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Date: 01/09/2023
Ironveld has announced certain amendments to the funding and operational structure of the DMS Magnetite operation currently being established at the Group’s mining area. JSE-listed Sable Exploration and Mining Limited (‘SEAM’, JSE: SXM), via a subsidiary company Sable Platinum Holdings (Pty) Limited (‘SPH’), will now enter the joint venture (‘JV’) that was originally formed equally between Ironveld Mining (Pty) Limited (‘Ironveld Mining’) and Pace SA (Pty) Limited (‘Pace’) on 27 January 2023, as its new funding partner. SPH will advance all necessary funding of approximately ZAR 15 million (approximately £650,000) for establishment of an initial quick-start 10,000tpm capacity plant, with the option to fund future expansions in capacity depending on the project’s success. Once SPH’s capital has been repaid, ownership of the joint venture will then become IPace Pty Limited (‘IPace’): 50% and SPH: 50%.
Date: 24/08/2023
ValiRx has released its half year report to end-June 2023, along with an update covering significant post period events. Highlights from a busy year to date included not only the launch of the Group’s wholly owned subsidiary, Inaphaea BioLabs, which recorded its first external sales just two months later, along with the acquisition of Imagen Therapeutics’ scientific assets plus the signing of collaboration agreements with Physiomics, OncoBone and Agility Life Sciences, whose complementary capabilities build-out its tCRO® concept. The inclusion of such one-off operational and investment activities kept first half cash burn at a relatively high level, taking the period-end cash position to c.£0.89m, since when the Board has been managing its resources in the most efficient manner with a view to reducing monthly outgoings while maintaining momentum over the remainder of 2023 with additional balance received post period in the form of R&D tax credits.
Date: 23/08/2023
The Group’s GraftBio® division has signed a manufacturing services agreement (the ‘Agreement’) with a prominent partner (‘the Partner’) in the Israeli pharmaceutical market. The unnamed customer has an innovative product whose manufacturing requires deep-seated understanding of and experience with polymers. Following a recent, successful, pilot scheme, Graft Polymer has been contracted by the Partner to produce its patented haemostatic powder at its now fully operational production facility in Slovenia, under which it will assume the role of lead contract manufacturing organisation (‘CMO’). This represents an important step in the expansion of the Group’s overall bio-product proposition. Having achieved its first operating cashflow positive month during 2022, on the back of GraftBio®’s receipt of a commercial-scale drug delivery order from MGC Pharmaceuticals Limited (LSE: MXC), the Group’s ability to find technical solutions, for what have previously been considered intractable problems, through innovation and collaboration is clearly its unique selling point.
Date: 31/07/2023
Plugging a near-term funding gap, Aptamer Group has announced its successful raising (the ‘Fundraise’) of £3.6m (gross) through an equity placing (the ‘Placing’) priced at 1.0p/share. TPI acted as Broker in relation to this Fundraise and has been appointed as Corporate Broker.
Targeting cash neutrality within two years. Today’s Fundraise follows the Board’s 5 May 2023 warning that full year revenues were expected to fall materially below FY2021/22. Although this shortfall was in part down to slippage of anticipated contractual work into the current financial year, the Group belatedly recognised that its cost base had become inflated in expectation of further contracts and projects which did not materialise.
Date: 26/07/2023
Consistent with the message provided to shareholders in June’s interim results statement Actual Experience, in conjunction with a large US channel partner, confirmed on Monday the securing of a second order for its Digital Workplace Management Platform (‘DWMP’) within 9 months of its commercial launch. The customer, an unnamed major global healthcare enterprise, selected ACT’s newly offered DWMP Light option, through which it entered a shorter-term engagement as a means of baselining its current digital ecosystem ahead of a major transformation programme. The contract value amounts to £135k in revenue for a 6-month project although, in expectation of delivering a positive digital experience, management anticipate discussions during this period will subsequently result in the phased international deployment of its complete system.
Date: 19/07/2023
ValiRx’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Inaphaea BioLabs Limited (‘Inaphaea’, ‘the Company’) has signed its first Master Services Agreement and Project Statement of Work (‘the Project’) with a UK-based biotech company. Representing a landmark event for the Company, which only completed the fitting-out and staffing of its new laboratory in MediCity (Nottingham) a month ago, this suggests Inaphaea may have identified an underserved market opportunity for provision of independent cell-based experiments and services for customers which, in turn, should also facilitate a reduction in external testing costs for the Group’s in-house studies, including VAL301 and Cytolytix CLX001.
