Sirius Minerals PLC (LON:SXX) was a feature on Friday after the controversial Yorkshire fertiliser mine developer struck a new U$250mln funding deal which it expects will bridge the gap until Stage 2 project financing is needed, in the second quarter of 2019.
Specifically, Sirius has agreed to an amendment to an agreement with Hancock British Holdings Ltd, originally made in 2016.
It essentially sees the company sell a 5% share of future revenues from its Woodsmith mine for US$250mln, and, also a 4% equity stake (about 200mln shares) in Sirius Minerals will be sold to Hancock for an additional US$50mln once the Stage 2 financing commitments have been secured by Sirius.
In other news, Metminco Limited (LON:MNC) (ASX:MNC) revealed on Thursday that it expects to make an announcement regarding a proposed capital raising and acquisition by Monday 17 September.
As a result, the mining group said, trading in its shares on the Australian Securities Exchange was temporarily suspended from today, and the stock will also be suspended from trading on AIM with immediate effect as the acquisition target is neither a listed company nor an AIM company.
Joint venture moves
Elsewhere, Cradle Arc Plc (LON:CRA) announced on Monday that it had entered into a joint venture with Mukuyu Resources (Mali) Ltd for the exploration and development of Cradle Arc's 137 square kilometre Kossanto West gold project in western Mali.
Mukuyu is a wholly owned subsidiary of Indiana Resources Limited (ASX:IDA). Indiana will fund all costs up to and including the completion of a pre-feasibility study on the project.
On Friday, Cradle Arc also announced that it has renewed prospecting licenses for an area north of its Mowana copper mine in Botswana.
On Tuesday, Metal Tiger PLC (LON:MTR) revealed that it has been granted approval from the Department of Environmental Affairs in Botswana for its environmental management plan relating to drilling part of the T20 Dome Complex, which is highly prospective for copper.
Metal Tiger holds its interest in T20 in a joint venture with MOD Resources Ltd (ASX:MOD).
Diamond core drilling at T20 is likely to start in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to a four-week public review period starting 21 September 2018.
News flows from W Resources
W Resources PLC (LON:WRES) was active this week after the tungsten, copper and gold exploration and development company with assets in Spain and Portugal, announced its half-year results for the six months to 30 June 2018 on Monday.
It was a busy six months for the company, during which it completed the US$35mln debt funding package for the La Parrilla tungsten project in Spain, and was awarded a grant of €5.3mln by the Junta de Extremadura Government in Spain.
A day later, W Resources also announced that construction at its flagship La Parrilla tungsten mine in Spain is estimated to come in “on or below budget” as works continued at the project.
In a progress update, the AIM-listed miner said capital expenditure (capex) for the project including a contingency of €2.7mln was estimated to be on or below the budget of €27.1mln, with the crusher and jig & mill on schedule for completion in the fourth quarter of 2018 and concentrator completion for the first quarter of 2019.
Zinc presence confirmed
Meanwhile, near-surface drill results from Erris Resources plc’s (LON:ERIS) Abbeytown project in County Sligo, Ireland have once again confirmed the presence of high-grade zinc mineralisation.
Earlier this summer, the metals explorer hit 3 metres (m) grading 10.2% zinc-plus-lead (Zn+Pb) as well as 41.5 grams per tonne (g/t) of silver (Ag).
On Tuesday, Erris reported that recently collected channel samples returned a 4m intersect grading 18.4% Zn+Pb combined with 116.9 g/t Ag.
Bluejay Mining PLC (LON:JAY) updated investors this week on its bulk sampling programme at the Dundas project in Greenland, where the operation has now stockpiled some 10,000 tonnes of ilmenite containing material.
The company said it has excavated, screened and stockpiled the material. The run-of-mine grade is above 40% ilmenite, and, it is now awaiting delivery instructions for processing and/or testing by interested parties.
Jetty permit for Kore
Meanwhile, Kore Potash PLC (LON:KP2) has received approval to build a transhipment facility eleven miles offshore from the port at Tchiboula in the Republic of Congo.
The permit is for a jetty to transfer potash shipped to the port from its Kola project onto large ships and also covers the Dougou and Dougou extension deposits.
Kore also confirmed that it expects to receive the DFS for Kola by the end of September, after which it will review the study.
In a separate statement, Kore's results for the half-year to June showed a loss of US$4.6mln (US$691,000).
Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN) was higher on Thursday following news it has strengthened its grip on South African vanadium producer Vametco.
Through the purchase of the stake held by Sojitz Noble Alloys, Bushveld has increased its interest in Strategic Minerals Corporation (SMC) to 100%.
