Platinum group metals and chrome producer Tharisa PLC (LON:THS) was a feature among the miners this week after it inked a strategic co-operation agreement with the Shanxi Taigang Wanbang Furnace Charge Co, a joint venture company of the Chinese giant Taiyuan Iron & Steel Co (TISCO).
The five-year deal, which starts next month, will see Tharisa supply a minimum of 240,000 tonnes of metallurgical-grade chrome concentrate, which is around a quarter of its production.
WATCH: Tharisa boss discusses shiny new five-year deal
"Tharisa is pleased to have formalised its relationship with TISCO, a long-time client,” said chief executive Phoevos Pouroulis in a statement.
“The co-operation agreement further cements our position in the Chinese market and underpins our order book.”
Elsewhere, Anglo Pacific Group plc (LON:APF) revealed it has made a “very strong” start to the year after free cash flow and royalty income surged in the first half.
The mining royalty business reported a 300% jump in free cash flow to £18.9mln in the six months ended 30 June, compared to the same period a year earlier, including an impact of the Denison financing arrangement of £3.3bn.
WATCH: Significant income, cash flow and profits growth in first half for Anglo Pacific Group
Royalty income shot up 295% to £16.1mln with a record performance at the Maracás Menchen project in Brazil due to strong production and a significant improvement in vanadium prices to an average of US$5.46 per pound from US$3.15 last year.
Meanwhile, Premier African Minerals Limited (LON:PREM) has increased its holding in a company developing an Ethiopian potash project worth US$2.8bn.
Premier’s deal may on the face of it look modest – it is has acquired a 1% stake in Circum Minerals for US$1.36mln. But it says it now has a “meaningful” 5.2% interest in the company.
WATCH: Premier African takes bigger slice of Circum
The vendor was Sabona Investment who was paid in shares.
And Bacanora Minerals Ltd (LON:BCN, CVE:BCN) has told investors that it expects the feasibility study at its Sonora lithium project in Mexico to be completed towards the end of this year.
The explorer is currently targeting first production for 2019/2020 following an 18-month build programme.
That news came after investor Cadence Minerals Plc (LON:KDNC) said on Monday that it is in discussions in regard to a potential sale of part of its 16.06% stake in Bacanora.
Initially, the company was in broad discussions with institutional investors and other parties, but during the course of these discussions, Cadence said, it was approached by a single strategic investor group interested in taking a material portion of the total stake.
Accordingly, Cadence has ceased its dialogue with institutional investors and now hopes to complete a partial sale over the coming weeks to the single investor group.
Cadence also announced that said Auroch Minerals – a firm in which it currently owns a 7.7% stake – revealed encouraging sampling results from the second round of multi-elemental analysis on waste dumps at the Tisová - Co Cu Au project in the Czech Republic.
In a statement, Cadence said Auroch's results from second round testing of the historic waste dumps confirm cobalt presence, as well as significant grades of copper, gold and silver.
Two big boys posted results
Away from the small cap players, two of the big boys in the mining sector posted numbers on Tuesday.
BHP Billiton plc (LON:BLT) saw its shares gain after the miner unveiled a commitment to quit its underperforming US shale oil and gas business as it posted a jump in annual profit and tripled its final dividend.
The world’s biggest miner reported an underlying attributable profit of US$6.7bn, up from US$1.2bn a year ago, albeit below forecasts for US$7.4bn, as net operating cashflow rose by 58% to US$16.80bn.
The FTSE 100-listed firm, which has been under pressure from some shareholders to sell the US shale oil and gas business it bought at the height of the oil boom, said it has “determined that our Onshore US assets are non-core and we are actively pursuing options to exit these assets for value.”
The move is one of the strategic changes urged earlier this year by activist investor Elliott Management - which last week revealed it has hiked its holding in BHP Billiton to 5%.
Meanwhile Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) shares also gained jumped after the fellow blue chip miner saw its first half profit surge by nearly 90%, lifted by higher copper prices, leading it to boost its interim dividend, and the firm said it is on track to meet annual targets.
The Chilean copper producer reported underlying profit (EBITDA) of US$1.1bn for the six months to June 30, up 87.8% from a year earlier, as revenue jumped by 41.9% to US$2,049bn.
Revenue was boosted as realised copper prices increased by 25.3% and sales volumes rose by 14.3%, with the group’s EBITDA margin rising to 52.7%, up from 39.8% a year earlier.
Ortac chairman excited
Back with the minnows, Anthony Balme, chairman of Ortac Resources Ltd (LON:OTC) told investors this week that he is excited by the company strong position, as the natural resources sector is showing “notable signs of a recovery”.
The AIM-quoted mining group is set to benefit from an uplift in commodities prices, he added.
The comment same as Ortac reported a loss of £835,000 (slightly less than the prior year) for the twelve months ended March 31. It equates to a loss of 1.2p per share.
The company did, however, highlight that it had reduced administration costs by some 23% during the period.
Elsewhere, Sula Iron and Gold PLC (LON:SULA) announced it was raising £900,000 at 0.146p per share.
The net proceeds of the subscription are expected to fund the company's exploration activities at its Ferensola gold project in Sierra Leone well into 2018, said the company.
Meanwhile, W Resources PLC (LON:WRES) said today that, having completed the Financial Investment Decision(FID) report on the development of its La Parrilla project in Spain, the group has increased the size of its targeted debt financing, which it now expects may be completed early in the fourth quarter of 2017.
And Savannah Resources Plc (LON:SAV) announced that phase one of the pre-feasibility study (PFS) of the Mutamba Mineral Sands Project in Mozambique is now underway.
The company has appointed mineral sands expert TZMI to carry out the work, which will include a gap analysis, options review, project planning and budget finalisation for stage-two.
The early work is expected to be finalised in the “coming months”.