Friday's mining news: Sable nears Nimba resource estimate

Sable Mining Africa announced good progress at its Nimba iron ore project in Guinea, while Xstrata unveiled plans to increase production.

Sable nears maiden Nimba resource estimate

Sable Mining Africa (SBLM) on Friday said it expected a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee resource from its Nimba iron ore project in Guinea in the first quarter of 2013.

Sable intends to follow this with completion of a pre-feasibility study, environmental impact assessment submission and mining licence application.

The mine remains the focus for the company, which it believes has near-term direct shipping ore potential.

Sable remains well financed, with $23.4 million (

View the Original article

Friday's oil and gas news: Max Petroleum restructures finances

Six oil and gas companies, including Max Petroleum and Victoria Oil and Gas, updated investors on Friday. Read on to see what they had to say.

Max Petroleum restructures finances

Max Petroleum (MXP) on Friday confirmed it was proceeding with the closure of its $90 million (

View the Original article

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 (

View the Original article

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 (

View the Original article

Monday's mining news: Anglo Asian signs Glencore contract

Anglo Asian Mining was buoyed by a new copper sales contract with Glencore International, while Aurum Mining announced encouraging drilling results.

Anglo Asian signs Glencore sales agreement

Shares in Anglo Asian Mining (AAZ) gained 4.5% on the news that it has signed a contract with Glencore International (GLEN) for the sale of 2,500 wet metric tonnes (WMT) and 550 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrate, when available, from its Gedabek gold/copper/silver mine in Azerbaijan.

Under the terms of the sales agreement, which is due to commence before the end of the current year, Glencore will purchase 250 WMT per month of copper concentrate product.

There is also an option for Anglo Asian to stop selling copper concentrate product to Glencore after 1,500 WMT has been sold.

Further positive results for Aurum and Ormonde

Aurum Mining (AUR) and Ormonde Mining (ORM) have reported further encouraging results from a trenching programme at their joint venture, the Cabeza de Caballo Gold Prospect in Spain.

Results received from samples collected in the latest two trenches excavated on an extensive gold-in-soil anomaly have encountered gold mineralisation over wide zones of good grade. The results came from two trenches and followed initial results that encountered similar gold mineralisation.

Trench CABTR004 encountered two main zones of veining and mineralisation of 19 metres and 30 metres width. The best interval within the two mineralised zones included four metres at 8.17 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, and one metre at 14 g/t.

If zero gold grade is assigned to the intervals that were not sampled in this zone, then this gives an average grade of 0.97 g/t over the 30 metres.

Trench CABTR006, located approximately 90 metres south of the first, returned 21 metres grading at 3.71 g/t from a similar zone of quartz-sulphide veining.

These trenches are located on a gold-in-soil anomaly, which has a strike length of 800 metres.

Shares in Ormonde gained 7.8% on Monday morning, while Aurum moved up 3%.

Stellar Diamonds ups Droujba resource

Stellar Diamonds (STEL) has increased the resource estimate at its Droujba Kimberlite Project, Guinea.

A 475-metre long section of Katcha dyke has added a further 446,500 carats to the resource, increasing the total Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource increased to 2.9 million carats.

Katcha remains open with an estimated strike length of five kilometres based on field mapping. An economic scoping study is planned for the first quarter of 2013.

Despite the upgrade, shares in the firm lost 4.5% on Monday morning.

Afferro unveils testing results

Afferro Mining (AFF) has released the results from the direct shipping ore bulk metallurgical testing conducted on material from the Nkout project in Cameroon.

Over five tonnes of potential ore material was tested from 12 representative holes across the Nkout deposit, with the fines product achieved with a 63.4% iron grade and low-deleterious materials, using simple attrition scrubbing.

Low-cost crushing was implied, due to the soft, incompetent rock with a very low bond work index of 2,600 kilowatt hours per tonne.

Saprolite and magnetite bulk metallurgical testing is expected to be delivered in January 2013.

Amur drilling doubles mineralisation length

Amur Minerals (AMC) has doubled the strike length of mineralisation at its Maly Kurumkon nickel-copper sulphide project in Russia as a result of its 2012 drilling programme.

A total of 4,149 metres of drilling in 23 holes were completed in a 1.5 kilometre-long area immediately east of Maly Kurumkon. Results confirmed the mineralisation extends eastward along strike for a total of two kilometres, doubling the previous drill-defined length within the 2007 pre-feasibility study.

Historical and 2012 drill results indicated that that mineralisation at Maly Kurumkon remains open along strike in both directions and at depth, providing the company with the potential to further increase the resource at this deposit.

Red Rock raises

View the Original article

Monday's oil and gas news: Magnolia strikes oil in Oklahoma

Magnolia Petroleum, Xtract Energy and President Energy all updated investors on Monday. Read on to see what they had to say.

Magnolia Petroleum issues Oklahoma drilling update

Magnolia Petroleum (MAGP) on Monday confirmed that hydrocarbons had been encountered in the Roger Swartz #1 vertical well in the Mississippi Lime formation, Oklahoma.

The well had been drilled to a total depth of 5,180 feet, logged and casing has been set to a depth of 5,000 feet.

Testing was underway to determine production capabilities and/or the economic feasibility of further fracturing or stimulation of these zones.

"The company's disclosure that its most recent well, intersecting Oklahoma's Mississippian Lime is a significant step forward on two counts: (i) that the company has intersected a new potential hydrocarbon source; and (ii) that this marks a departure to a more direct operatorship, both a positive for the company," commented analysts at FoxDavies.

"Ultimately, further testing will be required before the well can be deemed anything more than a technical success, but as first steps go, this is a pretty good one."

Xtract Energy slims down

Xtract Energy (XTR) has announced the disposal of its Australian and Moroccan shale assets for an overriding royalty.

The company talked of a "strategic alignment" of Xtract's interest in Julia Creek in Queensland, Australia with Global Oil Shale Group (GOS) as an investor and developer for the deposit.

Under the terms of the agreement, Xtract will assign its oil shale rights in Julia Creek to GOS in exchange for a strategic equity stake in GOS of six million shares on signing the share purchase agreement and satisfying all closing commitments. Xtract will receive a further maximum of 1.5 million shares in GOS in the event of its planned initial public offering, a long-term interest in the Julia Creek project through a 1% net smelter royalty and an initial cash payment of AU$50,000 (

View the Original article

Friday's mining news: Afferro settles tax dispute

Afferro Mining settled a Liberian tax dispute, while Jubilee Platinum announced a tailings-processing agreement in South Africa.

Afferro settles Liberian tax dispute with $10 million payment

Afferro Mining (AFF) has announced the signature of a compromise and settlement agreement with the Liberian government in relation to outstanding tax claims made by the government. The claim relates to the sale of Afferro's 38.5% minority interest in Severstal Liberia Iron Ore to Lybica, an affiliate of Severstal.

The parties have agreed that a single payment of $9.8 million (

View the Original article