SMC owns 75% of Vametco, so Bushveld’s stake in the vanadium group is also now 75% compared to 59.1% previously.
However, production at Vametco has been halted recently due to industrial action by AMCU members at the mine over claims for a payment related to a legacy employee share option scheme.
Bushveld has been granted an order by South Africa’s labour court for all striking workers to return to work and all harassments and obstruction of access to the mine and plant to stop.
Lots of lithium
In other news, in brief, Savannah Resources Plc (LON:SAV) has boosted the resource base at the Grandao lithium deposit in Portugal by 64% to 16.4mln tonnes grading 1.04% Li₂O.
The broader Mina do Barroso is now confirmed as Western Europe's largest spodumene lithium mineral resource.
Rockfire Resources Plc (LON:ROCK) announced on Monday that it has commenced reverse circulation drilling at the Marengo gold-copper project in Queensland, Australia.
Meanwhile, Mkango Resources Ltd (LON:MKA)(CVE:MKA) shares rose on Tuesday as the miner announced that it has completed a major drilling programme at the Songwe Hill rare-earths project in Malawi. The drilling programme totalled 10,891 metres and comprised 91 drill holes to a maximum depth of 220 metres.
On the same day, Arc Minerals LTD (LON:ARC) revealed that it has intersected extensive copper and cobalt mineralisation in drilling at the Kalaba prospect in Zambia, part of the larger Zamsort project.
The group said all four of the reverse circulation holes drilled intersected copper and cobalt mineralisation.
Kazera Global PLC (LON:KZG) said on Tuesday that channel sampling had commenced at the Homestead location of the Namibia Tantalite Investment Mine (NTI), with a number of core samples being prepared for assay.
The AIM-listed investment group, which has an interest in the NTI through a stake in African Tantalum Limited (Aftan), said 165 core samples from Homestead would be prepared for assay by geochemistry analysis firm ALS.
Tungsten break-through
Elsewhere, Ormonde Mining plc (LON:ORM) said it has achieved a “major milestone” in the development of its Barruecopardo tungsten project in Spain.
In an update for the project, the AIM-listed mining firm said during August commissioning had commenced for the turnkey crush and screen plant, with the first trial of waste rock through the primary crusher having been carried out successfully.
On the results front, Kibo Energy PLC (LON:KIBO) on Friday reported a significantly reduced first-half operating loss and said the company has made good progress in expanding its portfolio and had solidified its position in the African energy market.
The Africa-focused energy group on Friday said that during the six months to the end of June, it had expanded its energy project footprint outside of Tanzania with the acquisition of the Mabesekwa Coal Independent Power Project in Botswana and a joint venture on the Benga Independent Power Project in Mozambique. The company added that it was confident that the Tanzanian government would support its Mbeya Coal to Power Project.
Meanwhile, Pan African Resources plc (LON:PAF) told investors on the same day that it is looking forward to the year ahead, following a period which saw a challenging operating environment.
In the company’s trading statement for the financial year, ended June 30, chief executive Cobus Loots said: “The group results for the 2018 financial year are reflective of both the incredibly challenging operational environment and the specific issues that confronted the group over the past year.
Surveys highlighted
Elsewhere, Kavango Resources Plc (LON:KAV) said it has started an airborne electromagnetic geophysical survey at its KSZ Project in southwest Botswana.
Canadian firm Geotech is carrying out the VTEM survey over the Kalahari Suture Zone. Kavango is exploring for sulphide orebodies rich in nickel/copper/platinum group metals.
And Anglo Asian Mining Plc (LON:AAZ) is to carry out an airborne geophysical survey over its Gedabek contract area in Azerbaijan as it looks to identify a pipeline of new gold and copper targets.
The survey, to be carried out by Canadian firm Geotech Limited, will cover the entire 300 square kilometre area and is expected to begin in the coming weeks.
Galileo Resources PLC (LON:GLR) shares moved higher on Thursday as the company said it would be increasing its stake in the Star Zinc project to 95%.
The AIM-listed miner said it had executed a heads-of-agreement with BMR Group to acquire the Kabwe Residual Rights in Zambia, which included the Kabwe mining license, for an aggregate of around £275,000 through a mixture of cash and Galileo shares.
And ECR Minerals PLC (LON:ECR) told investors on Friday it has restarted its exploration programme at the Bailieston project in Central Victoria, Australia.
The company noted that it has identified eight targets across its five exploration areas, and an exploration programme has been designed to test surface gold mineralisation.