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Proactive mining highlights: Anglo American, Breedon, Diamoncorp, Metminco, SolGold and more...

Published: 05:30 23 Jul 2016 EDT

Miner holding a massive diamond

Acacia Mining PLC (LON:ACA) said increased gold sales, an improving gold price and lower operating costs helped drive up pre-tax interim profits by more than 300% to US$101.6mln.

The company also reported underlying interim profits of US$185mln, a 91% increase.

Stockbroker Shore Capital is now more confident than ever that Sirius Minerals PLC (LON:SXX) will be able to fund its world class mine without much fuss.

Analyst Yuen Low, in a note, said procuring the requisite funds should not prove overly problematic.

Metminco Limited  (LON:MNC ASX:MNC) has hinted it may go underground at its newly acquired Miraflores deposit in Colombia.

“The decision on the development option will take cognisance of community and environmental factors, as well as financial factors.

Breedon Aggregates Ltd (LON:BREE), which produces materials for the construction industry, brushed aside uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote as it reported an excellent first half operating performance and a 19% increase in pre-tax profit.

The largest independent aggregates business in the UK, which also has a Scottish division, also updated on the regulatory process of its acquisition of Hope Construction Materials, announced last November.

Anglo Pacific Group plc’s (LON:APF) share price got a lift as it reversed its estimate for royalty income from the Kestrel coal field in Australia.

Anglo‘s income comes from royalties from mining assets, one of which is the Kestrel coal mine in Australia.

W Resources (LON:WRES) is to run its La Parrilla tungsten mine in Spain at double the capacity previously indicated following an optimisation study.

Tungsten concentrate will be produced in larger quantities under the new plan.

BHP Billiton PLC (LON:BLT) looked set to add to the world's commodity mountain as it unveiled better-than-expected production.

Billiton said it topped full-year production guidance for petroleum, copper and metallurgical coal and achieved record full-year production at Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO).

Torrential rain in its part of Russia combined with lower grades to cut production at Petropavlovsk (LON:POG) in the first half of 2016.

Ounces produced amounted to 187,400, 22% below the previous year’s 240,200, and as a result production for the full year will be towards the bottom of the previous guidance of between 460,000-500,000 oz, said the company.

Ferrum Crescent Ltd (LON:FCR) is advancing its Moonlight iron ore project and in offtake discussions and talks over historic data, it said, updating on activity.

The firm also revealed the parties have agreed to extend an option on the firm's purchase of GoldQuest, which owns interests in the promising Toral and Lago lead-zinc exploration projects in Northern Spain, to the end of August.

Copper miner Weatherly International plc (LON:WTI) saw shares sink as it reported lower production its latest quarter, but said it still expects to generate 17,000 tonnes of the red metal for the year to end June 2017.

Output at the Tschudi open pit mine in Namibia were hampered by groundwater inflows, which were much higher than had been predicted by the feasibility study.

Kibo Mining PLC (LON:KIBO) is to take full 100% ownership of the Imweru and Lubando projects in Tanzania as it moves to consolidate its gold interests.

An agreement has been reached with Acacia Mining PLC (LON:ACA) that will see the FTSE 250 miner’s current interest converted into a 2% net smelter royalty.

Turkey-focused gold miner Ariana Resources plc (LON:AAU) has raised £445,000 to fund exploration drilling around its Kiziltepe mine project.

The placing, at 1.5p, was subscribed to by new and existing shareholders.

Uranium explorer Berkeley Energia Ltd (LON:BKG) received the backing of the brokers today, with both Liberum and finnCap opening their coverage of the stock with ‘buy’ ratings.

The positive backing from the brokers sent shares soaring more than 10%.

Rare Earth Minerals plc (LON:REM OTCMKTS:REMMY) told investors Ausenco Services will be lead engineer to the pre-feasibility study (PFS) at the Cinovec lithium/ tin project in the Czech Republic.

Ausenco was appointed by operator European Metals Holdings (LON:EMH ASX:EMH), in which Rare Earth holds a 16.4% stake.

Premier African Minerals Ltd (LON:PREM) expects to soon start a new exploration programme at Zulu to produce a compliant resource after the potential for massive lithium-rich mineralisation was confirmed.

Recently completed 3D modelling of the Zulu pegmatite showed a direct correlation between historic data from Rhodesian Selection Trust (RST) with surface and drilling results from Premier's recent work.

Strategic Minerals PLC (LON: SML) has finally put an end to its railroad claim associated with its Cobre tailings operation in New Mexico, USA - by accepting a settlement.

It will be paid US$675,000 in instalments of US$100,000 in August 2016, US$400,000 in January 2017 and US$175,000 in June next year.

Natural resources investment company Polo Resources Limited (LON:POL) has told investors that contractors have commenced open pit mining and underground development work at the Matilda gold project in Australia.

The mine is operated by Blackham Resources (ASX:BLK),  in which  Polo holds a 8.11% interest.

Drilling at Asiamet Resources Limited's (LON:ARS) Beruang Kanan Main (BKM) copper deposit in Indonesia continues to throw up good results, the firm told investors.

The work is part of the feasibility study and continues to hit high grade copper mineralisation in the southern part of the deposit and has confirmed good continuity of higher grades previously reported within the BK058 Zone, the company said.