Date: 12/07/2023
Subject to shareholder approval, IIG has yesterday proposed cancellation of trading on AIM and admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s (‘LSE’) Specialist Fund Segment (‘SFS’). Taking place in conjunction with the conditional appointment of a new keynote Non-Executive Chairman, namely Sir Nigel Rudd, the Board is also proposing a series of transformative measures (‘the Proposals’) including the adoption of a new investment policy, the granting of general authority to allot Ordinary Shares and disapplication of statutory pre-emption rights. As part of this corporate action, IIG intends to provide Qualifying Shareholders with the ability to realise some or all of their shareholding in the Company through a proposed Tender Offer under which up to c.12.9 million would be purchased by Placees procured by Turner Pope at a price of 5.25 pence per Ordinary Share.
Date: 10/07/2023
Zephyr has released an update covering various operations at its flagship Paradox Project in the Paradox Basin, Utah (the ‘Paradox project’). Significantly, this confirms satisfactory progress continues to be made with respect to the State 36-2 LNW-CC well, with continuing expectation that it will deliver a production test in the near-term. The Board also notes that payment of initial invoices submitted to the Group’s insurer with respect to last April’s well control incident, amounting to c.US$0.8m have been received, with additional claims now being submitted on a regular basis. A further positive is that Zephyr’s recent application for a portion of the additional leased acreage it acquired on 25 August 2022 to be included within a larger Expansion/Contraction amendment of the White Sands Unit (the ‘WSU’) has now been granted, resulting in an amended federal unit with an upgraded and manageable land position.
Date: 05/07/2023
Orosur has released an update on the progress of exploration activities at its Ariquemes Tin Project (‘Ariquemes’ or the ‘Project’) in Brazil. Following completion of a regional stream sediment program across the entire licence area, which successfully mapped large zones of tin and niobium anomalism, the Company has now decided to move to the next phase of exploration. Targeting two prospects for small works programs, several key geological questions will be addressed which, if successful, could mark a major milestone in identifying areas of economic mineralisation. At a time of encouraging tin and niobium prices, this may provide Orosur with valuable optionality. In the meantime, the Company’s El Pantano Project in Argentina continues to be progressed while negotiations regarding the next stage for its Anzá Project in Colombia remain ongoing.
Date: 04/07/2023
Completion and commissioning of Graft Polymer’s new, bespoke production equipment in Slovenia is expected around end-July 2023. This will result in a doubling of the Group’s production capacity. Supported by the granting of seven key polymer modification patents and the securing of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (‘HACCP’) certification to enable commercialisation of its IP for bio/pharma applications, this will expand the Group’s opportunity to deliver new product ranges along with improved response times across both its divisions. Having achieved its first operating cashflow positive month during 2022, on the back of GraftBio®’s receipt of a commercial scale drug delivery order from MGC Pharmaceuticals Limited (LSE: MXC), the Group’s ability to find technical solutions, for what have previously been considered intractable problems, through innovation and collaboration is clearly its unique selling point.
Date: 26/06/2023
Inaphaea BioLabs Limited (‘Inaphaea’), ValiRx’s recently incorporated and wholly-owned subsidiary, has completed the fitting-out and staffing of a new laboratory in MediCity (Nottingham) to conduct cell-based experiments. Leveraging its team’s extensive drug development expertise in support of both in-house developments and external client projects, this facility is destined to become a centre of excellence through which the Group intends to optimise translation of early drug discovery projects towards the clinic. Focusing initially on women’s health and oncology, ValiRx’s concept of a Translational Contract Research Organisation (‘tCRO®’), which employs the power of advanced data generation, bio-analytics and interpretation, thereby integrating a range of currently fragmented niche service offerings/specialisations, is now in an advanced stage of creation.
Date: 20/06/2023
Nanoco has announced the posting of a Circular setting out details of a Proposed Capital Reduction to create distributable reserves in order to facilitate future returns to Shareholders. This Circular will also contain the Notice of General Meeting to be held on 7 July 2023. This action is in accordance with the Board’s declared intention to deliver a “material return of capital to shareholders” following February’s transformative securing of final definitive agreements (collectively the ‘Settlement’) with Samsung amounting to US$150m (c.£124.3m) in settlement of ongoing litigation. Utilising the second tranche of the proceeds it is expecting to receive in February 2024, the Board intends to initiate a return of between £33 million and £40 million (or approximately 10 pence to 12 pence per share), although no final decision has yet been taken as to the precise method of this distribution.
Date: 06/06/2023
Zephyr confirms it has raised £3.15m (gross) through an equity placing priced at 3.5p/share that was supported by existing institutional and other investors, resulting in roughly 5% dilution for current shareholders. Utilising existing share authorities, in the near-term this new funding is designed to bridge a gap resulting from both unexpected delays in building-out surface facilities at its recently acquired, Slawson Exploration-operated Williston Basin interests (‘the Slawson acquisition’), plus working capital required to complete the State 36-2 LNW-CC production test following April’s well control incident. In the longer term, the funding will be utilised to accelerate the Paradox infrastructure build-out. It will enable Paradox project development to remain on schedule as the comprehensive insurance reimbursement process gets underway, and while also waiting for initial production from the Slawson well (which has now slipped to October 2023, some three-six months behind the original schedule).
