logo-loader

Proactive news summary, including Horse Hill, Solo Oil, Tissue Regenix, Oilex, Hayward Tyler and CentralNic

Published: 01:39 29 Apr 2015 AEST

news350_553faa0822cda

Oil minnows were in the news today as companies involved in the Horse Hill project near Gatwick airport were quick to assure investors the licences currently owned were renewable.

Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) was the first this morning to provide some comfort over the tenure of the two licences around Gatwick that could be host to the UK’s biggest ever onshore find.

Solo, which has 6.5% of the so-called Horse Hill licences, PEDLs 137 and 246, confirmed the former expires in September. 

However, it pointed out there may be the option to extend the exploration licence for another year, subject to sign off by the Oil & Gas Authority, or to convert it to a 20-year production licence.

Away from Horse Hill, Sound Oil (LON:SOU) is currently working on various transformational transactions, it stated in its 2014 results. 

The firm is in advanced discussions on a strategic partnership with a major oil and gas company to fund and technically de-risk a selection of Sound Oil's assets.

However, the company was downgraded to 'neutral' from 'add' by broker Westhouse following the recent strong performance by the shares.

The share price target was lifted to 23.7p from 17.2p - a level, which, as analyst Mark Henderson pointed out, the company is now trading at.

Meanwhile, Oilex (LON:OEX) has installed production facilities at its Cambay 73 well in India and expects connection to a pipeline to take place next month. 

Initial production will be 50-60 barrels daily of gas and condensate, which will provide cashflow while the larger Cambay Project is developed. 

Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE) has chosen the Cisco Dome region for the first of six new horizontal wells on the Mancos Shale formation in Utah after analysis of previous core results. 

It hopes the first of the new wells will be under way by the end of 2015. 

Oil also affected Atlas Development & Support (LON:ADSS) as the lower oil price took the gloss of a strong underlying performance by support services specialist.

Atlas said the dip in the oil price has resulted in exploration being cut back and contracts taking longer to be awarded, but its focus is onshore in Africa where steady work is coming through.

In mining, Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) has started to stockpile ore for its RHA tungsten project and recruit staff to operate the mine in Zimbabwe.

Plant fabrication also remains on schedule for shipment from Johannesburg next month.

Elsewhere, W Resources (LON:WRES) has reworked the assay for the last hole drilled at Regua in Portugal and found it contains more tungsten than first estimated. 

Hole RGD023 has been resampled and come back at 6.30 metres at 0.47% WO3 instead of 0.38% as previously reported.

ECR Minerals (LON:ECR) said US$100,000 of its outstanding loan from YA Global has been converted into shares.

The gold mine developer said 60.96mln shares were issued at a price of 0.108p, and the conversion reduces the outstanding amount on the loan facility to US$1.37mln. A further 4.3mln shares will be issued at the same price to cover accrued interest on the facility.

Gold production at Medusa Mining's (ASX:MML) flagship Co-O mine in the Philippines was slightly lower this quarter than the previous one but much higher than the same period last year.

The firm said 23,940 ounces of the yellow metal were produced in the three months to end March this year compared to 16,200 ounces in the first three months of 2014 and compared to 26,850 ounces in the quarter to end December, 2014.

In more results-based news, revenues doubled and profits were ahead of expectations in Internet platform business CentralNic's (LON:CNIC) 2014 results.

The group, which made its name as a registry services provider (keeping a database of top level domains (TLDs) assigned by registrars - finished the year with three profitable operating divisions: registry services, registrar services and enterprise services.

Specialist engineering group Hayward Tyler(LON:HAYT) has seen an improvement in underlying gross and operating margins in the second half of its financial year.

The top line is expected to increase in line with expectations, suggesting a 10% year-on-year increase. 

Car part testing company AB Dynamics (LON:ABDP) posted a 30% increase in profit before tax, helped by operational efficiencies and the successful set-up of its Japan business.

Newly-listed investment vehicle Challenger Acquisitions (LON:CHAL) plans to raise £3mln by issuing convertible notes.

The company, focused on build stakes in giant Ferris wheel projects, told investors today it will put the funds towards acquisitions of target companies. 

There were a few companies given the go-ahead on projects as well. Tissue Regenix (LON:TRX) has been given the green light by UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)  to start the first clinical trials of a device for the reconstruction of a torn ACL.

Tissue Regenix chief executive Antony Odell said: "An ACL tear is a very common sports injury, so we are delighted at the decision by the MHRA to allow Tissue Regenix to start the first clinical trial of the OrthoPure XT.  

Meanwhile, Motive Television (LON:MTV) shares advanced as it further protected its intellectual property (IP) with a second patent covering its data technology in the US.

The patent, once registered, covers methods of improving the company's datacasting from broadcaster to set-top box to allow multiple transmissions to enhance the viewer experience.

In other news, Metminco (LON:MNC, ASX:MNC) has extending the closing date of its rights issue by a week.

The company is offering one new share for every 3.25 shares held, with the new shares being offered at five cents or 0.26p each.

And finally, fitness app maker CloudTag (LON:CTAG) will be showing off its new wearable device at the world’s top tech event next year. 

CloudTag is developing a body patch which monitors vital signs such as heart rate and breathing while people do exercise.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

10 hours, 3 minutes ago