Wildcat (WCAT) announced that it has passed a due diligence process conducted by the South Sudanese Ministry of Petroleum (MOP). This process included the evaluation of the Company’s technical competency as well as its financial capability to complete a major multi-million/billion dollar oil production purchase. This clearance is required from the MOP before Wildcat can undertake any petroleum deal in the country including the purchase of large scale oil production. Financial backing for the potential purchase of any production in South Sudan is been provided by a number of industry investors, including The Waterford Group. WCAT said the Wildcat team has been involved in the South Sudan oil industry since oil was first discovered there. It is happy to have passed the arduous due diligence process and received a top level ranking. Wildcat has been invited by the MOP to visit them in Juba and conduct talks regarding current oil production opportunities in the country.
Comment: The assumption by bulls of WCAT is that there is no way that the company was going to be given DD clearance, if it was not subsequently going to get a large scale oil production deal. This may be the assumption that even the bears will have to acknowledge as well.
Oracle Power (ORCP), an international project developer, announced the commencement of the Environmental & Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the Renewable Power plant on its project land site in Jhimpir, in the Sindh Province of Pakistan. Oracle Energy has appointed SGS Pakistan to conduct the ESIA Study. ORCP said the commencement of the ESIA Study, in order to obtain clearance from national environmental agency and endorsement from international stakeholders, marks a very important milestone in the development pathway of its green energy project.
Comment: ORCP is getting on with the job in what is clearly a significant project in Pakistan. Getting this over the line will be quite a coup for the company, and not something which the market is currently factoring in at all.
Transense Technology (TRT) interims to December reported a 10% increase in Revenue to £1.8m but with 146% jump PBT to £0.63m. Its iTrack royalty income virtually cost-free money and its annual run increased 36% to £2.6m pa which more than covers costs. The licensed is to the mighty Bridgestone Corp of Japan and the technology is a key component of their mobility solutions business so there is confidence in its future growth. The company continue with its share buyback programme recently paying 98p and net cash still increased to £1.3m. There are two other divisions with technologies in earlier stages; Translogik and Saw both are at the foothills of commercialisation. SAW is an acronym for Surface Acoustic Wave technology for the remote sensing of pressure and temperature is gaining traction with funded projects increasing from 7 to 9 with client in aerospace, electric motors, industrial machinery, and motorsport.
Comment: At 102.5p with a Mkt Cap of £15.7m the shares have value and if the market does not want them the company does.
URA Holdings (URAH), the gemstone mining company focused on the imminent move into the production phase of the Gravelotte Emerald Mine, announced further progress for the planned restart of GEM. URAH said its team was making continued progress towards the commissioning phase of both the processing plant and the optical sorter. With a substantial ore stockpile ready for processing and the optical sorter’s components being systematically assembled, it remains on-track with the commission and restart of mining and processing operations on schedule.
Comment: URAH once again reminds us that it is sitting on a world class asset, and will be producing quicker than one can say optical sorter. The shares have already started to re-rate, and one would expect this process to accelerate in coming days and weeks.
Altona (REE), a resource exploration and development company focused on Rare Earths in Africa, is provided an operational update on its Monte Muambe Rare Earths project and on other activities. REE said that to complement Monte Muambe, it is looking to build a balanced portfolio of carefully selected critical raw materials projects across different African countries. It believes this will improve Altona’s risk profile and strengthen the Company’s value proposition for its shareholders.
Comment: Altona has already proved itself to be better than most of its peers in terms of identifying and proving up assets, but not better at getting this message across. Hopefully, 2024 will be the year when this changes.
Cobra (COBR), an exploration company focused on the Wudinna Project in South Australia, advised that sonic core drilling has been completed at the Boland rare earths prospect. COBR said preliminary geological observations are highly encouraging and indicate that the Boland ionic rare earths discovery has the right features to be a low cost, low impact source of magnet rare earths. The Boland prospect presents as a world first for palaeochannel hosted ionic REEs via in situ recovery mining. Initial indications for grade concentration are positive and geological conditions reinforce its belief that recovery by ISR will be highly successful.
Comment: COBR continues to undersell itself, not perhaps realising that a company with serious assets and potential needs to put in the effort to communicate with the market what it has under the bonnet. However, the potential of its REEs may eventually do the talking for the company and its share price.
KEFI Gold and Copper (KEFI), the gold and copper exploration and development company, announced the discovery of a third copper-gold-zinc-silver deposit in the broader Hawiah district by the Company’s Gold & Minerals Ltd joint venture. KEFI said ongoing exploration near our Hawiah copper-gold-zinc-silver deposit has now quickly yielded two additional discoveries, Al Godeyer and Abu Salal. Discovery of the latter has further strengthened its view that the Hawiah deposit itself is only the first in a cluster of deposits, as often occurs with this style of mineralisation, in a much broader district.
Comment: It is a shame that KEFI has managed to consistently portray itself as a company where the big win is always just over the rainbow. The disconnect between the RNS bluster and the company’s market cap continues to irk.
genedrive (GDR), the point of care Pharmacogenetic testing company, noted the opening of the NICE Early Value Assessment evidence generation funding call, supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). GDR said it was delighted that funding is to be made available for the real world evidence generation for the NICE EVA technologies to achieve full NICE guidance. This gives the potential for our Genedrive® MT-RNR1 ID Kit to move from a conditional recommendation to a full recommendation with NICE, and accelerate adoption of the kit in the NHS.
Comment: Perhaps quite wisely GDR has decided to lay low since the heady days of the pandemic, something which has also caused its share price to lay equally low. It will need more announcements like today’s to motivate investors to return to the fray.
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