Gem Diamonds Limited (LON:GEMD) was a big mining focus this week after it recovered another diamond of over 100 carats from the Letšeng mine in Lesotho.
The FTSE small cap group said the 115 carat, top white colour Type IIa diamond is the ninth stone of over 100 carats recovered in 2018.
It pointed out that this already exceeds the total number of diamonds of over 100 carats recovered in 2017.
Meanwhile, Papua Mining PLC (LON:PML) got a boost after it said epithermal quartz veining and associated gold have been discovered within the Lighthouse tenement.
Seven continuous rock-chip samples taken across strike at the surface at various intervals along the mapped 300-metre strike returned elevated gold assays including 10 metres at 1.68 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 8 metres at 1.23 g/t gold and 5 metres at 1.35 g/t gold.
Samples are now being analysed by Screen Fire Assay to determine the coarse gold fractionation, Papua said.
In other news, Alan Broome, the chairman of Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML) called 2017 “a stellar year” as the group's profit before tax ballooned to US$2.23mln.
The company, which is actively developing projects prospective for battery materials, said the profit in 2017 was directly related to the substantial turnaround the company's subsidiary, Southern Minerals Group (SMG), achieved in 2017.
Unlike the previous year's profitable performance, which was largely attributable to the US$675,000 settlement of SMG's rail claim, this year's group performance has been driven purely by operations, Strategic Minerals said.
Elsewhere, Galantas Gold Corp (LON:GAL) (CVE:GAL) chief executive Roland Phelps highlighted continuing improvements at the Omagh mine as underground development advances.
The company, in a quarterly results statement, said it expects the underground gold mine will restart producing concentrate from development ore in the early part of the third quarter.
“The anticipated start of operations at the flotation plant in coming months marks a milestone in underground operations,” Phelps said.
ECR Minerals PLC (LON:ECR) wrapped up a drill programme on the Monte Christo gold prospect in Central Victoria, Australia.
Two holes were drilled into quartz reefs that were historically mined at surface. The idea was to test the structural architecture of the prospect.
And Greatland Gold plc (LON:GGP) identified four distinct zones of gold mineralisation at its wholly-owned Black Hills licence in northern Western Australia.
The company is now planning its first exploration programme at Black Hills, which is scheduled to commence within the next few weeks.