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PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Goldplat, Coral Products, Stellar Diamonds, ReNeuron, Richland Resources

Published: 11:50 13 Sep 2011 EDT

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Today's news flow in the stock market was dominated by Cairn Energy’s (LON:CNE) disappointing well offshore Greenland, which failed to find hydrocarbons, pushing Cairn’s share price down 10 percent in afternoon trade in London. In the meantime, there was plenty going on in the small cap universe as well.

Starting with the mining sector, Proactive published an in depth report on Africa-focused gold miner Goldplat (LON:GDP), which said today its gold production reached record levels in 2011.

Goldplat, which this morning reported full year results for its 2011 financial year, said that its gold recovery plants in South Africa and Ghana increased production by 31 per cent during the period to 28,185 ounces.

Also, during the period, the firm won additional contracts with mining majors in South Africa and West Africa to acquired gold-bearing by-products for processing, helping to ensure that the firm’s capacity at its gold recovery operations is used efficiently.

Indeed, Goldplat increased production capacity at the flotation section of its South African recovery plant by 15 percent during the year.

Another small cap, diamond miner Stellar Diamonds (LON:STEL), also had positive news to report to investors today. The company said it was “extremely pleased” with the latest drilling results from the Droujba kimberlite pipe project in eastern Guinea.

Independent geological modelling by CAE Mining indicates the potential for a 15 million tonne mine to a depth of 350 metres. There are plans to drill down to 400 metres to assess the full extent of the Droujba pipe.

Interestingly, the main pipe and southern blind pipe coalesce giving increased size with depth.

Bulk sampling work is scheduled to begin in December and construction of the plant and the de-watering of the historic workings have already begun.

This bulk sampling when it occurs will be the basis for a maiden JORC compliant resource due in the first quarter of next year.

In the biotech sector, ReNeuron (LON:RENE) reported that a stroke patient has been discharged from hospital after being treated with a higher dose of its revolutionary stem cell therapy ReN001.

The company said the remainder of this dose group, known as a cohort, will be treated by the end of the year as part of the pilot investigation of stem cells in stroke, known as the PISCES study for short.

In all 12 patients will be treated with varying doses of ReN001 as part of this early stage trial being carried out in Scotland at the Institute of Neurological Sciences.

The first dose cohort of three patients was treated without any side-effects or safety issues.

The development of stem cells in order to treat diseases is significant because of their ability to both renew themselves and create new cells of other kinds of tissues.

So, while bone marrow transplants are already used to treat leukaemia, other stem cell therapies may one day be used to treat a wide range of diseases, including cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Proactive has also covered today’s note from XCAP, which took a close look at Moulded plastics goods manufacturer Coral Products’ (LON:CRU) acquisition food-packaging distribution company Interpack.

XCAP said the deal will return the company to growth as it “enhances the underlying business and adds significant revenues, profits and probably dividend”.

The investment bank said that the acquisition fulfils Coral’s objective of moving into new product areas, so reducing its reliance on media packaging – a business that is in long-term decline.

One of today’s feature stories by Proactive Investors reflected on the operational progress made this year by Richland Resources (LON:RLD), which has undergone a transformation under chief executive Bernard Olivier.

The process has been aided by a buoyant market for its wares, but has required plenty of self help as Olivier and his team have stamped down hard on costs.

It culminated in a change of name – Richland was formerly called Tanzanite One – which reflects the company’s shift in focus from being solely a miner and seller of Tanzanite to a broader based coloured stones group. And it also distances the business from the failures of previous regimes.

For the uninitiated Tanzanite is a blue-purple gemstone found in one small area of Tanzania in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.

While the company is moving into Australian sapphires and has plans to mine Tsavorite, a green emerald-like stone, its bread and butter remains Tanzanite.

It owns the Merelani mine, the largest in the area among a handful of smallholders, which puts it in the unique position of being the ‘market maker’ for Tanzanite.

The stones are cut at Merelani and packaged into parcels before being sold.

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