Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) was a good gainer in the mining sector, this week, with its shares up 5.7% to 4.8p after the group said it had boosted the established nickel resource at its Kun-Manie project in Russia by 50%.
The new total amounts to just over 1.58mln tonnes of contained nickel at average grades of 1.02% nickel equivalent. The new resource includes all 2017 drill results from the Ikenskoe/Sobolevsky (IKEN) and Kubuk deposits.
Elsewhere, the Yanfolila mine owned by Hummingbird Resources PLC (LON:HUM) commenced gold production in December 2017, and the ramp up to full production is now well underway.
Since first gold was poured on 19 December 2017, the performance of the plant has steadily improved month by month.
Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (LON:CMCL) told investors this week that it achieved a new production record at the Blanket mine in Zimbabwe where it unearthed 56,133 ounces of gold during 2017, some 11.5% more than in the preceding year.
The company, in financial results for the year, reported an average gold price of US$1,243 per ounce (up from US$1,232 in the year before) and said gross profit amounted to US$26.32mln, up from US$23.49mln.
In the UK, Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML) boosted the inferred resource at its Redmoor tin project in Cornwall by almost 100% to 4.5mln tonnes at 1.00% tin equivalent.
The resource update was completed by respected industry consultants SRK, and has established a continuity of the mineralised zone over a strike length of around 1,000 metres and for around 450 metres down dip.
Further afield, Cadence Minerals Plc (LON:KDNC) said it has begun an initial exploration programme on the six ‘high-quality’ lithium assets in the San Luis province of Argentina it agreed to acquire in December.
The AIM-listed mineral sector investment firm said the exploration programme, targeted to be completed in 4-6 months, will aim to provide the company with an understanding of the pegmatite geology and the extent of lithium mineralisation.
Looking north, Alba Mineral Resources PLC (LON:ALBA) confirmed that its licence for the Amitsoq project in Greenland has been extended for 5 years.
The explorer’s current tenure at Amitsoq now spans from 2018 to 2022.
It also noted that the authorities have confirmed that the spending obligations attached to 2018 have now been reduced to zero.
Elsewhere, Bezant Resources plc (LON:BZT) is to switch its focus back to copper in the Philippines and Argentina after failing to get the finance to develop the Choco alluvial gold deposit in Colombia.
Laurence Read, Bezant's chief executive, said the decision stemmed from a strategic review of the junior’s activities following the halt to mining at Choco at the end of 2017.
And Shefa Yamim (ATM) Limited (LON:SEFA) announced the results from three bulk samples, part of a fourteen bulk sample exploration campaign to determine a resource estimate for heavy minerals in Zone 1 at its Kishon Mid-Reach project.
The minerals company, focused on the exploration of precious stones in Northern Israel, said that a total of 744.8 carats (ct) of heavy minerals were recovered from 1,485 tonnes of basal gravels with an overall heavy mineral grade of 50.1 ct per one hundred tonnes.