Date: 01/06/2023
Clear operational progress was demonstrated with the Group’s H1 FY2022/23 results. Post-COVID tailwinds are sustaining strong customer momentum across both Energy Services (‘ES’) and Energy Management (‘EM’), with pipeline providing high forward visibility that is feeding-in through operational gearing. Having completed an intensive phase of acquisition integration during which gross margins were upheld despite inflationary pressures, overall working capital is now being stabilised. This leaves the Board confidently targeting normalised cash conversion of EBITDA before the financial year end in tandem with completion of scheduled pay-down of legacy liabilities. The outcome of this will be for the Group to become cash positive for the whole of H2 FY2022/23, following which TPI anticipates delivery of further substantial improvements in FY2023/24 and beyond.
Date: 16/05/2023
Zephyr has released Q1 2023 results from its Williston Basin portfolio, along with an update from State 36-2 LNW-CC following the well control incident announced on 11 April 2023. Hydrocarbon production from the Group’s non-operated asset portfolio performed exactly in line with expectations as more wells entered their initial decline phase which (combined with lower commodity prices) resulted in a modest reduction in operating income compared with Q4 2022. This is projected to be more than compensated by the Slawson Exploration (‘Slawson’) operated wellbore interests coming online, although delays related to completion of surface facilities on their well pad means this is now forecast to occur in October 2023, roughly three months behind their original schedule.
Date: 12/05/2023
Ironveld has released a positive operational update. Noting its buyers’ preference to receive high purity iron (‘HPI’) in the form of a granulated final product, which commands a materially higher selling price than standard cast output, the Group has undertaken an assessment of the existing Granulator plant at its Rustenburg smelter. As a result, an amended work programme designed to bring the damaged unit back into production is already underway, with the expectation that the smelter will now operate just two furnaces until July, by when the third is also expected to be brought on stream. No material delay to management’s existing plan to reach full production capacity by Q3 2023 is foreseen despite the improved economics envisaged.
Date: 04/05/2023
Minera Monte Águila (‘MMA’) has updated Orosur with respect of its position in relation to the Anzá Project (‘the Project’), confirming that it is reviewing its options in relation to the Project and that it has reduced exploration expenditures, effectively placing it in ‘care and maintenance.’ This comes shortly after MMA’s equity participation of 51% in the three-phase joint venture (‘the JV’) had been secured following Orosur’s receipt of a US$2m stage payment. While leaving all options open at this time, MMA’s decision appears to be related principally to complexities surrounding the recent merger activity of both Newmont Corporation and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, as well as a more difficult political background in Colombia.
Date: 26/04/2023
This week and last, N4 Pharma released positive siRNA updates. Having successfully undertaken single loading of both the EGFR and BCL-2 siRNA nucleotides onto Nuvec® which produced good monodisperse formulations, single loaded EGFR siRNA demonstrated strong silencing of the EGFR gene with a dose response curve established. Overcoming some temporary siRNA supply issues, the Group has subsequently also completed work on establishing assays to measure how Nuvec® loaded with BCL-2 siRNA can silence expression of the BCL-2 protein. Significantly in this respect, in vitro studies indicate inhibition profile similar to two commercial therapies, namely Gefitinib (for EGFR) and Venetoclax (for BCL-2).
Date: 17/04/2023
Having undertaken a comprehensive review of all of the Group’s major work contracts and strictly applied the relevant accounting standard IFRS 15 (‘Revenue Recognition from Contracts with Customers’), DeepVerge’s new management team now expects full year 2022 revenues to be c.45% to 50% of the £17.2m revenue figure provided by the previous executive management team. It is important to note, however, that the vast majority of this revenue shortfall has not been lost but is now expected to be recognised in 2023, although the Board considers some is unlikely to be realised at all. Whilst further analysis continues, this carry-over adds substantially to Modern Water and Glanaco’s current order book that now exceeds £10m, all of which is expected to be deliverable (and recognised as turnover) in 2023 and 2024.
Date: 14/04/2023
Zephyr yesterday provided an operational update for its State 36-2 LNW-CC well (the ‘State 36-2 well or ‘the Well’) at the Group’s flagship project in the Paradox Basin, Utah. Following completion of workover operations on 7 April 2023, apparent failure of a Full Opening Safety (or ‘TIW’) Valve at surface led to a significant well control incident. Despite multiple attempts by the rig crew to secure the Well, hydrocarbons were released from the wellbore in an uncontrolled manner. Importantly, all personnel were safely evacuated without injury and relevant authorities were notified, as a result of which a specialist well control team (recommended by the Group’s insurers) was deployed. On Monday the Well was successfully brought back under control, following which well pad remediation steps immediately commenced.
