Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) – CORP: Gold acquisition
Market Cap: £7.5m; Current Price: 0.4p
Premier acquires a 4.5% stake in Casa Mining
Premier African Minerals has acquired a 4.5% stake in Casa Mining Limited that holds 71.25% and is the operator of, the Misisi Gold Project, located in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for US$250,000. Prem has an irrevocable right to acquire an additional interest of up to 30% of Casa within 60 days from the date of this announcement at a price to be agreed.
Prem has raised £300,000 through the issue of 93,750,000 shares at 0.32p per shares to fund the investment in Casa, as well as, general working capital.
Casa owns three mining licences in the South Kivu Province in the Eastern Congo Gold Belt. The Company has established an initial near-surface inferred mineral resource estimate of 1.2moz at 1.7g/t Au at the Akyanga Deposit, which remains open at depth and along strike.
A scoping study at the project confirms the potential for an 80,000oz Au heap leach operation with a capex cost of US$87.4m and a cash operating cost of US$628/oz. The Project has a NPV8 of US$171m and IRR of 35% at a gold price of US$1,300/oz Au.
Casa has spent US$30m since 2009 and has identified a 60km long corridor prospective for gold with multiple prospects identified. Drill testing and trenching at some of these prospects has returned significant intercepts.
Casa plans to commence a 5,000m exploration programme to validate the 3moz Au target at Akyanga and issue a revised scoping study by the end of 2017.
Following the placing Prem will have 1,979,963,770 shares in issue.
NORTHLAND CAPITAL PARTNERS VIEW: A positive acquisition for Premier African Minerals with a 4.5%-interest in Casa Mining, a gold development company with an advanced feasibility stage gold project in the high-risk destination of the DRC. Importantly, Prem has the potential to increase its stake by an additional 30% interest giving it a major stake in the Casa and the ability it exert influence on the business direction, should it proceed with the acquisition of additional shares.
Botswana Diamonds (LON:BOD) – SPECULATIVE BUY*: AK22 update
Market Cap: £5.4m; Current Price: 1.6p
Drilling commences
Drilling has commenced on kimberlite pipe AK 22 on PL260, located in the Orapa region of Botswana.
A further announcement will be made in due course regarding the commencement of drilling on PL135, located in the Gope region of Botswana.
Mercom Capital (LON:MCC) – CORP: Potential investment
Market Cap: £4.6m; Current Price: 13p
From yesterday: Investment in Mobile Wireless and Satellite SAPI
Mercom Capital will invest £600,000 for a 16% interest in Mobile Wireless and Satellite SAPI – MOWISAT - a newly-established Mexican company in the financial technology and payments industry.
MOWISAT intends to be the first provider of fintech solutions for unbanked communities in Mexico which it plans to deliver as a mobile virtual network operator - MVNO. MOWISAT has executed a Letter of Intent to offer these services on an exclusive basis through a nationwide commercial and retail distribution network with over 25,000 outlets accessing approximately 40m people in rural areas and the outskirts of every major city in Mexico. MOWISAT plans to deploy its financial services offering in Q1 2017, and subsequently launch in similar rural markets elsewhere in Latin America.
The Mexican cellular market has around 109m subscribers, around 84% of which are on prepaid packages. Mobile penetration is approaching 89% with average ARPU across the market of approximately US$12. The new Mexican Telecommunications Regulation (Ley Federal de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión), which became effective in the second quarter of 2014, opened up a variety of business opportunities for MVNOs which currently have an aggregate market share of approximately 0.8%.
MOWISAT will offer services such as micro lending, debit/credit cards, payment systems, affordable remittances, e-commerce and payment platforms (e-wallet) in collaboration with one of Mexico's leading banks which currently offers online banking services and has the resources to handle over 50 million online bank accounts. In addition, the company will provide access to its platforms to other complementary fintech solutions. Founder MOWISAT shareholder Guillermo Zambrano Martinez, of Lottus Capital Partners (a private equity firm specializing in growth oriented companies) and his team have initiated a series of collaborations to further enhance and differentiate the business model of MOWISAT.
The Universidad de Guadalajara has recognized this unique offering and will be promoting MOWISAT's services to all its students who number approximately 16,000.
MOWISAT's experienced management team includes Davide Ferri as COO. Mr Ferri has been in the telecoms industry for over 16 years and for more than a decade has focused on Mexico as a founding partner of Aircrowd SA de CV, a provider of development platforms and services for MVNOs and MNOs including bulk SMS platforms currently handling over 10m messages per month. Bullet 1.
In a separate announcement, Calvet International Ltd., which holds 10.19% of Mercom, states that “it is intending to requisition a General Meeting of the Company for the purposes of proposing certain Board changes and implementing a strategy to deliver enhanced shareholder value”.
NORTHLAND CAPITAL PARTNERS VIEW: The combination of high mobile penetration in Mexico and emergence of deregulated opportunities for MVNOs means that this type of fintech project is well-timed. It is also important to note the presence of an established financial network to underpin the technology and offer scale. The proposition addresses a significant potential user population and has at the outset a number of key elements for its realisation.
Altona Energy (LON:ANR) – CORP: Petroleum Exploration Licence application
Market Cap: £3.3m; Current Price: 0.375p
PEL application submitted
On the 17/10/16 the Arckaringa UGC joint venture company submitted an application for a Petroleum Exploration Licence that covers the overlapping area covered by PEL Application 604, which was lodged by Sapex Limted a 100%-owned subsidiary of Linc Energy (now in administration).
The PEL application follows talks with the South Australian Government, which remains supportive.
NORTHLAND CAPITAL PARTNERS VIEW: Submission of the PEL application seems to be an important step forward for the Arckaringa UGC joint venture project to be advanced, though at this stage there can be no certainty of the outcome of the application.