Shanta Gold Ltd (), the East Africa-focused gold producer, developer and explorer, said it has settled all outstanding gold forward sale commitments, leaving the company unhedged. As of early 2020, the company had sold forward 40,000 ounces to January 2021 at an average price of US$1,244 per ounce. The forward sales were a condition of its senior lending facility.
. () () has announced the appointment of Bacchus Capital Advisers Limited as strategic and financial adviser, encompassing mergers and acquisitions, takeover defence, strategic and other financial advice. A London-based independent investment and merchant banking boutique, Bacchus Capital has been involved in building some of the world’s most successful mining companies from the earliest stages and have played a key role in many of the metals and mining industry’s most significant transactions in recent decades.
PLC () said it has signed Henrik Mclean, a top-ranked professional esports player, to its Fortnite team. The company said Mclean will join Nikolaj Andreas Frøslev, who was recruited to the team on November 19, 2020. The two players have a combined social media following of around 335,000 across several channels including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Twitch. Mclean has signed a one-year contract with Guild with an option to renew for an additional year. He will compete alongside Frøslev under the Guild banner in Fortnite tournaments either jointly or separately depending on fixtures and match opportunities.
() has confirmed that its 96 SARS CoV-2 Kit continues to detect all known variants of COVID-19, including the newest string in the south-east of England. The kit is designed to target both the E and N genes of SARS-CoV-2, said Genedrive. The new variant involves a mutation in the highly mutagenic S gene, which encodes spike proteins, and is not one the company relies on for detection of the virus.
Scotgold Resources Ltd () said it continues to make progress on the ground at Cononish, the newly commissioned gold mine in the Grampian hills in Scotland. First gold was poured on November 30, 2020, and since then work has focussed on commissioning of the outstanding circuits, principally the flotation and dewatering circuits, as well as operator training and punch listing minor items.
Bahamas Petroleum PLC () said it has commenced drilling of the Perseverance 1 well, with spudding having taken place on December 20, 2020. The AIM-listed firm said the well is expected to take 45-60 days to complete and is targeting P50 prospective oil resources of 0.77bn barrels with an upside of 1.44bn barrels. In a statement, BPC chief executive Simon Potter said the spudding of the well was a “momentous milestone” and that the company is now “within a couple of months of understanding the scale of potential resource uplift that might be accessed within the licences: a potential uplift that is the traditional domain of the ‘oil majors’”.
() shares moved higher on Monday after the big data technology group announced the release of its new CustomsCloud software solution. The AIM-listed firm said the cloud-based self-service solution is designed to enable importers to overcome the additional customs procedures resulting from the UK’s departure from the European Union. CustomsCloud enables Rosslyn clients to register with HMRC and to file all import declarations, either individually or in bulk, calculate the VAT and duty owed on any imports and to report this information direct to UK tax authorities for future payments.
() has acquired a medical centre in Liverpool and has also agreed to fund a new centre in Ireland. The investor in primary healthcare facilities said it has acquired a standing let investment in West Derby, Liverpool for £4.6mln and contracted with a developer to fund the development and acquisition of a purpose-built primary care centre in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, Ireland. The West Derby Medical Centre is a modern purpose-built medical centre constructed in 2016 that is leased to a substantial general practitioner (GP) practice, with a patient list of more than 13,000, and a pharmacy. The development funding for the construction of the Enniscorthy Primary Care Centre is €12.6mln.
BlueRock Diamonds PLC () has recovered two gem-quality exceptional stones from its Kareevlei mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa. The diamonds measure 14.8 carats and 8.7 carats respectively. “I am very pleased to announce the recovery of two high-value gem-quality diamonds from the Kareevlei diamond mine,” said BlueRock executive chairman Mike Houston in a statement. He also highlighted the sale of a 12.8 carat diamond, the recovery of which was announced on December 4, 2020, for US$76,000, or US$6,000 per carat.
Greencoat Renewables PLC (LON:GRP) has agreed to acquire the Cloghan and Taghart wind farms in Ireland from Statkraft for €123mln. Both farms are expected to become operational in late 2022.