Date: 03/04/2023
Ironveld has announced its signing of a Letter of Intent (‘LOI’) with BurnStar Technologies (Pty) Limited (‘BurnStar’), to proceed towards a binding Legal Agreement under which BurnStar will implement its patent-pending ‘Guilt-Free Hydrogen’™ technology to process Liquefied Natural Gas (‘LNG’) on site at Ironveld’s Rustenburg smelter. As part of the Agreement with the Group’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Ironveld Energy (Pty) Limited (‘Ironveld Energy’), BurnStar will produce hydrogen as a furnace reductant gas to significantly reduce Ironveld’s carbon consumption and potentially take the lead in producing premium priced ‘green metals’ in South Africa.
Date: 30/03/2023
Ironveld has released its Interim Results for the six months ended 31 December 2022 (the ‘Period’). Producing a financial performance very much in line with expectations, this transformative period for the Group saw the acquisition followed by commencement of refurbishment of a smelter facility at Rustenburg (‘the smelter’) from August 2022. First mining activities at Limpopo on its Bushveld complex deposit/mining right also commenced prior to Period end, with a view to ensuring consistent supply of magnetite ore to the smelter. Having completed work on the first of three furnaces in January, first production from the smelter was seen shortly after, with ramp up to full capacity now expected by mid-2023.
Date: 28/03/2023
Nanoco has released its unaudited Interim Results for the half year ended 31 January 2023 (‘the Period’ or ‘H1 FY2022/23’). While H1 FY2022/23 numbers were very much in line with expectations, February’s transformative securing of final definitive agreements (collectively the ‘Settlement’) with Samsung amounting to US$150m (c.£124.3m) in settlement of ongoing litigation, now places the Group on a firm footing from which to exploit significant growth opportunities presented through its organic business. Continuing to make strong progress in terms of customer delivery and scaling, the Board anticipates receipt of potential ‘milestone’ commercial production orders by the end of CY2023.
Date: 21/03/2023
Consistent with the message provided to shareholders in January’s preliminary results statement, Actual Experience has today confirmed in conjunction with its partner Vodafone UK (‘Vodafone’), the securing of a first contract for its newly launched Digital Workplace Management Platform (‘DWMP’). Representing an important milestone for the Group, this two-year contract has been awarded by a UK central government department (the ‘Department’) following an extensive procurement process. Importantly, the Board has also confirmed its expectation that further sales orders will be announced in the coming months. Altogether this strongly reflects the fact that large public and private institutions now recognise the longer-term need for a system that can positively respond to the new, mostly hybrid, ways of working in the post-pandemic world.
Date: 08/03/2023
Zephyr has provided an operational update on both the State 36-2 LNW-CC well (the ‘State 36-2 well’) and the State 16-2 LN-CC well (the ‘State 16-2 well’) at the Group’s flagship project in the Paradox Basin, Utah (the ‘Paradox project’). While confirming that production testing for the State 36-2 well’s fractured reservoir interval will commence shortly, and that it is expected to take significantly less time than a similar exercise took for State 16-2, management now also notes that following relaxation of constraints to enable testing of the upper bounds of production rates for State 16-2, flow was found to be impacted by down hole salt precipitation. Accordingly, the Group is now assessing whether this issue is a function of continued flow back of injected completion fluids or a function of normal flowing conditions.
Date: 02/03/2023
As part of its move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 Orosur’s joint venture partner, Minera Monte Águila (‘MMA’), has now paid its US$2m option payment obligation. Not only does this move significantly support confidence with respect to the Anzá Project’s (‘Anzá’ or ‘the Project’) future development and prospective commercialisation, but also strengthens the Company’s balance sheet which now holds over US$4m in cash. Following completion of drilling, exploration work was wound back in order to complete the complex corporate restructuring of their joint venture agreement (the ‘JVA’), while also advancing a variety of licence processes, including integration of smaller licences and conversion of applications to granted status.
Date: 23/02/2023
Ironveld has conditionally completed a £2.0m (gross) equity fundraising (the ‘Placing’), comprising, in aggregate, 666.67m new ordinary shares at a price of 0.3p/share (‘the Placing price’). Of this, 280m new shares will be issued under existing authorities with the balance subject to a General Meeting that will be convened in due course. Those participating in the Placing will also be issued with warrants on the basis of 1 for every 2 Placing shares allocated exercisable at 0.5p for a period of two years from the date of the General Meeting. Ironveld has conditionally completed a £2.0m (gross) equity fundraising (the ‘Placing’), comprising, in aggregate, 666.67m new ordinary shares at a price of 0.3p/share (‘the Placing price’).