Africa-focus natural resources investment group Armadale Capital PLC (LON:ACP) has appointed William Frewen as non-executive chairman.

Frewen brings to the board a wealth of experience from a number of sectors including the mining industry, and is currently non-executive chairman of FTSE-250-listed NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd.

SolGold plc (LON:SOLG) has received some good news at its Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador after a reporting error means the latest assay results for one of its drill holes were better than initially thought.

The correction to Hole 17’s results increases the high grade intersection to 150m at 1.64% copper and 2.05 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold (3.36% copper equivalent).

Sirius Minerals PLC (LON:SXX) told investors that plans for the harbour facilities for the North Yorkshire Polyhalite project  have now received government approval.

Now the project now has all major approvals, the company said.

“We are closer than ever to delivering this world-class project," said managing director Chris Fraser.

Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) has cut its full-year copper production targets for the next two years after severe weather hit its operations in Chile.

Production will be between 570,000 and 600,000 tonnes this year, down from its previous guidance of 600,000 to 630,000 tonnes.

IronRidge Resources Ltd (LON:IRR) told investors it has uncovered high grade areas of the May Queen prospect, in Australia, through the analysis of historic drilling records.

On AIM, the explorer’s shares advanced around 7% in early deals.

In a statement it said they included intersections in one hole 4 metres with 38.8 grams per tonne gold and 3 metres at 18.9 grams per tonne gold.

Xtract Resources PLC (LON:XTR) has raised £1mln to upgrade its Chepica operation in Chile, and revised the sale price of the Manica gold project in Mozambique.

A deal was agreed to sell Manica in May for US$17.5mln but it has been agreed with buyers Nexus Capital Limited and Mineral Technologies International Limited to lower that to US$15 million, the miner said in a wide-ranging update.

Kibo Mining PLC (LON:KIBO) has received expressions of interest from nearly all of the groups it contacted to handle the running of the power plant at its Mbeya thermal project in Tanzania.

The process involved Kibo writing to a number of operations and maintenance (O&M) specialists in the third party market.

Metal Tiger Plc (LON:MTR) has taken part in partner MOD Resources' (ASX:MOD) oversubscribed rights issue - a cash call, which gives the group a further AS$3mln to continue work on the ground in Botswana.

Metal  bought around 6.1mln shares at A$0.024 for A$148,000 from existing cash and now owns 4.76% of MOD shares (4.92% as at January this year).

South African miner Pan African Resources plc (LON:PAF) has reached agreement with Samancor Chrome over a tailings treatment deal for subsidiary Phoenix Platinum.

Phoenix originally had an agreement for feedstock, water and power with International Ferro Metals, which has gone into administration. Samancor, through subsidiary TC Smelters, took on the business and assets of IFM.

Mariana Resources (LON:MARL) has seen no impact as yet from the attempted coup in Turkey over the weekend.

Mariana and Turkish partner Lydia are developing the Hot Maden gold prospect, a project seen as among the most promising currently being undertaken by an Aim-listed junior.

Mineral explorer Sunrise Resources Plc (LON:SRES) has completed a review of historical exploration at its Newark gold project in Nevada, with all signs pointing towards a Carlin-type gold deposit.

Surface sampling, carried out by Freeport-McMoRan Gold Co, returned anomalous gold with high values of arsenic, antinomy, thallium and barium – all of which suggest a Carlin-style deposit.

Shanta Gold (LON:SHG) more than quadrupled the cash generated from its New Luika mine in its latest quarter.

The amounted generated from its mining operations rose to US$13.1mln from US$2,8mln in the first three months.

Natural resource development company Premier African Minerals Limited (LON:PREM) has reported that the plant upgrades at the RHA Tungsten project were now installed and operational.

The group holds a 49% interest in the Zimbabwe tungsten deposit where screens, plant modifications and electrical reticulation works have been completed.

Gold explorer Conroy Gold and Natural Resources PLC(LON:CGNR) says its Irish licences have been bolstered by the discovery of four new gold zones on its Glenish gold target.

The site is a 147 hectare, gold-in-soil anomaly 7.5km southwest of its Clay Lake-Clontibret target in Northern Ireland, where the firm is eyeing the potential of 5mln ounces of the yellow metal.

Shares in Herencia Resources PLC (LON:HER) resumed returned to Aim in morning trade on 18 July, following a period of suspension related to the late filing of its annual report and accounts.

The report and accounts have now been filed, along with a comprehensive summary of Herencia’s recent progress.

Ariana Resources plc (LON:AAU) has started its summer drilling programme at the Kiziltepe gold project in Turkey.

The company has deployed a multi-purpose rig capable of drilling either with reverse-circulation, which is more preferable for initial exploration work, or with a diamond drill-bit, which is more preferable when more detailed information about core is required.

Production at Diamondcorp Plc’s (LON:DCP) Lace mine in South Africa has been temporarily suspended on the order of the Department of Mines following an incident involving explosives in which a miner’s assistant was injured.

The Department of Mineral Resources has ordered that all miner’s assistants handling explosives should undertake refresher safety training.

Precious metals group Stratex International plc (LON:STI), which has a number of projects in Turkey, told investors the failed attempted coup over the weekend had not affected its operations.

"...all personnel are safe and well and that there has been no impact on the company's operations in the country," it reassured in a brief statement.

 

 

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