A fairly busy week for the diggers and a notable share riser was Stratex International plc (LON:STI) .
The gold and base metals firm said it had “identified potential optimisation opportunities” at Crusader Resources Limited's Borborema project in Brazil “which are expected to yield material economic gains and lower upfront capital spend”.
Stratex announced plans for a £31mln 'reverse takeover' merger with Crusader in May.
Anglesey Mining plc (LON:AYM) saw shares rise 9% in early deals on Friday.
The recent uplift in base metals prices has prompted the group to shift up a gear in the development of Parys Mountain and it aims to complete a definitive feasibility study in the first half of next year.
Assuming financing talks are well advanced by the middle of next year, construction at the North Wales site could start before the end of 2018 and initial output in the first half of 2020.
In addition, the recent rise in metals prices have given a boost to the project's fundamentals.
Using the higher longer term metal price projections (US$1.35 for zinc and US$3 for copper for example) the project's NPV (net present value) rises to $43.2 million, or £34.6 million and the IRR moves to 33%.
Sunrise Resources Plc (LON:SRES) was also a share riser this week on news it has started to prepare samples of cement subsitute pozzolan for potential customers as drill assays confirmed commercial quantities at its CS deposit in Nevada.
Preliminary results showed thick intervals of pozzolan and perlite-pozzolan, while tests on material from the Tuff Zone, which has been given priority by Sunrise, showed it comfortably met the international standard.
In other news, Ariana Resources plc (LON:AAU) has completed an initial exploration programme across the Hot Gold Corridor within its wholly-owned Salinbas gold project in Turkey.
The Hot Gold Corridor is named after the 4 mln ounce Hot Maden deposit around four kilometres south of the project licences.
Several high-priority geochemical targets have now been identified which show potential for further "Salinbas-type" epithermal mineralisation and/or systems related to copper-gold porphyries, the firm said.
There was good news from Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML) this week, which set a new record for iron ore sales from its New Mexico tailings business.
Subsidiary, SMG, sold US$999,000 (13,897 tons) worth of magnetite from the Cobre operation in August against US$487,000 (7,206 tons) in July.
In addition to volumes significantly increasing, the average sales price also improved, said Strategic.
Later in the week, the firm reported good tin grades from first drilling at the Redmoor prospect in Cornwall, but their nature has meant a shift in approach going forward.
John Peters, managing director, said the assays from ten of the 14 holes drilled so far suggest a better (and easier) mining prospect may be the high-grade zones within the sheeted vein system rather than following lodes.
A second phase of drilling is now planned that will see a further three to six holes by the end of the year with the aim of a resource update early in 2018.
Elsewhere, gold miner Shanta Gold Limited (LON:SHG) launched a US$5mln cost cutting programme to offset increases in royalties and tax in Tanzania.
The government in the African country has passed new mining laws and a finance act recently that has increased royalty payments on gold exports to 6% from 4% and imposed a 1% clearing tax.
Shanta said the changes will cost it an extra US$3mln annually or US$39 per oz of gold, a sum the new cost savings will offset.
Over to the Philippines, and Aussie-listed gold junior Medusa Mining Limited (ASX:MML) expects to maintain production this year at between 80,000-90,000 ounces of gold while it completes development of a new service shaft
Completion of the (E15) service shaft, by the March quarter of 2018, will free up the L8 production shaft with improvements in performance starting to come through almost immediately from that point.
All-in-sustaining –costs in the coming year are expected to be between US$1,050 to US$1,200 per ounce, compared to US$1,374oz.
It comes after a difficult 12 months for the miner due to issues with mine development plans.
Production over the year to June dropped to 80,700oz from 108,600oz. Hefty write-offs (US$70.8mln impairments, US$7.1mln exploration) meant an underlying loss of US$35.2mln with a net deficit of US$62.1mln.
Eurasia Mining plc (LON:EUA) is making progress towards submitting the production license application for its Monchetundra platinum group metals project in Russia, Proactive reported this week.
So far, all necessary contracts covering mine design, blasting, mine surveying, ecological monitoring and land rehabilitation have been assigned to third parties, a necessary step towards a successful mining license application.
It means the application itself will be lodged on schedule, in September.
Development work at the Barruecopardo tungsten project in Spain, managed and 30%-owned by Ormonde Mining Ltd (LON:ORM), is beginning to gather momentum, it emerged this week.
The company anticipates mine commissioning in the third quarter of 2018, and reports that much of the necessary equipment is now being manufactured, with more on order, while on the ground construction of the workshop, offices and other infrastructure is underway.
Several construction contracts have been awarded, including for dams and civil works, with main dam construction work underway.
Ferrum Crescent PLC (LON:FCR) confirmed this week high lead-zinc concentrations near the surface at its Toral prospect in Spain.
Each of the six holes in the latest drill programme hit lead and zinc, confirming the visual inspections of the cores reported in July, while three were high grade intercepts.
All of the 1,046.9m drilled was within 200 metres of the surface, Ferrum added.