Thursday's mining news: Amur gets licence boost

Amur Minerals was lifted by progress on a mining licence application in Russia, but a disposal warning dented African Copper shares.

Amur expects mining licence progress

Amur Minerals Corporation (AMC) has welcomed the news that the responsibility for determining the value of concentrates from its Kun-Manie project in Russia will be passed from the Ministry of Economic Development to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

There have been delays in the process, which is needed to determine how much the company will have to pay for the conversion of an exploration licence to a mining licence, and as such responsibility has been reassigned.

Amur said this should speed up the process, and the markets seemed to agree, with the stock trading up 11% on Thursday morning.

African Copper falls on disposal warning

African Copper (ACU) has released a further cautionary statement in line with those throughout the year and most recently on 3 October. Shares in the firm lost 7.7% on Thursday morning.

South African company ZCI, which is trying to realise value from its 84.9% holding in African Copper, may dispose of its entire interest in the firm.

African Copper advised shareholders that the process was ongoing and could have a material effect on the price of the company's securities.

Bellzone flagship project doubles resource

Bellzone Mining (BZM) has released a 99% increase in the resource for its flagship Kalia project in the Republic of Guinea.

The resource tonnage has increased by 99%, with a 2.8% increase in grade for its total oxide and supergene-banded iron formation resources from 413.9 to 822.6 million tonnes, at 36.8% iron content.

The total direct shipping ore resources are 87.5 million tonnes at a grade of 54.1%, which can be upgraded to a product grade ore through crushing and screening.

Bellzone intends to make its first shipment of iron ore in December, the first in Guinea since 1966, despite commissioning issues with a floating transhipment system, which pushed shipment into late December.

Rambler makes steady progress

Rambler Metals and Mining (RMM) produced a total of 4,955 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of concentrate in the three months to 31 October to reach a total of 7,450 wmt since the start of commissioning in May 2012.

Concentrate averaged 27% copper with six grams of gold per tonne and 49 grams of silver per tonne, with milling recoveries for copper and gold consistently averaging 90% and 65% respectively.

Revenues were $9.5 million (

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Thursday's oil and gas news: Petro Matad hails Mongolian opportunity

Seven oil and gas companies, including Petro Matad, Circle Oil and Sound Oil, updated investors on Thursday. Read our round-up...

Petro Matad issues Mongolia update

Petro Matad (MATD) on Thursday stressed that the three production sharing contract licences it holds in Mongolia represent "a significant frontier exploration opportunity" as it provided investors with an operational update.

In blocks IV and V, the prolific Junggar, Turpan and Erlian basins have been identified as structural and depositional analogues. In-house basin modelling has been carried out to document source rock maturation and hydrocarbon generation. This work has resulted in an additional petroleum system being postulated for blocks IV and V to complement those already established.

The prospectivity of Block XX has been re-evaluated based on reinterpretation of existing seismic data and previous exploration results. Mapping of Petro Matad seismic data in Block XX and public domain data in Block XIX showed the structural trends that comprise the Tolson Uul oil fields in Block XIX extending into the north-western part of Block XX.

Petro Matad explained that the next steps were to conduct regional and detailed seismic in 2013 to confirm these leads as drillable prospects and to identify other independent leads that it said undoubtedly exist within these large basin areas. Short-term (two year) and long-term (five year) work programmes have been established for this purpose, with the hope of drilling four to six exploration wells in 2014, with a further two or three wells in each of the following three years.

Providence Resources hails "landmark" 2012

Providence Resources (PVR) has called 2012 a "landmark year" as operations on the first well in its multi-well, multi-year drilling programme offshore Ireland were successfully completed.

The first of six wells in this programme was successfully drilled and subsequently tested in March 2012 at the Barryroe oilfield in the Celtic Sea Basin.

Plans are in place for three further wells to be drilled in 2013 at Spanish Point and Dunquin, with the potential to open up Ireland's Atlantic margin, and in the Kish Bank Basin. A further two wells are planned for 2014, in the Rathlin Basin and at Dragon in the St. George's Channel Basin.

Plexus Holdings signs Total as a consulting partner

French oil and gas operator Total (TTA) has signed up as an additional consulting partner to Plexus Holdings' (POS) joint industry project (JIP) to develop and commercialise a new and safer subsea wellhead, utilising Plexus's patented POS-GRIP technology.

The JIP is focused on developing a new subsea wellhead, HGSS, to address key technical issues and requirements highlighted by regulators following the Gulf of Mexico disaster in April 2010. All members of the JIP have been contributing to the design and engineering process and attending regular meetings, and it is Plexus's goal that they will become end users once the wellhead has been fully built, tested and commercialised. All intellectual property generated by the JIP will be owned by Plexus, and will be added to the company's extensive and unchallenged POS-GRIP patent suite.

Circle Oil agrees $12.5m working facility

Circle Oil (COP) has agreed a $12.5 million (

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