Date: 07/02/2023
Further to last November’s publications of a Definitive Feasibility Study (‘DFS’) plus Maiden Reserves for Cora’s flagship Sanankoro Gold Project (Sanankoro’ or ‘the Project’), concurrently with its own Optimised Project Economics, yesterday the Company detailed terms for a total raising (‘the Fundraising’) of up to US$30m through independent subscriptions to both a nil-coupon convertible loan note (the ‘CLN Subscription’) and new ordinary shares (the ‘Subscription’). As anticipated back in November 2022, Lionhead Capital Advisors Proprietary Limited (‘Lionhead’) has confirmed its continuing support for the Project by entering this mandate and term sheet, pursuant to which Cora has, to date, received binding commitments (the ‘Binding Commitments’) from various parties to subscribe for 76,200,559 new ordinary shares at US$0.0487 (equivalent to 3.94p) each for total gross proceeds of US$3,710,967.26 and for CLNs convertible into new ordinary Shares for a total of US$15,855,000.
Date: 07/02/2023
DeepVerge has released details of a significant contract win along with changes at Board-level. Glanaco Limited, the Group’s County Cork-based subsidiary that was acquired in March 2022, has secured a €10m (c.£9.3m) order from an existing customer in Central Asia for the design, assembly and supply of multi-function mobile equipment for use by municipalities. The order comprises a design licensed to the customer, the initial c.£3.2m revenues for which were included in the £17.2m (unaudited) total for 2022 announced on 9 January 2023, with the c.£6.1m balance due to come from production of 100 units which are contracted to be delivered in the current financial period, starting in March. Building on its growth trajectory, which continues in tandem with ongoing restructuring that is projected to deliver cost savings of up to £2m this financial year, this news strongly supports the Group’s target of becoming cash flow positive in H2 2023.
Date: 06/02/2023
Nanoco has confirmed a transformative outcome for the Group in terms of its signing of final definitive agreements (collectively the ‘Settlement’) with Samsung for US$150m (c.£125m) to settle ongoing litigation with Samsung on a no-fault basis for the alleged infringement of its IP. Separately it has published a trading update for its half year ended 31 January 2023 in relation to the organic business, which has continued to make progress ahead of expectations in customer delivery and scaling for potential production orders this year. Although the cash settlement (which is to be paid in two equal tranches: by 5 March 2023 and by 3 February 2024) is below TPI’s estimate of lost revenue in the range of USS$200m to US$300m for the US alone, Friday’s outcome nevertheless draws proceedings, that otherwise appeared set for a further, possibly extended, period of appeal, legal work and negotiation, to a close.
Date: 27/01/2023
Actual Experience has released its preliminary results for the year ended 30 September 2022, in tandem with publication of its Annual Report and Accounts. While detailing financials very much in line with expectations set by the Group’s 15 December 2022 Trading Update, the Board very positively notes advanced discussions and trials continue not only with a large UK central government department, but also with two other leading professional services firms as part of their exacting process of selecting a preferred supplier for Human Experience (‘HX’) software analytics. Reflecting the fact that large public and private institutions now recognise a longer-term need for a system that can positively respond to the new, mostly hybrid, ways of working in the post-pandemic world, formal conversion of one or more of these into an extended, high-margin contract(s) upon their scheduled spring/summer 2023 completions will clearly represent a landmark moment for the Group.
Date: 27/01/2023
Ironveld has confirmed that its subsidiary, Ironveld Mining (Pty) Limited (‘Ironveld Mining’), has entered into a Joint Venture Agreement (‘JVA’) with Pace SA (Pty) Limited (‘Pace’), as equal partners to produce and sell Dense Media Separation (‘DMS’) grade magnetite from Ironveld’s mine in Limpopo, South Africa. Although not central to the Group’s business plan to produce High Purity Iron (‘HPI’) plus vanadium and titanium in slag, this offers potential to provide an important extra source of revenues at minimal cost with no technical risk to shareholders. Based on the proposed 50:50 joint venture, a maximum beneficiation capacity of 27,000tpm could deliver throughput of say, 15,000tpm to an existing, open competitive marketplace. First production and sales from the joint venture (‘JV’) are expected mid-2023, which is roughly in tandem with the schedule for the Group’s second and third furnaces to commence their own volume operations.
Date: 20/01/2023
Zephyr yesterday provided an operational update on its State 36-2 LNW-CC well (‘the Well’) at the Group’s flagship project in the Paradox Basin, Utah, USA, noting that substantial hydrocarbon flow had been encountered by intersecting an apparent major natural fracture network in the reservoir. As a result, the Board is now evaluating various revised completion options. These may include running production casing and completing the Well without drilling the remainder of the planned lateral, given the significant apparent volumes and that the hydraulic stimulation originally proposed is now unlikely to be required. While assessments remain at an early phase, this suggests potential improvement to Well economics via reduced completion costs, noting that historic Paradox wells that successfully intersect natural fractures have been prolific, enjoying high immediate production rates along with substantial ultimate oil recoveries.