Ltd (AMD) said it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with high street retail giant () to further its work in the development of a “green and sustainable” radio-frequency identification (RFID) solution for the apparel and packaging industry. The company said it has made “substantial progress” on the use of its graphene-based conductive ink technology to replace aluminium and plastic materials used in the RFID applications industry. AMD said this has opened up opportunities in the sector for applications ranging from ““green” to “flexible” solutions” in a number of key markets.
has released data showing the downloads of online shopping and package tracking apps in both the UK and the US as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced people to rely on e-commerce for their retail needs over the festive period. Data covering the 30 days to December 16 from the software-as-a-service (SaaS) group’s mobile app analytics, optimisation and market research platform, Airnow Data, showed that several shopping apps in the UK received record numbers of downloads and growth this holiday season. The leading five shopping apps in terms of number of downloads were Shop with 1.4mln, Amazon with 618,200, JD Sports with 368,100, Plus with 379,000 and SHEIN with 309,500.
HANetf, the ‘white label’ ETF specialist, has seen the value of assets held through its suite of products rise above US$1bn for the first time. The US$1bn benchmark represents a fourteen-fold increase in size since the start of 2020, said Hector McNeil, HANetf’s founder. “HANetf started the year with 5 ETFs and US$67mln assets under management and will finish the year with 12 funds and over a billion dollars in assets.
() has updated investors on its cryptocurrency treasury position and its staking activities. In an update, the Aquis-listed blockchain, open finance and crypto venture operator said as of December 21 its fully vested cryptocurrency and token treasury, excluding cash, stood at US$1.09mln and is predominantly denominated in tokens including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICX Coin and RIF Token.
() has subscribed for 142,857 shares in Ltd () at a price of A$2.10 each, for a total investment of approximately A$300,000. The investment comes as part of a wider A$18mln fundraise from Catalyst. Following completion of the raise and a parallel share purchase plan to allow directors to participate Metal Tiger will hold around 0.15% of Catalyst’s issued share capital. Catalyst is a mineral exploration company which holds interests in advanced gold projects in Victoria, Australia.
() said positive sales momentum has continued since updating the market at the start of December, although it has had to close 12 of its stores to shoppers other than click-and-collect customers following the UK government’s weekend announcement on Tier 4 restrictions. The company’s other 26 stores and its web-store remain fully operational for both the UK and European sales, with the group’s distribution centre geared up to fulfil increased demand through this channel.
() has said it is commencing legal action against the Commission, Parliament, and Council of the European Union (EU) in relation to the bloc’s decision to adopt Article 5 of the Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD). The AIM-listed plastics specialist said it has been advised by three barristers, all experts in EU law, that Article 5 of the SUPD is “confusing and illegal” and that it is claiming “substantial damages”. Symphony said the directive required EU member states to ban oxo-degradable plastic products that do not properly biodegrade and are not recyclable with ordinary plastics, however, it has not made the distinction between oxo-degradable and oxo-biodegradable plastic.
() has entered into two deed agreements with regard to Australian company VEC Resources Ltd, which is in administration. The purpose of the deeds, taken together, is the commencement of arbitration proceedings in Paris, the continuation of an existing injunction in the British Virgin Islands, and the creation of an ability for Red Rock to engage counter-parties in discussions regarding a mediated outcome, with the support of creditors. VEC acquired a 60% stake in the Adidi-Kanga Gold Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2017. But since December 31, 2018, the VEC stock has, except for two brief periods, been suspended from trading on the ASX as a result of issues connected with the acquisition.
In a separate statement, Red Rock Resources commented on the latest news from Jupiter Mines Ltd () a company in which it holds a significant stake. For the third quarter ended November 30, 2020, Jupiter generated A$42.1mln from its Tshipi mine, while the firm’s plans for a spin-off of its Australian iron ore assets continue apace. “Jupiter has already returned to pre-Covid activity levels, with sales in tons for the quarter up 32.2% year on year and up 27.6% quarter-on-quarter, despite difficult conditions during the quarter,” said Red Rock chairman Andrew Bell.
Amur Minerals Corporation () has said Paul McKay, chief financial officer of the Russia-focused firm, is to leave the company on December 31, 2020. Accordingly, Amur said it has appointed Heytesbury Corporate LLP, an independent financial consulting and corporate management firm which acts in a similar capacity for a number of AIM-quoted companies within the mining sector, to provide company secretarial and accounting services. McKay has been working with Heytesbury during a handover period.
