Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) has appointed a corporate advisor to assist in securing financing for the development of its Kun-Manie nickel and copper project in Russia.
Medea Capital Partners Ltd. will advise Amur on its financing options for the project, including the debt market, off-take agreements and strategic equity partners.
The corporate advisor has recommended another pre-feasibility study to be completed to update the market on the economics of the project.
It has also provided a strategic advisory paper, which concluded there is available market capacity for investment by a strategic partner and that Export Credit Agency covered debt project financing is available for the development of the project.
Elsewhere, Cadence Minerals Plc’s (LON:KDNC) investee company Auroch Minerals has taken out an option to acquire 100% of the historic Tisová copper mine and three exploration licence applications in the Czech Republic.
The Tisová mine operated most recently between 1959 and 1973 when it produced 560,000 tonnes of ore containing 0.68% copper.
Samples have also indicated significant grades of cobalt and gold, with little exploration carried out so far on the cobalt mineralisation.
In other news, Tanzania-focused mining companies are set to be strangled in further red tape after the country’s parliament passed two laws allowing the government to renegotiate or dissolve contracts.
Under the new laws, the government will be given more power over mining and energy companies operating in Tanzania.
Tanzania’s government had tabled three bills covering natural resources contracts, sovereignty and amendment of existing laws.
A third bill that seeks to amend the country’s Mining & Petroleum Act was also debated in parliament this week.
Acacia Mining plc (LON:ACA) is among the firms affected by tightening legislation, having been locked in a dispute with the government over royalties it allegedly owes on the exports of gold/ copper concentrate from its two mines in the country.
The government had imposed a ban on the exports, accusing Acacia of under-declaring its gold shipments and mining illegally.
Stratmin Global Resources PLC (LON:STGR) has completed the bulk of the funding it was seeking as part of its reverse takeover of Australian explorer Signature Gold.
Axel Management Group, an Australia-incorporated investment company, has subscribed £5mln out of the £5.72mln target at a price of 2.4p per share.
Signature Gold has a portfolio of early stage assets in Queensland and the Czech Republic and separately today Stratmin agreed to lend it A$500,000 so it can move forward with its exploration. The coupon on the one year loan is 3% with no security.
Jangada Mines Plc (LON:JAN) started trading on AIM this week, with shares changing hands at a price more than 10% higher than the 5p listing price by Friday.
Executive chairman Brian McMaster is more than pleased with that outcome, but the real value, he says, still lies down the tracks.
Jangada’s key asset is the Pedra Branca platinum group metals project in Brazil, formerly owned by Anglo Platinum, and already boasting a resource of just under 1 mln ounces of platinum group metals and gold.
“The strength of this project is its provenance,” says McMaster. “We not only own the land and the licenses, we own all the work. And we expect to have a prefeasibility study done by the end of the year.”