Date: 13/01/2023
ValiRx has announced an equity placing (‘the Placing’) to raise c.£1 million (gross), through the allotment of new ordinary shares at an issue price of 11p each. In addition, to provide shareholders and other investors who did not initially have the opportunity to participate in the Placing to do so, the Group has granted an option (the ‘Broker Offer’) to allow further subscriptions of up to £0.5 million at the same price with priority to be given to existing shareholders. The result of the Broker Offer is expected to be announced on or around 17 January 2023. Utilising its existing share allotment authorities, ValiRx will issue the new ordinary shares in two tranches, with the Placing shares subject to a First Admission on 19 January 2023 and, conditional on the passing of the Fundraising Resolutions at a General Meeting to be convened on 2 February 2023, Broker Offer shares will be subject to a Second Admission on or around 6 February 2023.
Date: 10/01/2023
Ironveld has confirmed that Ironveld Smelting has completed refurbishment of the first of the three furnaces at the Rustenburg smelter complex and has successfully produced its first marketable products (High Purity Iron (‘HPI’) and titanium in slag) from magnetite ore. This marks a transformational step in the Group’s development. The coming weeks are expected to see the first furnace tested and optimised, while also being extended to include production of vanadium in slag (which requires a further processing step). Refurbishment of the second and third furnaces also remains ongoing, with both expected to enter production by April 2023. Given that all major technical challenges have been surmounted, with on-site stockpiling of feedstock having commenced at Rustenburg some weeks back along with existing offtake agreements guaranteeing sale prices, project risks have now reduced quite substantially.
Date: 09/01/2023
DeepVerge has released a full year 2022 revenue update. Unaudited revenues for the period were c.£17.2m (2021 audited revenue: £9.3m, 2020 audited revenue: £4.4m). Although this was some 5% below the market’s consensus expectation of £18m, management notes that this would have been achieved but for a significant element of recently signed contracts that instead will fall into the current year due to supply chain issues. Having plugged the working capital shortfall identified at the end of October 2022 through an oversubscribed £10.82m (gross, incl. Broker Offer) equity placing priced at 2.0p/share, the restructured Board is now reasonably comfortable with the Group balance sheet following repayment of the outstanding Riverfort loan (including interest) and retirement of the facility. Significantly, it went on to note that licence revenues featured strongly in 2022, as operations continued their progression from small and medium-ticket equipment sales toward larger £1m+ data and AI-focused contracts through partners.
Date: 29/12/2022
Ironveld has released its final results for the year ended 30 June 2022. Much as expected, the consolidated income statement details total administrative expenses roughly unchanged on the comparable period, in turn producing a loss for the 12-months of £811k (2021: £465k) as the Board prepared the Group’s extensive magnetite resource on South Africa’s Limpopo Province to commence mining operations before the end of CY2022. The transformational acquisition of an existing, mothballed 7.5MW capacity smelter in nearby Rustenburg (Ferrochrome Furnaces Pty Limited (‘FCF’)) that was first announced on 24 May 2022, in turn provides it with theopportunity to economically mine and process this ore into marketable products: high purity iron, vanadium in slag and titanium in slag. The new financial year has since seen things move forward rapidly, with the smelter undertaking an efficient refurbishment programme in tandem with facilitation of all necessary infrastructure at the mine.
Date: 21/12/2022
Zephyr has announced two complementary acquisitions that are expected to be substantially accretive for shareholders. These highly strategic moves comprise, (i) The acquisition of the remaining 25% (not presently owned by Zephyr) non-operated working interest (‘WI’) across the entirety of its operated federal unit in the Paradox Basin (the ‘Paradox’); and (ii) The acquisition of non-operated WIs (holdings ranging from 11% to 32%) in presently non-producing wells in the Williston Basin. The transactions are expected to be immediately accretive to shareholders across all measures, including the Group’s reserves and resources. This takes into account the consideration of up to US$3 million, payable by way of new locked-in ordinary shares for the vendor of the former, while also securing an US$8 million non-equity bridge loan (‘the Loan’) facility on favourable terms to part fund (including associated capital expenditure(‘CAPEX’)) the latter.
Date: 15/12/2022
Actual Experience has released a trading update for the financial year ended 30 September 2022, while also detailing recent progress regarding important commercial initiatives. Since its October 2022 launch, the Group’s substantially updated Digital Workplace Management Platform (‘DWMP’) has met uniformly positive reactions from both Partners and enterprise prospects. They recognise not only the wholly unique nature of this technological offering, but also that the shock transition to home-based and hybrid working initiated through the Pandemic must now be considered substantially irreversible. An enterprise’s ability to measure the impact that their digital workplace has on employee wellbeing and productivity, through which resources and investment must then be focussed in order to sustain ongoing operational improvements and heightened visibility, is clearly now key to their future success.
