Small caps round-up: Chaarat Gold, Leed Petroleum, Zotefoams...

Gold explorer Chaarat continues its year-long rally after increasing resources at its 100%-owned Chaarat deposit in the Kyrgyz Republic from 3.3m to 4m ounces."This continues to demonstrate the significant potential of the deposit which will allow the company to pursue a low cost gold mining operation," said boss Dekel Golan. Gulf of Mexico-focused Leed Petroleum has completed evaluation of its recently drilled A-6 well at Ship Shoal Block 201. It tested at a restricted rate of 10.4 million cubic feet of gas produced per day (MMCFD) and 423 barrels of oil per day for a combined rate of 2,153 barrels of oil equivalent per day.Foam maker Zotefoams saw profits tumble 30% in 2009, but is "cautiously optimistic" after an "encouraging" start to 2010.Profit including restructuring costs of £0.41m tumbled to £2.75m from £3.93 in 2008 on sales down 8.5% to £31.82m following a 21% drop in sales volumes. Biotech ValiRx has entered into a funding and commercial partnership agreement with the Laboratory of Government Chemistry and Horizon Discovery. "This partnership provides funding for the development of ValiRx's Hypergenomics technology into new gene activity based diagnostics and screening products," it said.