after successfully cementing in place the production liner. Icewine-2, which has targeted the potentially prolific HRZ shale, will begin the stimulation phase of the programme in the third week of June.
Savannah Resources Plc (LON:SAV) has published a scoping study for its Mutamba mineral sands project in Mozambique which shows that revenues could be upwards of US$4bn over a 30 year mine life.
A strong performance by its “real money” online operations was spoiled by a slide in revenues at Stride Gaming PLC’s (LON:STR) social gaming activities. Adjusted underlying earnings rose 20%, but largely due to a £10.2mln write-down in the value of its social gaming assets it made a reported pre-tax loss of £10.3mln.
Magnolia Petroleum PLC (LON:MAGP) is to take part in a six well drilling programme to be undertaken by US giant Marathon.
Xtract Resources PLC (LON:XTR) is to consolidate its shares on a 1:200 share basis.
Excavation work at Advanced Oncotherapy PLC’s (LON:AVO) flagship Harley Street site is progressing well and on time. The proton therapy systems developer said work has been completed on multiple stages of site work and demolition. Groundworks and piling will start shortly.
Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN) has received what’s called a notice of allowance for an additional US patent over part of its ground-breaking RNA technology, the precursor to being formally granted the patent. The protection means it may have claims over clinical trials of treatments deploying the Silence know-how in hypercholesterolemia (high levels of cholesterol on the blood), haemophilia and acute hepatic porphyrias (an enzyme deficiency in the liver).
Sula Iron & Gold PLC (LON:SULA) is to restart drilling at its Ferensola gold project in Sierra Leone after striking a US$700,000 deal with a drilling contractor
Secure Property Development and Investment PLC (LON:SPDI has received more than €100,000 net of VAT for the provision of asset management services in Romania.
Excavation work at Advanced Oncotherapy PLC’s (LON:AVO) flagship Harley Street site is progressing well and on time.
The delayed strategic investment in Vast Resources PLC (LON:VAST) by SSCG Africa (SSA) has been given the go-ahead by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). The cash injection by SSA was announced at the end of January and was dependent, among other things, on official approval by the RBZ of the assignment of 49.99% of Vast’s loan account with Canape. This approval has now been received.
Growth in its products division helped Horizon Discovery Group PLC (LON:HZD) lift revenues by 19% in the year just ended and forecast a 25% improvement this year. The specialist in gene editing posted 2016 sales of £24.1mln (£20.2mln), but expects 2017 to see revenues rise to at least £30-35mln.