Oil and gas juniors came under the spotlight this morning with stock exchange statements to the market from a number of companies including Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA, CVE:CAZ).
It told investors it was putting its controlling stake in the San Jacinto property up for sale. Caza says it is looking to sell the property because it has even more favourable investment opportunities elsewhere and attractive sales prices for similar properties.
Elsewhere, Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) today reported, via operator and partner Reef Resources, further progress on a number of field activities associated with the ongoing development of the Ausable Reef gas recycling and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project in Ontario, Canada.
The statement included that the North Airport well is proceeding as planned and is currently at 194 metres. Cementing of the surface casing is anticipated within the next ten days.
The firm added that the recent cold weather in Ontario has improved conditions for completing the pipeline between the existing South Airport gas well and the Ausable process facility.
Sound Oil (LON:SOU) reported that chairman Gerry Orbell yesterday bought 1 million shares in the firm - taking his stake to 0.74 per cent of the company's share capital.
In other news, Wildhorse Energy (LON:WHE, ASX:WHE) has signed a co-operation agreement with State-owned groups Mecsek-Öko and Mecsekérc ahead of a possible joint venture to re-start uranium mining at Mecsek Hills in Hungary.
Meanwhile, mining firm Goldplat (LON:GDP) has agreed a deal with Central Rand Gold (LON:CRND) to restart gold mining at the Crown East and CMR Bird Reef mines near Johannesburg.
Under the terms of the agreement, Central Rand will receive a 5 per cent net smelter royalty and the ore will be processed at Goldplat’s gold recovery operations.
Beacon Hill Resources (LON:BHR) released a quarterly activities report for the period ended December 31, in which it said it achieved key milestones.
From the Minas Moatiaze mine in Mozambique, it had completed its first seaborne export shipment of thermal coal from the Port of Beira and pre-stripping has begun of a further open pit where coking coal will be mined from 2012, it said, outlining some highlights.
Cash on hand stood at around £4 million as at December 31 this year, the company added.
The company also said its position in Tete had been reinforced following our acquisition of majority ownership in the Changara Coal project, which covers a tenement 70 times the size of Minas Moatize project.
Baobab Resources (LON:BAO), also focused on Mozambique, today gave an encouraging update on its operations at the Tenge-Ruoni areas of the Tete project.
The resource drilling programme for the Tenge deposit is now complete, and the company revealed the results from eight of the drill holes.
These included significant intercepts with lengths up to 83 metres and an average head grade of 36 per cent iron, and concentrate grades up to 59 per cent iron, 0.8 per cent vanadium and 12 per cent titanium. It had a mass recovery of 43 per cent.
In recent months, Baobab has completed a number of resource upgrades across the various deposits that make up the Tete project. The project’s resource currently stands at 324 million tonnes.
Also in mining, Brazil-focused explorer and developer Horizonte Minerals (LON:HZM, TSE:HZM) has appointed Dr Phillip Mackey as senior metallurgical advisor to further strengthen Horizonte's development team as it advances its wholly-owned flagship Araguaia nickel project south of the Carajás mining district of north central Brazil.
Elsewhere, Triple Plate Junction (LON:TPJ) said this morning that sampling work carried out by is joint venture partner Newcrest appears to confirm the potential of the Manus Island project in Papua New Guinea.