Beaufort's note from this morning: AFC delivered satisfactory performance in H1 2016. The company continued to receive grants from the EU for its involvement in three projects related to the alkaline fuel cell system and other technologies such as a fuel processing system and a novel ammonia fuel system. AFC completed Milestone 11 and achieved a gross electrical output of 204kW from the KORE fuel cell system. The completion of this milestone provided significant technical and operational data, which has enabled the team to fully assess and identify further areas where enhancements can be made to optimise the fuel cell system. Meanwhile, AFC is progressing well for developing further strategic and technical partnerships for new power projects in its target markets. The company remains fully funded owing to grants received from EU and raising through offer for subscription. We are buoyed by the company's progress at the KORE system and await future updates on it." pulled from Research Tree
"The transformational acquisition achieves Bushveld's strategy to develop a significant, vertically integrated vanadium platform and accelerates the company's path to production by several years. We note that the total consideration payable for SMC is substantially less than the construction and development costs associated with a greenfield mine and plant of the same capacity. Vametco Alloys is a high quality, low cost producer with a patented vanadium product and a global vanadium customer base. We believe vanadium prices will recover in over the medium term due to increased demand coupled with curtailment of supply from high cost producers. A rebound in vanadium prices provides strong upside potential."
Beaufort's note from this morning: "Bushveld Minerals, a diversified mineral development company with a portfolio of vanadium, iron ore, tin and coal assets in Africa, announced today that it has secured financing amounting to US$5.2m with strategic and financial partners. The proceeds will be used to complete the first phase of the acquisition of Strategic Minerals Corporation (SMC) from Evraz Group as announced on 9 May 2016. Bushveld with its partner Yellow Dragon, a private and strategic investor in African resource projects, will own 45% and 55% equity interest, respectively in Bushveld Vametco Limited (BVL), a special purpose vehicle established for the acquisition. SMC owns the producing Vametco vanadium mine in South Africa (Vametco Alloys). The total consideration of the acquisition is US$17.2m and will be executed in two tranches of US$4.7m and US$12.5m. Upon completion of Tranche 1, BVL will have an effective interest of 23% in SMC, which would increase to 78.8% on completion of Tranche 2. Bushveld will fund its portion through a placing of 98.3M new shares at a price of 1.8p per share. The funding package agreed with Yellow" From Research Tree
Equity Development note this morning: "Hindsight is a wonderful thing. 12 months ago Fastjet Tanzania was riding a ‘crest of a wave’ having out-grown the capacity of its three A319s jets, raised $75m via a placing at 100p/share and delivered higher ticket prices, load factors and utilisation rates. All told, the company’s low-cost carrier (LCC) model was going down a treat with cashstrapped African travellers, who previously had to endure poorly connected and expensive air travel. How things have changed. During H2’15 the Tanzanian economy literally fell off a cliff – negatively impacted by weaker consumer/government demand due to the presidential elections in October, a 24% fall in the currency (Shilling vs US dollar) and lower commodity/oil prices" From ResearchTree
Note out this morning form Beaufort: "80% of Sierra Rutile’s revenues are from sales of natural rutile, an essential raw material in high quality pigments, and one of few commodities with a bright outlook. In recent years excess pigment inventory has been an issue but stocks are returning to normal levels, a predictor for higher feedstock prices like rutile. We expect rutile’s price to recover from 1Q17 and to be resilient for a prolonged period due to an approaching supply deficit - expected from end-2018. Sierra Rutile is the only company with virtually pure exposure to this niche and tightening market and in 2016 it will be the largest natural rutile producer in the world." on Research tree
SP Angel's note out this morning: "Fox Marble report results for a tough year through 2015. Production of just 10,700t was down on 14,188t a year earlier. Order book value of €3.9m at 1 June 2016 for this year indicates substantial improvement in the company’s outlook though the challenge is for the company to meet its obligations... Given that quarrying and marble production is all about sales and distribution management’s performance last year could have been better. It is good to see sales picking up and the challenge for management is to meet its expanded order book and to continue to grow its sales." Scraped from Research Tree
SP Angel's note out this morning: "Kefi Minerals has announced that as a result of refining its 2015 Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) it has achieved savings of around 9% (US$13.3m) in the estimated capital cost of developing its Tulu Kapi gold project in Ethiopia... Kefi Minerals has achieved significant reductions to its capital expenditure estimates for Tulu Kapi through what appears to be a meticulous review of the engineering requirements even though it is now looking to mine the orebody some three years faster and produce more gold each year of the revised 10 year mine life." Pulled from Research Tree
SP Angel's note from this morning on Research Tree: "Metal Tiger has announce the start of resource definition drilling has started at its 30% owned Kalahari Copper / Silverjoint venture in Botswana with MOD Resources... The drilling at T3 should give the joint venture solid geological and metallurgical information on the T3 deposit. Unless the mineralisation is extremely consistent, it is unlikely that this initial programme at 100m centres will support more than an inferred resource estimate, however it should help to determine the potential of T3."
SP Angel's note out this morning on Research Tree: "Savannah Resources’ interest in lithium is topical at present and starting from solid base line work by the Finnish Government geological teams should enable them to assess the prospectivity and identify drill targets relatively rapidly. We note that although at first the Finnish work will probably not put undue strain on the company’s management and financial resources, it adds activity on a third continent to the projects in Oman and Mozambique and could ultimately be an organisational challenge to a small exploration company."
VSA's note from this morning: "Independent Oil & Gas FY 2015 results showed a total profit for the year of £5.3m (vs a loss of £12.1m in 2014) largely due to the reversal of impairment provisions. Its cash position was £23k at the end of the period. Further Funding Completed Since Year End Following the completion of the £5.5m funding from London Oil & Gas and GE Oil & Gas UK in December 2015, IOG secured an additional £10m convertible loan facility from London Oil & Gas in March 2016. The proceeds from these loans will be used to drill the appraisal well on the Skipper discovery, provide funding for G&A costs and also allow IOG to pursue an acquisition strategy to add value to IOG’s existing portfolio." It's available on Research Tree