(), the development and production company focused on Georgia, announced that David (Dato) Sandroshvili has been appointed as its independent non-executive director with immediate effect. The group noted that Sandroshvili has spent most of his career in oil and gas corporate finance advisory, but for the last six years has held senior positions in oil companies. He is currently the CFO at New Age (African Global Energy) Limited. Prior to this appointment, he was Director of Strategy, Commercial and Portfolio at . Sandroshvili started his corporate finance career at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (part of Citigroup) in London, before moving to UBS Investment Bank, where he managed the Russia/CIS oil and gas advisory business. Subsequently, he was Managing Director of the Oil and Gas Advisory at Evercore Partners. Philip Dimmock, Block Energy’s chairman commented: “We look forward to benefitting from his wealth of experience in finance, strategy development and M&A transactions. Furthermore, his understanding of the establishment and culture of Georgia will bring extra competitive advantage to the Board.”
() said that following the admission of new shares and initial consideration shares, its acquisition of US-based geospatial software firm OSPInsight International Inc and a £5.3mln fundraising announced earlier this month are now complete. The software firm said directors of the group had subscribed for a total of 698,719 shares in the fundraising, while a substantial shareholder in the company, Kestrel Partners LLP, has subscribed for around 1.67mln taking its stake in the firm to just over 25%.
PLC () the AIM-listed metals exploration and development company said Friday it has received notices to exercise warrants over 4,797,200 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each at an exercise price of 1.0p per ordinary share in the company. Subscription monies of £47,972 have been received by Power Metal in respect of these exercises.
Pure Gold Mining Inc. () () said it has granted 1,955,000 Incentive Stock Options to directors and certain employees, 975,000 Deferred Share Units (DSUs) to directors and 1,134,930 Restricted Share Units (RSUs) to certain employees pursuant to its Incentive Stock Option , DSU and RSU Plans. The Incentive Stock Options have an exercise price of $2.84 and have a range of vesting periods over three years and expire after five years. The RSU’s are payable in common shares of the company on exercise, have a range of vesting periods over three years and must be redeemed by December 31, 2023, or they expire. The DSU’s vest immediately upon grant and are payable in common shares of the company, upon the holder ceasing to be a director of the company.
Redx Pharma PLC (LON:REDX), the drug discovery and development company focused on cancer and fibrosis said it has conditionally raised £128,837 through its recent open offer, having received valid acceptances in respect of 230,066 shares from qualifying shareholders, representing approximately 5.89% of the shares offered on the basis of 1 open offer share for every 50 existing shares held. Redx announced on December 2, 2020, that it had conditionally raised £25.5mln by means of a placing of 45,603,575 new ordinary shares at 56p each, which was also the issue price for the accompanying open offer. The fundraising was conditional, amongst other things, upon the passing of certain resolutions at the group’s general meeting, held on Monday at which all the resolutions proposed were duly passed by the requisite majority.
(), a leading supplier of managed services and technology-based security solutions worldwide, announced that at its general meeting held on Monday, all resolutions were duly passed by shareholders.
(LON:CAPD_ announced that all the resolutions set out in the Notice of General Meeting were duly passed without amendment at the meeting held on Monday.
PLC (), the fully integrated, revenue generative, specialist graphite and graphene producer with operations in Madagascar and India, has said, in response to the global coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, it’s annual general meeting (AGM) will be held virtually via Zoom on December 23, 2020, at 10.00am GMT. Participants are invited to register their attendance for the AGM in advance at the following address: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkdO6hqTwuEtOe8KWeEqPMlKp9WFTATANs. Following registering attendance for the AGM, individual logins will be distributed via email to those whose attendance has been registered.
(), a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company with a focus on addressing iron deficiency with its lead product Feraccru/Accrufer (ferric maltol), said that a recording of the online company presentation, which was delivered live by Tim Watts, its chief executive officer on Wednesday, December 16, 2020, is now available to watch back on the company’s website here and on the Investor Meet Company platform at https://www.investormeetcompany.com/shield-therapeutics-plc/register-investor. The Q&A has also been published following the meeting.
Zephyr Energy PLC (), an oil and gas company focused on responsible resource development in the US Rocky Mountain region, said that following the successful spud of its State 16-2 well in the Paradox Basin, Utah, it has posted pictures of its ongoing operations on its website: www.zephyrplc.com. The gallery can also be accessed by clicking on the following link: https://www.zephyrplc.com/projects/image-gallery/
