Evraz announced that the entire board of directors has resigned from Russian steelmaker Evraz.
- With immediate effect, all non-executive directors have resigned.
- These include Britons Stephen Odell, Deborah Gudgeon
- This is because the UK sanctioned Evraz’s largest investors, Roman Abramovich
This comes just a few days after the FTSE 100 group that was listed in London were temporarily suspended by the UK sanctioning Roman Abramovich (oligarch with a 29% stake), who is the largest investor in the group.
Evraz stated that all 10 directors who are not executive members of the board have resigned immediately following the suspension of shares and sanctions.
Don’t take Russia back to 1917, Russian metals king Potanin warns
Caracal Gold plc (LSE: GCAT) welcomed a former Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Ambassador Hon. Dan Kazungu, EGH to its board as a Non-Executive Director. Ambassador Kazungu served as the Kenya High Commissioner to Tanzania, where he is credited for resetting Kenya-Tanzania relations to its current, elevated level and transforming business and investment relations between the two countries. His corporate experience spans over 10 years working at tech companies IBM and Lenovo, where he worked as Territory Manager for Eastern Africa. Prior to his diplomatic mission to Tanzania, he served as Cabinet Minister for Mining in the government of Kenya, where he spearheaded mining and business reforms.
ERMA is pleased to announce that it will support Mkango Resources Ltd. (AIM/TSX-V: MKA) with securing financing for the development of a rare earth separation plant to be located in Puławy, Poland. This plant will be supplied with rare earth carbonate originating from Mkango’s Songwe Hill primary deposit of rare earth elements in Malawi, Africa. The plant will also be able to process other materials supplied by third-party providers thus acting as a future European Hub for rare earth elements separation.
Trident Royalties Plc (AIM: TRR) announced that the first gold was successfully poured in late February at the Lincoln Gold Mine in California, in which Trident holds a 1.5% net smelter royalty over its production. Pre-production and commissioning activities are now largely completed at the gold project to support the restart of Stage 1 production targeting 220 tonnes per day. As a result of production commencing at Lincoln, Trident now holds a total of ten cash flowing assets.
PYX Resources Limited (LSE: PYX) announced a share placement to a US-based institutional investor, L1 Capital Global Opportunities Master Fund. The share placement consists of an initial investment of US$4.5 million followed by further two investments of US$4.5 million each by L1, subject to mutual agreement. The funding injection will allow the mineral sands producer to accelerate its previously announced plans to grow its production volume at its Mandiri deposit and start planning operations at its newly acquired Tisma deposit and for CAPEX and working capital purposes.
Karelian Diamond Resources PLC (AIM: KDR) stated that it applied for two Northern Ireland nickel prospecting licenses after receiving results from a stream sediment sampling program under its KDR-1 licence. The sampling programme was designed as part of Karelian’s diamond exploration programme, but also to investigate the possible presence of nickel-copper-platinum mineralisation.
Oracle Power plc (AIM: ORCP) has successfully completed its maiden drill programme at its wholly-owned Jundee East Gold Project in Western Australia. The objective of the drill programme was to test a previously unrecognised greenstone belt to confirm its presence and develop a better understanding of its gold resource potential. Drilling focused on five priority areas, as identified from the 2021 geochemical programme, and this marks the first time that modern drilling has been applied to the newly discovered greenstone belt at Jundee East. Assays have been received at the laboratory and results are expected in approximately six weeks. In addition, diamond drilling is due to start in the coming weeks at the Northern Zone of the gold project to improve the understanding of the geometry and extent of the highly prospective project – building on encouraging results delivered in January.
Oracle has also appointed H&P Advisory, part of the Hannam & Partners group, as financial adviser and consultant to l focus exclusively on its proposed green hydrogen project in Pakistan. H&P will prepare a valuation model to help realise the full potential of the project as it enters into the next phase of planning and development.
Greatland Gold PLC, (AIM GGP) stated that six drill rigs were operational at the Havieron copper-gold project following the Christmas shutdown. Five drill rigs are on the Western Australia-based project to test extensions to the existing mineralized system. The other rig is drilling targets outside the immediate vicinity of the Havieron deposit.
Shaun Day, Chief Executive Officer of Greatland Gold plc, commented: “The ramp-up of the 2022 growth drill programme is an exciting time for Greatland and its shareholders as it presents an opportunity to further understand the size and scale of the Havieron system.
“This growth drilling programme is already delivering pleasing results with high-grade sulphide mineralisation confirmed in the NW Pod, several hundred meters away from the South East Crescent and Eastern Breccia zones. This, along with a continuation of the high-grade mineralisation outside of the recently updated Initial Mineral Resource for the Eastern Breccia is a fantastic start to the calendar year.
Critical Metals plc (LSE: CRTM) provided an update regarding its proposed acquisition of a majority interest in the Molulu copper/cobalt project located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Work continues to advance, and the preparation of a Prospectus is at an advanced stage. The Board is cognisant of the frustrations of shareholders but remains of the view that, despite these delays, the proposed acquisition represents an excellent opportunity to acquire a controlling interest in a highly prospective copper/cobalt project, particularly with metal prices favourable.
Sovereign Metals Ltd, (ASX: SVM; AIM: SVML) is now a member in good standing of the UK’s Critical Minerals Association. This association works to improve the self-sufficiency supply chains to support the UK’s industrial strategy.
SVM’s affiliation with the CMA as part of its goal to support a sustainable, responsible and environmentally beneficial supply of natural rutiles and natural graphite.
Harvest Minerals Limited (LSE: HMI) announced that Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) has approved the registration of its organic, multi-nutrient KP Fèrtil product as a simple mineral fertilizer. This recognises KP Fèrtil as an authorized source of macro and micronutrients essential for soil health and improving production, reinforcing the quality and credibility of the product for commercialisation. This is the highest level of certification that the product needs to achieve and marks a major milestone for the company.
