Mining Sector North River up on oversubscribed placing and drillforequity deal

Post on: 28 Июнь, 2015 No Comment

29 January 2014 | 16:07pm

StockMarketWire.com — North River Resources’ [LON:NRRP ] shares rose following an over-subscribed placing and a drill-for-equity agreement.

North River has raised approximately £1,025,000 through a conditional placing of 170,833,333 new ordinary shares at 0.6p each. The placing was over-subscribed.

The net proceeds will be used towards completion of the definitive feasibility study on the company’s flagship Namib lead-zinc project.

Separately, the company announced a drill-for-equity agreement with the owner of the drilling and mining contractor operating at the project in Namibia.

Under the terms of this agreement, which also establishes an important local partnership for the company, Wilhelm Shali, will be paid in shares of North River rather than cash for drilling programmes.

Antofagasta Minerals’ [LON:ANTO ] copper output rose to a record 721,200 tonnes in 2013 following a strong production performance in the fourth quarter — but gold output fell.

Group copper production in Q4 was 182,900 tonnes, a 4.9% increase compared with the previous quarter as a result of strong performance across all the operations.

Group gold production was 63,300 ounces in Q4 2013, a 6.4% decrease on Q3 as a result of lower gold production at Esperanza

2013 full year gold production was 293,800 ounces compared with 299,900 ounces in 2012, reflecting lower production at Esperanza in 2013 due to lower grade, partially offset by higher throughput.

Molybdenum production at Los Pelambres was 9,000 tonnes in 2013 compared with 12,200 tonnes in 2012 due to particularly high molybdenum grades in the prior year.

Cash costs before by-product credits were in line with expectations at $1.82/lb in Q4 2013, $0.02/lb lower than the previous quarter.

Group production in 2014 is expected to be approximately 700,000 tonnes of copper, 270,000 ounces of gold and 7,500 tonnes of molybdenum.

Chief executive Diego Hernandez said: I’m pleased to announce a record year of copper production supported by strong production performance in Q4 which helped ensure that we achieved our production and cash cost guidance for the year.

2013 has been a challenging year in which we experienced an increase in costs across a number of our operations as well as weaker commodity prices. This year we remain focused on controlling our cost base whilst achieving the most from our operations.

Anglo American’s [LON:AAL ] copper production increased by 24% in the fourt quarter to the end of December to a record 214,400 tonnes.

The increase was driven by continued strong performance at Los Bronces, and higher grades at Collahuasi.

Kumba Iron Ore production increased by 25% to 11.3 Mt following the strike in Q4 2012.

Export metallurgical coal production increased by 3% to 4.7 Mt due to sustained longwall productivity improvements.

Export thermal coal production increased by 8% to 7.9 Mt. Export thermal coal production from South Africa decreased by 1% to 4.6 Mt. Cerrejón production increased by 24% to 3.3 Mt, maintaining the strong recovery following the strike in Q1 2013.

Nickel production increased by 38% to 10,200 tonnes. Higher production at Barro Alto was driven by improved operational stability of the furnaces.

Niobium production increased by 20% to 1,200 tonnes, reflecting operational improvements at the plants and higher grades.

Fertiliser production increased 2% due to increased plant availability.

Platinum equivalent refined production increased by 25% to 520,300 ounces as a result of an increase in production from Mogalakwena, and the normalisation of production at Rustenburg (Bathopele, Siphumelele and Thembelani), Amandelbult (Dishaba and Tumela) and Union mines that were impacted by the illegal industrial action in 2012.

The company says the restructuring of its platinum business has commenced with baseline production of 2.2 million — 2.4 million ounces per annum, with 250,000 annualised low margin, high cost, and unprofitable ounces no longer in production.

Diamond production increased by 13% to 9.1 million carats, primarily due to increased output from Jwaneng following the recovery after the slope failure in June 2012, together with higher grades at Orapa and Venetia.

Amur Minerals [LON:AMC ] has welcomed Russia tax changes which will have a positive impact on the proposed operation at the company’s Kun-Manie project.

The newly defined Mineral Resources Extraction Tax rate for non-ferrous metals has been reduced from the standard flat 8% per year to zero for the first two years; 1.6% for the third and fourth years; 3.2% for years five and six; 8.8% for the seventh and eighth years and 6.4% for years nine and 10. The 8% rate will apply from then on.

