BP will apply the payment to the $20 billion trust it established that is available to meet individual, business and government claims, as well as the cost of the natural resource damages.
Meanwhile, small caps Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) and Kea Petroleum (LON:KEA) also generated interest.
The Falklands operating Rockhopper reported that it has entered into a further assignment agreement to secure an additional well slot using the Ocean Guardian drilling rig, while Kea told investors Methanex New Zealand will fund 50 percent of the Mauku-1 well in Kea's 100% owned petroleum exploration permit PEP 381204.
Elsewhere in the sector, Gulfsands Petroleum (LON:GPX), which has recently been told by the Syrian authorities to limit gross daily production from Block 26 to 6,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd), said today that this level will likely be maintained until the end of October at the earliest.
This means that average Block 26 gross production for the month is anticipated to be approximately 6,000 bopd.
“In the context of the inevitable short term disruption occasioned by the EU imposition of sanctions on Syrian oil exports, the Board anticipated some corresponding dislocation to the historical pattern of production and payment,” said Gulfsands.
The company, however, noted that its “strong cash position means that it is well-placed to manage the consequential short term diminution in revenue”.
Moving to the mining sector, Hambledon Mining (LON:HMB) reported the latest results from its ongoing underground drill programme to validate and expand the resources at the Sekisovskoye project in Kazakhstan.
The best results included high grade intersections of 41 metres at 7.14 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold, 9.1 metres at 4.49 g/t gold and 2 metres at 16.61 g/t gold.
To date, 57 drill holes have been completed over a total of 8,600 metres in the upper levels of the underground ore zones. The results are consistent and in many cases exceed the previous geological and mineral resource modelling.
Sector peer Rambler Metals & Mining (LON:RMM) said today it produced 1,399 ounces of gold from the mining of its satellite deposits at the Nugget Pond Crown Pillar and the Tilt Cove East Mine dump in the year to end July.
In its full year report, Rambler said it has made significant progress on all construction works including the addition of its floatation circuit at the Nugget Pond Mill and the site works at the Ming mine.
On the financial side, Rambler reduced its losses from C$2.43 million a year earlier to C$53,000 as it generated its first revenues from gold sales of C$2.1 million and additional revenues of US$1.4 million from various toll processing agreements. At 14 October, Rambler had C$4 million in the bank.
Sticking with miners, Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ) said it has produced 13,166 ounces of gold at its Gedabek gold/copper mine in Azerbaijan in the quarter to end September. The company has set a production target of 58,000-60,000 ounces of gold for the full year 2011 from heap leach operations not including SART copper, silver and gold production.
Production from SART operations increased during the quarter to 179 tonnes of copper, 45,111 ounces of silver and 29 ounces of gold.
Another gold miner Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) reported that core components of the pre-feasibility study (PFS) on the Kiziltepe Sector of its Red Rabbit Gold Project in western Turkey have been completed. The findings of the PFS have increased mine life at Red Rabbit to over 8 years, improving the fundamentals of the project.
In-pit resources were increased to 1,177,800 tonnes corresponding to 118,200 ounces of gold and 1,452,600 ounces of silver.
The company is targeting production of 150,000 tonnes of ore per year, corresponding to approximately 20,000 ounces of gold per annum during the first 5 years.
The PFS is being completed ahead of the company's feasibility study (FS) on the project, whose completion is expected before the end of 2011, while production is expected to start in late 2012.
Meanwhile, diamond miner Stellar Diamonds (LON:STEL) also reported its full year results today.
Following a US$9.9 million placing in March 2011, the company had a strong cash position of US$6.5 million at the end of June.
The placing proceeds will help Stellar establish maiden resource estimate for both Tongo and Droujba kimberlite projects as well as undertake further bulk sampling at Kono and Bouro projects.
Meanwhile, a 12,000 metre drill programme at Droujba is well under way, with 6,425 metres drilled as at 13 September 2011.
Back to gold miners, Medusa Mining (LON:MML) today reported the latest drilling results from its Co-O mine in the Philippines. The best intersections included 2.5 metres grading 72.8 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold and 2.35 metres at 10.61 g/t gold.
“The Co-O Mine drilling continues to deliver confirmation of the extent of this vein system. Following on from the new resource announced on 27 July 2011 of 1,960,000 ounces, we expect positive drill results to continue as drilling expands the vein system,” said non-executive chairman of Medusa Geoff Davis.
Drilling at Co-O continues with six drilling rigs and five underground rigs.
In other news, Pan African Resources (LON:PAF) told investors that the Phoenix Platinum Mining commissioning team together with the Metanza team, the operators of the Chrome Tailings Retreatment Plant (CTRP), have started cold commissioning of the CTRP.
Finally, Caledonia Mining (LON:CMCL) has started trading on the OTCQX International, the “premier tier” of the US Over-the-Counter (OTC) market, which it said will give it access to a larger spread of institutional investors and with improved liquidity.
In the biotech sector, Angel Biotechnology (LON:ABH) has agreed non-binding heads of terms with NPF Materia Medica Holding (MMH) to form a joint venture (JV) company 51 percent owned by MMH and 49 percent owned by Angel.
The purpose of the JV is to commission new product programmes and to manage their production in a dedicated GMP unit operated by Angel, on behalf of MMH.
Under the proposed JV, Angel will increase the size of the GMP facility at Cramlington that the company is currently re-commissioning, to customize a new dedicated area that will be allocated to the JV for manufacture of MMH products.
Elsewhere in the markets, Seeing Machines (LON:SEE) said its revenues for the year to end June jumped 60 percent to A$7.2 million compared to the previous year, while gross profits rose from A$3.2 million a year earlier to A$4.9 million.
The company’s cash reserved decreased from A$3.9 million a year earlier to A$1.65 million, mostly due to investment in its DSS business.
“During the period we have expanded our sales teams, improved our technology and further developed our service offerings,” said chairman of Seeing Machines Bill Mobbs.
“As a result, we are seeing an increasing number of opportunities and this in turn is leading to an expanding pipeline. As such, we are confident of continued revenue growth in 2012 along with an improved financial performance.”
Synchronica (LON:SYNC) today announced a corporate reorganization programme that will reduce its operating costs and better capitalise on organic sales growth via its contracted network of 93 mobile carrier and 10 device manufacturer customers. Read More
0 comments:
Post a Comment