Date: 02/12/2022
Orosur has released assay results from four additional diamond drill holes at the Pepas and Pupino prospects located in the north of its Colombian Anzá Project (Anzá or ‘the Project’). Following rapidly behind releases of 6 September 2022 and 21 October 2022, which included quite exceptional thick, high grade gold intersections in holes PEP001 (150.90m @ 3.00g/t Au), PEP005 (36.85m @ 2.85m Au) and PEP007 (80.55m @ 3.05m Au), today’s results contrast quite markedly with identification of lower levels of gold mineralisation from PEP008 and PEP009 while PUP002 and PEP006 both failed to encounter significant anomalism. Such an outcome should not be considered particularly exceptional, however, given that epithermal gold systems are, by their very nature, complex and often require several phases to properly define their geometry before more substantial drilling can be expected to deliver a high level of success.
Date: 21/11/2022
Cora Gold has today released two separate RNS announcements. Both cover issues related to the Company’s flagship Sanankoro Gold Project (Sanankoro’ or ‘the Project’). The first details results from the asset’s long-awaited Definitive Feasibility Study (‘DFS’) along with its Maiden Reserves; the second provides Optimised Project Economics commissioned by Cora for the same. Sanankoro’s Maiden Reserves amount to 422koz @ 1.30g/t of Contained Au (representing a 64.2% conversion from the indicated category of the Project’s recently updated Mineral Resource Estimate (‘MRE’) of 657koz @ 1.27g/t Au). Based on a US$1,750/oz gold price (roughly where it is now), post tax DFS economics provide a 37.4% internal rate of return (‘IRR’) and a 1.5-year payback based on a 6.8-year life-of-mine (‘LOM’) and all-in sustaining costs (‘AISC’) of US$1,033/oz. This is modelled to generate US$228m post tax LOM free cash flow (‘FCF’).
Date: 18/11/2022
N4 Pharma has successfully raised £1.0 million (gross) new funding through an equity placing (‘the Placing’) priced at 2.0p/share. As agent for the Group, TPI has now also launched a broker offer (‘Broker Offer’) under which it invites subscriptions for additional new ordinary shares from qualifying shareholders for an initial expected value of £0.25 million, which may be extended with N4P’s express agreement to £1.0 million in the event the Broker Offer is oversubscribed. This fundraising follows the Group’s 4 October 2022 announcement that highlighted successful in vitro testing of Nuvec® loaded with two small interfering RNA (‘siRNA’) probes which achieved significant silencing of their respective genes. In accordance with its strategic update of 14 September 2022, this provides sufficient validation to commence further work covering both epidermal growth factor receptor (‘EGFR’) and B-cell lymphoma 2 (‘BCl-2’) in a PC9 lung cancer model.
Date: 14/11/2022
Midatech has enrolled the first patient into its Phase 1 study of MTX110 (‘MAGIC-G1 Study’) in recurrent glioblastoma (‘rGBM’) (National Clinical Trial (‘NCT’) ID: 05324501) at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, USA. This represents a significant step towards developing a potential new treatment paradigm for patients with this serious disease that currently has limited effective treatment options. MTX110 has already been granted Orphan Drug and Fast Track designations by the FDA and Orphan Medicinal Product designation by EMA. Sustaining its ‘multiple shots on goal’ strategy, this represents just one of Midatech’s pipeline of eight different programmes targeting improvements in bio-delivery/ biodistribution of existing drugs.
Date: 7/11/2022
Cora Gold has announced the results of an Exploration Target estimate (‘Exploration Target’) for the Group’s wider Sanankoro Gold Project (‘Sanankoro’ or the ‘Project’) in southern Mali. Completed by independent consultancy CSA Global, 12 selected target areas were assessed to contain between 26.0 Mt and 35.2 Mt with a grade range of 0.58 g/t Au to 1.21 g/t Au for a potential content of 490 koz Au to 1,370 koz Au. This comes on top of the 920koz declared in Sanankoro’s recently updated Mineral Resource Estimate (‘MRE’) of 657koz @ 1.27g/t Au that are presently in the indicated category, and for which TPI considers its forthcoming DFS will prospectively move c.75% into Probable Reserves. The fact that all prospects being considered are located predominantly in highly economical, low-cost soft oxides, while also noting the premium valuation achieved in May 2022 by Malian peer, Oklo Resources Limited, upon being acquired by B2Gold Corp. (TSX: BTO), suggests the Group remains significantly undervalued.
