Gold miners Condor Resources (LON:CNR) and Shanta Gold (LON:SHG) generated plenty of interest this morning with Condor reporting the latest exploration results from its flagship La India project in Nicaragua and Shanta announcing a US$35 million fundraising.
Condor unveiled the results of further trenching on both the La India vein and the Central Breccia area at its La India gold project in Nicaragua and announced that a drilling rig is onsite at each location ready to start drilling after the Easter weekend.
The results reported today included an intercept of 10 metres grading 2.98 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold as well as trenches of 104.5 metres at 1.31 g/t gold and 26 metres at 2.54 g/t gold, which expand the Central Breccia wide low-grade gold mineralization at surface.
Meanwhile, Shanta said it is to raise at least US$35 million to fund its plans to bring the New Luika Gold Mine in Tanzania into production by the third quarter of this year.
Of the total US$35 million, US$25 million will be raised through a convertible loan note placing in addition to at least US$10 million will be raised via a share placing.
Fellow gold miner Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) has hired Geotech Airborne Limited to undertake an extensive aerial geophysical programme at the Rotgülden gold and precious metals project area in Austria.
The survey is expected to kick off in May this year.
“The company is very excited about the prospectivity of an 8 kilometre mineralised strike running through the Rotgülden licence,” said managing director of Noricum Greg Kuenzel.
“We are confident that this will pinpoint targets for our maiden drilling campaign at Altenberg located on the southern extension, where bonanza gold and silver results were received from work last year.
“We also hope to highlight new mineralised areas and look forward to keeping shareholders abreast of the results over the coming months.”
Elsewhere in the mining sector, Thor Mining (LON:THR) told investors that the economic prospects for its Molyhil tungsten and molybdenum project in Australia have been significantly enhanced by the results from metallurgical testwork for tungsten recovery.
Tungsten recovery is now estimated at 85 percent compared with the previous feasibility estimate of 67 percent and the January 2012 estimate of 75 percent.
The testwork has demonstrated significant added value by the addition of a flotation step to the tungsten recovery process, following gravity separation, added Thor.
“The improved recovery will make a substantial difference to the outcome of the feasibility study currently being worked on,” said executive chairman of Thor Mick Billing.
“With previous estimates showing A$900,000 in additional revenue per each one percent of tungsten recovery, the 100 percent-owned Molyhil project looks increasingly robust.”
Staying with miners, Tertiary Minerals (LON:TYM) has hired Wardell Armstrong International to carry out the technical and economic scoping study for its wholly owned Lassedalen fluorspar project in Norway.
This study will be based on the inferred resource – which is compliant with the JORC standard – of four million tonnes grading 25 percent fluorite.
The study will include a conceptual plant design, capital and operating cost estimates and financial modelling of an underground mine and associated on-site mineral processing operation aimed at production of at least 60,000 tonnes per year of acid-grade fluorspar.
“Today's news underlines the company's drive to become a major European supplier of fluorspar,” said executive chairman of Tertiary Patrick Cheetham.
In news elsewhere, Wasabi Energy (LON:WAS) said waste head to power market potential for its Kalina Cycle power generation technology in Turkey has been confirmed to be greater than 1,700 MWe and that the company has evaluated projects with potential Kalina Cycle capacity exceeding 150 MWe.
Through its wholly owned subsidiary Imparator Enerji, Wasabi has recently entered into a series of commercial arrangements, including the purchase of an option to acquire an interest in an advanced geothermal project.
“We have evaluated several high quality projects with aggregate power generation capacity exceeding 150 MWe and are currently in advanced negotiations with several large Turkish companies to co-develop large Kalina Cycle power plants in both the industrial energy efficiency and the renewable energy sectors,” said CEO of Imparator Enerji Bahay Ozcakmak.
In the meantime, intellectual property group Fusion IP (LON:FIP) reported its interim results covering the last six months of 2011.
In the report, the company highlighted the signing of its first significant license from the Sheffield agreement, which could be worth up to £1 million per annum to Fusion at peak sales following the launch in 2015/16 and the successful progression of Diurnal's lead drug, Chronocort, through its phase I(b) clinical trials.
The company ended the period with £5.2 million in the bank.
Following the sale of Simcyp for US$32 million, which generated a return of £4 million to Fusion, the company had a cash balance of £8 million.
“The key change for Fusion is that many of our early stage spinouts are gaining sufficient critical mass to demonstrate clearly the potential value of our exclusive University pipelines,” said chief executive of Fusion David Baynes.
“We remain confident that our business - the process of creating new technology companies out of some of the country's best university derived intellectual property - is an increasingly valuable model, with great future potential for our shareholders.”
In other news, Inspired Energy (LON:INSE) has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire energy procurement adviser Direct Energy Purchasing Limited (DEP) for up to £4 million. The company simultaneously announced that it has raised £1 million through an oversubscribed share placing.
In the year ended 31 March 2011, DEP achieved revenues of about £1.2 million and a pre-tax profit of £0.7 million.
“The acquisition of DEP increases the breadth of our target customer base and brings operational benefits, including increasing our supplier diversification and providing a platform for increased real time reporting,” said managing director of Inspired Janet Thornton.
Deltex Medical Group (LON:DEMG) also provided a funding update today. The company has raised £1.5 million via a placing of 6.06 million shares at a price of 26 pence per share.
According to the company, the new funding will give it “sufficient working capital to react to increased orders that are expected be achieved”.
The NHS innovation review published in December last year requires NHS organisations in England to demonstrate by March 2013 that they are implementing “oesophageal Doppler monitoring (ODM) or similar fluid management monitoring technology".
Lonrho (LON:LONR) also had news to report today. The African focused investment company reported that in the final three months of 2011, its revenues jumped 67 percent from the same period last year to £46.1 million.
In the fifteen months ending December 31, revenue from continuing operations was £188.4 million, up from £107.4 million in the 12 months to September 2010.
“Financial performance in the final quarter of the year has been very encouraging and gives confidence moving into 2012,” said executive chairman of Lonrho David Lenigas.