Furthermore, Harvest provided a trading update for KP Fèrtil from its 100% owned Arapuà Fertiliser Project in Brazil which sawan increase of over 1,000% for sales orders for 2022 to 28 February, which totalling 30,161 tonnes. Plans for increasing Arapuà’s capacity to 200,000 tonnes – from 150k – are also well advanced. 2021 was a landmark year for Harvest as it saw increased demand for its flagship organic fertilizer product and the company also became profitable.
The City of London Metal Exchange is like the Wild West
Following completion of Hole KSZDD002 to target depth of 650m (announced 28 February), Kavango Resources plc (LSE: KAV) has redesignated the B1 Conductor as the “B1 Target Area”. The B1 Target Area is located above the Great Red Spot (the “GRS”), a large-scale 5km by 8km coincident magnetic and gravity anomaly in the northern (Hukuntsi) section of the Kalahari Suture Zone (“KSZ”). The B1 Target Area has been re-modelled and contains two-conductor targets (“the Targets”), which the Company believes are prospective for nickel/copper (Ni/Cu) sulphides.
Ben Turney, Chief Executive Officer of Kavango Resources, commented: Armed with the downhole survey data we gathered from KSZDD002, we have a high degree of confidence in the configuration of the follow-up Surface TDEM and DHEM surveys over the B1 Target Area. These have been designed to refine the geometries of the two targets we have modelled.
Zinnwald Lithium Plc (AIM: ZNWD) confirmed that the production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide from Zinnwaldite concentrate is technically and economically viable at its Zinnwald Lithium Project in Germany, following the completion of a pilot-scale test work programme. The test work also confirmed the potential to produce economically significant amounts of commercially saleable co-products. The study indicated that annual lithium hydroxide production above 10,000 tons could be viable from the project’s core. This is in line with Zinnwald’s strategy of pivoting the project to focus on battery-grade lithium hydroxide as a primary product to better align with the increasingly high demand from Europe’s EV and battery sectors.
Anglo Asian Mining PLC (AIM: AZZ), the AIM-listed gold, copper and silver producer focused on Azerbaijan, asserts that the Company and its operations in Azerbaijan are unaffected by the recent international sanctions levied against the Russian state and various Russian companies and individuals.
The Company expects no material impact on its supply chain or operations due to the conflict in Ukraine, but will continue to monitor events on a regular basis.
GreenRoc Mining Plc (AIM: GROC) announced a significant maiden ore resource at its Amitsoq Graphite Project in Greenland, confirming it as one of the highest-grade graphite deposits in the world. A maiden combined Indicated and Inferred JORC Resource of 8.28 million tonnes at an average grade of 19.75% has been defined, giving a total graphite content of 1.63 million tonnes. To give this further context, deposits with compliant resources above 20% contained graphite grade are scarce, with the average global grade of graphite resources being just 8.45% according to S&P Global). To build on this success, planning for the Phase 2 drilling campaign is well underway, with strong confidence that an even more significant, high category Resource can be established. Metallurgical testing has already confirmed that the graphite at the project can be upgraded to the specification requirement for EV lithium-ion batteries.
Harvest Minerals Limited (LSE: HMI) announced that Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) has approved the registration of its organic, multi-nutrient KP Fèrtil product as a simple mineral fertilizer. This recognises KP Fèrtil as an authorized source of macro and micronutrients essential for soil health and improving production, reinforcing the quality and credibility of the product for commercialisation. This is the highest level of certification that the product needs to achieve and marks a major milestone for the company.
Furthermore, Harvest provided a trading update for KP Fèrtil from its 100% owned Arapuà Fertiliser Project in Brazil which sawan increase of over 1,000% for sales orders for 2022 to 28 February, which totalling 30,161 tonnes. Plans for increasing Arapuà’s capacity to 200,000 tonnes – from 150k – are also well advanced. 2021 was a landmark year for Harvest as it saw increased demand for its flagship organic fertilizer product and the company also became profitable.
Xtract Resources Plc (AIM: XTR) advise that independent laboratory assays have been received for drill holes BRDD-021-021 and BRDD-21-024 from the Phase 2 diamond drilling programme at the Bushranger copper-gold exploration project.
Colin Bird, Executive Chairman said: “We are pleased with the context of this update, the contents of which will assist in our overall decision making and modelling. Hole BRDD-21-021 was undoubtedly one of the most impressive drill holes we have drilled with good intervals of higher-than-average copper equivalent grade, and a good interval of higher gold than average. Hole BRDD-21-024 tends to confirm our prognosis that the orientation of mineralisation in the extreme south is trending more towards the south, which is being confirmed by the early indications of the current geophysics programme. Again, there was a good interval of gold mineralisation in this hole which is adding to our model.
On completion of the geophysics survey, and the granting of permission for the new drill pads, we will be better able to continue drilling the inferred extension of the Racecourse system to the south.”
Mkango Resources Ltd. (AIM/TSX-V: MKA) announced that it has successfully produced neodymium and praseodymium enriched rare earth carbonate from the final stages of hydrometallurgical piloting at ANSTO in Australia for the Songwe Hill Rare Earths Project in Malawi.
Piloting is an integral part of the feasibility study for Songwe, with Mkango joining the ranks of very few rare earth companies globally which have reached this stage of development. Mkango has now successfully completed flotation piloting and all six hydrometallurgy pilot campaigns, testing all aspects of the processing flow sheet.
The piloting of the hydrometallurgy processing flowsheet is a critical step towards commercialisation of the Songwe project. The feed for the hydrometallurgy pilot plant was flotation concentrate derived from the highly successful flotation pilot programme completed last year.
By @ABMckinley
