We kicked off the week celebrating women around the world and their achievements for International Women’s Day on Tuesday.
This year’s theme was ‘Break the Bias,’ focusing on creating a gender-equal world, free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. Nominations for the 100 Most Influential Women in Mining also opened this week, recognising women who have made an indelible mark on the industry.
International Women's Day! Kudos to all the strong and independent women making their way in the world – at home, in business, and in general day-to-day life – you should be proud. From all of us here at St Brides! #PRagency #finance #internationwomensday pic.twitter.com/s6JXcWeWfC
— St Brides Partners (@StBridesP) March 8, 2022
Petrol prices globally have risen above £1.60 a litre on average for the first time, as Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continues to affect the energy prices worldwide. The FTSE 100 LSE market opened on a high yesterday, lifting 1.19% as oil prices continue to stay high at around $111 a barrel at the time of writing (11/3/22). Evraz, the Roman Abramovich–owned Russian steel, coal mining and vanadium company has joined the list of suspended companies and the non-executives have staged a mass walk-out after sanctions were imposed on the Russian Oligarch and Chelsea FC owner by the UK government. Lastly, the Office of National Statistics has disclosed GDP growth of 0.8% in January, recovering from a slump in December ‘21 due to Omicron. However, City analysts were today downgrading the rest of the year in the light of inflation and the war in Ukraine.
In other news, an 8-year-old little boy has donated one of his teddy bears to assist with the crisis in the Ukraine. He hopes that it can provide some comfort for another child. The spectacle that is Ernest Shackleton’s ‘Endurance Ship’ is continuing to enthral, sparking even more interest as a squat lobster, not at all local to the area, scuttled across the frame. essentially ‘photobombing’ the latest picture of the ship. Lastly, a rogue piece of rocket appears to have collided with the moon. That’s one more stop before home for Perseverance Percy the Rover on Mars.
In Client News:
Plexus Holdings PLC, (AIM: POS) released a statement earlier this week regarding the rising tensions in Europe following the tragic invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces indicating it is monitoring the situation closely. The wellhead equipment supplier has a licence agreement with its Russian licence partner, Gusar but due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine, it has decided to suspend activities with Gusar until further notice. The suspension of these activities is not expected to have a material impact on Plexus’ financial trading performance in the year ending 30 June 2022, which the Board anticipates will remain in line with market expectations.
Plexus is actively pursuing other opportunities in its main target markets outside of Russia, in particular, the UK and European Continental Shelfs, including production wellhead sales, a number of Plexus product developments utilising proprietary POS-GRIP technology and, importantly, its newly re-entered exploration rental wellhead market activities. These ongoing initiatives are expected to gain momentum in the next financial year 2022/23.
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.
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.
Prospex Energy Plc (AIM: PXEN) provided an update on the production strategy from its El Romeral power project in Spain, in which it holds a 49.9% working interest through Tarba Energía. In light of the recent energy shortfalls across Europe, the joint owners of Tarba (Prospex and Warrego Energy Limited) have temporarily agreed to operate the power plant 24 hours a day, six days a week until 15 March 2022. Due to current electricity prices, revenues from the plant have reached an all-time high and switching to almost continuous operations will further increase revenue. A reservoir modelling project to history-match and forecast gas production from El Romeral is near completion and, as soon as the results from the study demonstrate that it is possible, the management team intend to move to continuous daily gas production and generate electricity from the plant for 24 hours daily 7, which would optimise reservoir management and benefit generator efficiency. Tarba has also applied for permits to drill several infill wells in order to create the additional production capacity.
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.
Zinnwald’s CEO, Anton du Plessis, will provide a live investor presentation via the Investor Meet Company platform on 16 March at 10am GMT to discuss its plans for the future. Register here.
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.
GreenRoc’ CEO, Kirk Adams, will provide a live investor presentation via the Investor Meet Company platform on 17 March at 11.30am GMT to provide an overview of this latest news, comment on the global graphite market and outline future growth strategy.
Register here to join: https://www.investormeetcompany.com/greenroc-mining-plc/register-investor
Alba Mineral Resources (AIM: ALBA) noted the announcement by its portfolio company, GreenRoc Mining Plc, in which it holds a 54% majority interest. See above for more details!
Trident Royalties Plc (AIM: TRR) announced that 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.
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.
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.
CEO Oliver Hasler, will be hosting a conference call on Friday, 18th March 2022, during which management will give a presentation about PYX’s full year results, due to be released on 16th March.
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.
Chief Executive of Caracal Gold, Robbie McCrae, said: “We are delighted to welcome Ambassador Kazungu to the board at what is a crucial time for Caracal as we enter the next phase of our growth trajectory; aiming to double gold production to 24,000tpa at our flagship Kilimapesa Gold Mine in Kenya and expand our operations into Tanzania via our recent gold acquisitions. His wealth of experience in the region will be critical in helping us realise our ambition of becoming a major gold producer and mine developer in East Africa.”
You may have missed:
In a busy week for GreenRoc, CEO Kirk Adams sat down with presenter Jeremy Naylor from IGTV, watch here.and Vox Markets to discuss GreenRoc’s Maiden Ore Resource at the Amitsoq Graphite Project, and discuss the wider graphite market. If you’re keen to hear more about the company and it’s future growth prospects, don’t miss an online presentation to be held on 17 March at 11:30 GMT, click here to register. https://www.investormeetcompany.com/greenroc-mining-plc/register-investor.
SEED Innovations CEO Ed McDermott provided an investee company update to Katie Pilbeam from Proactive, watch here.
PYX Resources was discussed on the “Morning Miner” podcast, hosted by VSA Capital, listen here.
Simon Francis of Orion Capital spoke with Proactive Investors about its research note on Emmerson, watch here. https://bit.ly/34zd7U7
Brian McMaster, CEO of Harvest Minerals, sat down with Katie Pilbeam of Proactive Investors to discuss plans to accelerate production and increase storage capacity at its flagship fertiliser project, watch here. He also sat down with Zak Mir of Vox Markets, listen here.
Anton du Plessis will provide an investor presentation on 16 March at 10am GMT, register here.
In the news this week:
Endurance: Shackleton’s lost ship is found in Antarctic.
Climate-resilient coral species offer hope for the world’s reefs.
Winter Paralympics 2022: historic bronze for GB snowboarder Ollie Hill.
Twitter bot posts gender pay gap of companies posting to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Already completed today’s Wordle? Look at some of the spin-offs whilst waiting for tomorrow’s.