Date: 27/10/2022
DeepVerge has confirmed its successful raising of £10m (gross) new funding through a firm (the ‘First Tranche’) and conditional placing (the ‘Second Tranche’) and Subscription (‘Third Tranche’) (altogether ‘the Placing’) priced at 2.0p/share. The Placing was oversubscribed and received support from a number of new and existing institutional and other investors. A conditional (also ‘Third Tranche’) Broker Offer (‘the Broker Offer’) of up to a maximum number of 125m new shares has now also been launched to enable Turner Pope to accommodate additional demand under the Placing for qualifying parties on the same terms. Every 4 Placing shares will also have 1 Warrant attached, exercisable at 3.0p for a period of 12 months. DeepVerge’s Board and management have participated in the Placing through a subscription valued at £392,500.
Date: 24/10/2022
ValiRx has announced its formation of a new partially-owned subsidiary company, Cytolytix Limited (‘Cytolytix’), and that Cytolytix has signed an IP License Agreement with King’s College London (‘KCL’). Established to progress the Group’s triple negative breast cancer project, CLX001, through preclinical development to a stage of readiness for clinical trials, ValiRx holds 60% of the subsidiary’s shares with the balance being split between KCL (20%) and the molecule’s two academic inventors, with representatives from each party on its Board. Resulting from the strategy launched in 2020 to bring new academic projects into the Group’s pipeline, this is an important first step towards the commercialisation of innovative and protectable science being carried out in university departments.
Date: 21/10/2022
Orosur has released assay results from four additional diamond drill holes at the Pepas and Pupino prospects located in the north of its Colombian Anzá Project (Anzá or ‘the Project’). Located roughly 12km and 8km respectively from the central APTA prospect, these include three holes drilled from the same pad as PEP001 that delivered quite spectacular results from surface back on 6 September 2022. Confirming the impressive findings of the first hole, PEP005 produced a substantial, high-grade gold intersection of 36.85m @ 2.13g/t Au (including 2.00m @ 12.70g/t Au), while PEP007 delivering an even more impressive 80.55m @ 3.05g/t Au (including 41.75m @ 5.24g/t Au). Management accordingly now awaits results from better positioned holes that are currently underway to get an improved sense of the scale and shape of what appears to be a particularly exciting prospect.
Date: 20/10/2022
Nanoco has released its Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 July 2022. Detailing both revenues and Adj. LBITDA ahead of earlier expectations, the Board highlights not only strengthened belief and confidence in its ongoing litigation against Samsung, but also the long-term commercial visibility being generated through both existing development works and increasing customer engagements. Significant news flow is expected in the near term; this includes both visibility of commercial production orders for sensing materials in conjunction with preparations for production readiness by the end of H1 FY2022/23, while also anticipating full vindication of the Group’s robust IP defence when the trial takes place in Texas on a similar timeframe.
Date: 17/10/2022
Ironveld has released an update on recent progress by its wholly owned subsidiaries, Ironveld Smelting Pty Limited and Ironveld Mining Pty Limited, as they move the Group’s undeveloped and unique project (‘the Project’) in South Africa’s Bushveld complex towards production. It details delivery of pre-operations power to the Rustenburg smelter, while also noting that mine planning remains on track to provide it with ore during the current quarter. Significantly also, Ironveld and the sole creditor of Ferrochrome Furnaces Pty Limited (‘FCF’) have agreed all commercial issues in the Debt Purchase Agreement (‘DPA’); this is expected to be signed in the coming two weeks, following which steps to formally remove FCF from Business Rescue will be taken.
Date: 21/09/2022
There can be few operators in the corporate world that fail to recognise the scale of the immediate, global opportunity available to a successful digital workplace management platform (‘DWMP’). With the shock transition to home-based and hybrid working initiated through the Pandemic now considered to be substantially irreversible, an enterprise’s ability to measure the impact that their digital workplace has on employees and productivity, through which resources and investment can be focussed in order to sustain ongoing operational improvements and heightened visibility, is now clearly key to their future success. Although new participants will almost certainly attempt to crowd this rapidly expanding marketplace in future years, ACT’s highly developed and value-added products presently identify no direct competition, with would-be ‘copy-cats’ seemingly inhibited by the time and scale of investment required to emulate its offering. .
Date: 14/09/2022
Midatech has announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022. Very much in line with expectations, total revenue for the six months was £0.47m (H1 2021: £0.40m), coming entirely from R&D collaborations with Janssen in the absence of grant income. Cash burn of £3.63m (H1 2021: £3.34m) left the Group with a balance of £6.42m, which the Board considers sufficient to fund operations into Q1 2023 while also noting that it is now actively considering options for extending its runway. Significant news accompanying today’s release includes both a new opportunity to leverage the Group’s Q-Sphera technology through the targeted, intratumoral delivery of metabolic modulating agents and the impending start of the MXT110 trial in recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (‘rGBM’).