Amur says that at current prices, the changes mean an additional US$100m of gross revenue could be recovered.

Changes in MRET take effect from 1 January along with a reduction in Profits Tax.

Historically and in the 2007 SRK Consulting pre-feasibility study, the PT rate was 24%.

Using the newly implemented tax rates, Amur anticipates recovering a minimum of 50% of the additional revenues obtained from the reduction in the MRET.

Presently, the PT for Amur Oblast will be implemented at a maximum rate of 0% for the first five years and 10% for the next five years as enacted by the Governor of Amur Oblast on 23 December. The federal portion of the PT consisted of 2%, which has now been waived by the government.

Chief executive Robin Young said: The board is pleased to announce that the investment incentives signed into law are indeed improving the investment environment in Russia as well as the potential of the project.

These newly implemented regulations remove some of the financial risk associated with the development of a natural resource project as large as ours and should serve to encourage additional foreign investment in the region.

Amur has been supportive in the implementation of incentives such as this as we continue to work to obtain the mining rights to Kun-Manie and assess technical alternatives to optimise the planned operation.

A strong management team, consisting almost entirely of Malian nationals, is driving continuing performance improvements at Randgold Resources [LON:RRS ].

Randgold Resources said the Loulo-Gounkoto gold mining complex was delivering on all its operational objectives, on the back of higher grades and a range of efficiency enhancement projects which were improving throughput and recoveries.

It said the complex was likely to beat its revised production target for 2013 and confirmed that the guidance for 2014 would remain at 640 000 ounces.

We expect gold production to keep rising while costs should start coming down, said CEO Mark Bristow.

This trend should be accelerated by other new projects, including the paste backfill plant which, when completed, will unlock substantial mineable reserves underground and cut capital costs by reducing the required development rate, he said.

Pan African Resources [LON:PAF ] expects its EPS in South African rand to up more than 27-34% for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2013, based on an average ZAR-GBP exchange rate of 15.94.

In the year-earlier period, EPS was 11.5 cents. In sterling, the EPS is expected to be 8-15% higher on the year.

Shanta Gold [LON:SHG ], the East Africa focussed gold production and exploration company, said the maiden reserve for its Singida Gold Mining Project in central Tanzania is 0.215m oz.

Highlights included:

- Proven Insitu Ore Reserve at Singida of 1.39 million tonnes @ 5.1g/t for 230,000 ounces recovered gold

- Ore Reserve based on a gold price of US$1,300 per ounce

- Average cash cost inclusive of contingencies and royalties US$605 per ounce.

- Drilling has indicated the ore bodies extend at depth signifying the potential for underground mining operations at Singida

- Both the economic pits fall within the currently defined Measured and Indicated Resources of 5.18 million tonnes @ 3.3 g/t for 550,000 ounces.

Ariana Resources [LON:AAU ] has conditionally raised £770,000, before expenses, through a subscription for 85,555,556 ordinary shares at 0.9p per share.

The company said Lanstead Capital LP has maintained its shareholding of around 25% through the subscription of 21,111,111 ordinary shares and significant support was provided by Ariana directors, staff and individuals associated with the Company both in Turkey and internationally who contributed about 20% of the funds raised.

Ariana says the proceeds will enable the acceleration of exploration activities on the wider Kiziltepe area of the Red Rabbit gold project in western Turkey where previous results have demonstrated the potential to increase current resources.

Ariana has also entered into an equity swap agreement with Lanstead, which allows the company to retain much of the economic interest in the Lanstead subscription shares.

Ariana says the agreement will allow the company to secure much of the potential upside arising from near term news flow.

The equity swap agreement provides that the Ccompany’s economic interest will be determined and payable in 24 monthly settlement tranches as measured against a benchmark price of 1.2p per share. If the measured share price exceeds the benchmark price, for that month, the company will receive more than 100% of the monthly settlement due. There is no upper limit placed on the additional proceeds receivable by the company as part of the monthly settlements.

Should the share price be below the benchmark price, the company will receive less than 100%of the expected monthly settlement on a pro rata basis.

Of the Lanstead subscription proceeds of £190,000, the company will use £38,000 for working capital and £152,000 for investment in the equity swap under the agreement.

The company will issue 2,111,111 new ordinary shares to Lanstead in consideration for the equity swap agreement.

The mid-market price of an ordinary share at the close of business on 27 January — the latest practicable day prior to the publication of the announcement — was 1.035p.