Ferrexpo PLC (LON:FXPO) has been upgraded by Barclays, which highlighted premium iron pellet pricing as a positive factor for the investment case. The upgrade is driven by new supply dynamics - in other words, potential shortages - brought on by environmental restrictions in some regions, stricter emissions controls, and winter cuts.
Analyst Kennedy Nyangoni highlighted that the changing economic environment comes at ‘an intriguing time’ amid annual pellet premium negotiations.
Barclays moved its rating to ‘overweight’ from ‘underweight’, and, more than doubled its price target to 300p from 140p. The new target suggests some 31% upside versus the present price, which was itself boosted - up 8.5% today at 227.5p.
BHP Billiton plc (LON:BLT)
BHP Billiton and its joint venture partner Vale have reached a final compensation deal with Brazilian prosecutors over a 2015 dam burst. The settlement means compensation payments to relatives of the 19 people who died in the disaster can begin, almost three years after the incident.
The hundreds of others who lost homes and other properties will also start to receive their compensation. No financial details of the deal were given.
Brazil’s worst ever environmental catastrophe happened when two dams designed to hold back mine waste from the Samarco iron pellets operation in Mariana, eastern Brazil collapsed. It left a trail of destruction for hundreds of kilometres in the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo.
Premier African Minerals PLC (LON:PREM)
Premier African Minerals will focus on an underground re-start at the RHA tungsten mine following a study from consultant Bara.
The consultant offered two scenarios – one for an underground restart at 6,000 to 7,000 tonnes per month. A combined underground and open pit mining to produce 40,000 tonnes per month was the other alternative, but Premier said it is not considering this option at present.
Re-starting the underground operation will cost US$1.06mln, said Bara, with a peak cash requirement of US$1.66mln in month four, after which the mine starts to generate cash. The analysis was based on a net 65% of a tungsten price of US$300 per mtu. The current spot price is US$275-290 per mtu.
Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML)
Strategic Minerals and its joint venture partners have sanctioned a second phase of drilling at the Redmoor tin-tungsten project in Cornwall. The joint venture partners have committed a further £121,250 each to undertake additional phase 2 drilling following further high-grade exploration results from the first phase.
The phase 2 drilling programme will kick off after completion of the phase 1 programme and will seek to extend further the Redmoor high-grade inferred resource in preparation for the pre-feasibility study (PFS) next year.
Results from the phase 2 programme are expected to be available in the first quarter of next year.
Bacanora Lithium PLC (LON:BCN)
Bacanora Lithium has revealed the findings of an external report commissioned to provide an analysis of the significant beneficial holders of the company's shares as at 11 September 2018.
The largest holder is M&G, with 10% of the shares, followed by Blackrock, with 9.8%. Then comes Hanwa with 9.2%, Cadence Minerals and Igneous with 7.4% each. The estate of Colin Orr-Ewing holds 2.3%.
Bacanora has a significant lithium project at Sonora in Mexico. The company's feasibility study has established proven mineral reserves of 1.67mln tonnes and probable mineral reserves of 2.85mln tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. The plan is to produce 35,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year.
AfriTin Mining Limited (LON:ATM)
AfriTin Mining is to buy two more tin and tantalum licences to expand its footprint in Namibia.
The company will buy all of Tantalum Investment from Jan Jonathan Serfontein for £850,000 in shares issued at 3.4p. Tantalum Investment owns the licences, one of which includes the formerly producing Brandberg West tin and tungsten mine that was in operation until the 1980's. The other licence, EPL5670, sits in the Goantagab belt in Namibia.
Anthony Viljoen, AfriTin Mining’s chief executive, said the licences were 80km or less away from its flagship Uis mine and located in what was once a prolific tin-producing region.
SolGold plc (LON:SOLG)
SolGold chief executive Nick Mather said a new mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its Alpala copper-gold asset in northern Ecuador could have a material impact on the scale of the project.
“Initial results of internal modelling updates at the Alpala Deposit suggest that an MRE update planned for release in December could deliver significant resource growth, and the conversion of a large amount of tonnage into the Indicated category,” investors were told.
“We expect the MRE update to validate a far more robust high-grade core, and an additional, (much shallower) second high-grade western lobe extension to the high-grade core.”