Berkeley Energia Ltd (LON:BKY) this week highlighted the progress of its flagship Salamanca project, following the completion of a US$120mln deal with the Oman sovereign wealth fund.
“The company is now focused on awarding major contracts, filling key management positions and conducting detailed reviews focused on ensuring that the very best capital and operating costs are achieved,” the company said in a statement.
The contracting process has been competitive and as a result it is seeing improved cost for the project, the group said.
Elsewhere, work is continuing apace on the Kisinka property in the Democratic Republic of Congo, owned by African Battery Metals PLC (LON:ABM).
Chief executive Roger Murphy was on site overseeing the exploration programme, laying down fence lines ahead of a planned soil sampling programme.
Field mapping over a significant portion of the license has already been completed, while satellite imagery has identified a number of follow-up targets.
Meanwhile the latest drill results from the APTA gold property in Colombia were highly encouraging according to Ignacio Salazar, chief executive of Orosur Mining Inc (LON:OMI, CVE:OMI).
“We are very, very pleased with the results,” he said. Among the highlights from APTA so far are 17.76 grams per tonne over 5.32 metres, 4.89 grams over 13.9 metres, 5 grams over 23 metres and 4.86 grams over a chunky 25 metres.
The depth of the mineralised intercepts varies, but none of them are that far down, and given that this is step-out drilling from areas on which mineralisation has already been established, Salazar was right to be pleased.
Elsewhere, Gem Diamonds Ltd (LON:GEMD) shares sparkled as it announced it recovered a 169 carat diamond discovery in South Africa and reported an increase in full-year revenues.
The diamond, which is top white colour Type IIa, was recovered from the Letšeng mine in Lesotho. It marks the seventh diamond over 100 carats the miner has found in 2018.
On Monday, the company sold one of the largest gem-quality diamonds ever mined for US$40mln to an unnamed buyer in Antwerp, Belgium. Gem Diamonds said the 910-carat diamond, named ‘The Lesotho Legend’, was retrieved in January and was the fifth largest gem ever recovered.
Elsewhere, Scotgold Resources Limited (LON:SGZ) this week agreed to sell its French business, which owns a French exploration licence.
The conditional sale would see Scotgold receive €100,000 as an initial cash payment, along with up to €900,000 of potential deferred cash payments.
"We are delighted to have sold our French subsidiary on the terms offered,” said Richard Gray, Scotgold chief executive.
Meanwhile, AfriTin Mining Ltd (LON:ATM) said completion of detailed geological mapping has confirmed the presence of mineralisation throughout the unmined surface extensions over the V1 and V2 pegmatite bodies at the Uis tin mine in Namibia.
The AIM-listed firm said the information acquired during the mapping expedition will be used to create a 3-D geological model to be utilised to generate a block model from which a provisional mine production plan will be produced.
The mining company said the estimate Run of Mine feed to the plant is planned at 500 000 tonnes per year.
And Anglo Asian Mining Plc (LON:AAZ) said it was launching a three-year rolling programme of geological exploration of near mine, brownfield and greenfield areas on its ground in Azerbaijan.
The objectives of the programme are to replace mined ounces, extend the current mine life at the Gedabek project to a 10-year minimum, increase the company's inventory of resources, and to discover new mineral deposits.