In the wake of another well disappointment, Sound Energy PLC (LON:SOU) revealed on Wednesday it may hoist the ‘for sale’ sign over its operations in Morocco. In a strategy update, the company told investors that the TE-10 well result, announced on Tuesday, “does not diminish Sound Energy's overall assessment of its Eastern Morocco acreage”.
Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN) has revealed an updated resource estimate for the Vametco vanadium mine, in South Africa, following successful drilling operations. The company highlighted that ore reserves have more than doubled at the mine, to 279,100 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide in magnetite, notwithstanding some 5,700 tonnes of production since the last accounting period.
Motif Bio PLC (LON:MTFB) is to explore the possibility of using its iclaprim next-generation antibiotic to treat people with a rare blindness-causing disease called toxoplasma chorioretinitis. Big Pic in February.
Australian mining giant Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) has started drilling at Greatland Gold PLC’s (LON:GGP) Havieron gold-copper project in the Paterson region of Western Australia. In a separate announcement later on Wednesday, Greatland also confirmed it plans to start exploration work at the nearby Paterson Range East licence early next month (June).
Namibian tin mine developer ArfiTin Limited (LON:ATM) has raised £3mln through a share issue at 3p. Former parent Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN) has also agreed to provide a short-term loan to boost its cash position even more.
IXICO PLC (LON:IXI) has swung to a profit in its first half as the company began to reap the benefits of a number of contract wins. For the six months ended 31 March, the neuroscience-focused data analytics group reported a pre-tax profit on ordinary activities of £106,000, up from a £514,000 loss in the prior year, while revenues jumped to £3.4mln from £2.8mln. Gross margins also rose by 610 basis points to 66.3%.
The commercial momentum at OptiBiotix Health PLC (LON:OPTI) continues to build. After a string of deals for its health products, including one earlier this week, the company said it had inked an exclusive agreement in Poland.
Live Company Group Plc (LON:LVCG) shares surged on Wednesday after it signed a licensing and merchandising agreement for its BRICKLIVE brand with Licensing Management International Limited (LMI), a marketing consultancy involved in the promotion of Game of Thrones.
MTI Wireless Edge Ltd (LON:MWE) has seen pre-tax profits more than double in its first quarter, while also recording significant growth in its order book. The antenna maker reported that for the three months ended 31 March pre-tax profits had risen to US$560,000 from US$250,000 previously, while revenues had jumped 16% year-on-year to US$9.1mln.
UK waste-to-energy group EQTEC Plc (LON:EQT) has signed a framework agreement with California-based firm Phoenix Biomass Energy to develop biomass gasification power plants in the US. The companies have already identified five projects in the US.
Recent soil sampling at Rockfire Resources PLC’s (LON:ROCK) Copper Dome project in Queensland, Australia has returned more high-grade copper and gold results. Rockfire has the option to acquire the project, although a decision one way or the other must be made by tomorrow (23 May). The firm also released its results for the year ended 31 December 2018, which showed a loss of £2.02mln (2017: £0.38mln), while it ended the period with £0.30mln of cash in the bank (2017: £1.26mln).
NQ Minerals Plc (AQSE:NQMI) told investors it has made the first bulk shipment of precious metal pyrite concentrate from the Hellyer gold mine. The shipment, which left Burnie Port in Tasmania, contained higher than forecasted grades for both gold and silver, meanwhile, the pyrite component had high sulphur and iron grades.
NetScientific PLC (LON:NSCI) chief executive Ian Postlethwaite has reiterated the group’s confidence in its remaining portfolio companies as it said it would use its cash reserves to focus on extending its lifespan.
ValiRx Plc (LON:VAL) updated on a potential second round of funding as it provided some minor and revised guidance on the first financing round. A follow-on convertible and warrant funding arrangement with the same investor is in negotiation, though definitive documentation has yet to be inked and shareholder approval needs to be sought and given, it added.
Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited (LON:CGH) said that it was informed on 21 May 2019 that Labro Investments Limited held 138,337,302 shares in the company, representing 34.40% of the issued share capital, following the purchase of 316,186 shares at an aggregate share price of 30.8p each on 17 May 2019 and 1,000,000 shares at an aggregate share price of 29.8p each on 20 May 2019. It noted that Martin Andersson , Chaarat’s executive chairman is indirectly beneficially interested in the majority of shares in Labro Investments.
Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd. (LON:RBW) said it has allotted a total of 3,927,500 new ordinary shares of no par value in satisfaction of the third drawdown of US$100,000 under the facility announced on 28 January 2019 with a fund managed by The Lind Partners LLC. It pointed out that this was the final tranche drawn down prior to the suspension of the facility as announced on 7 May 2019.
Savannah Resources PLC (LON:SAV), the resource development company, confirmed that a new corporate presentation can be viewed on its website.
UK waste-to-energy group EQTEC Plc (LON:EQT) has signed a framework agreement with California-based firm Phoenix Biomass Energy to develop biomass gasification power plants in the US. The companies have already identified five projects in the US.
RiverFort Global Opportunities PLC (LON:RGO) revealed on 5 February 2019 that it had made around a £1.2mln investment in Jubilee Metals Group PLC (LON:JLP), which represents the company’s largest investment to date. The investment was principally part of the secured non-convertible financing facility arranged by Jubilee in connection with its acquisition of certain chrome processing operations announced on 10 December 2018.
Katoro Gold PLC (LON:KAT) said it is reviewing prospective new projects as part of its strategy to diversify the portfolio to increase its expose to new commodities and locations. The Tanzanian-focused explorer made the announcement as it published its 2018 results, which showed it narrowed its loss to £492,275 from £1.9mln last year and ended the year with “adequate financial resources” to continue operations for the “foreseeable future”.