TRADING UPDATES: Contango in offtake talks for coking coal in Zimbabwe

Fri, 26th Mar 2021 15:40

(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

----------

Contango Holdings PLC - natural resource development company - Says it is currently in discussions regarding a potential long-term offtake for coking coal produced at its Lubu coking coal project with the Zimbabwean subsidiary of an undisclosed Chinese industrial company. The potential offtake partner has a sizeable footprint in Zimbabwe and is planning to construct a USD1 billion carbon steel plant in the country, with capacity of 2 million tonnes of steel per annum. In addition, the potential partner is currently in the process of constructing a number of coke batteries in the Hwange region of Zimbabwe with the aim of being ready for production by the end of April. Given the Lubu project's proximity to Hwange, Contango and the potential partner have entered into discussions with the view to Contango supplying the coking coal for the coke batteries on a long-term offtake. Both parties are looking to advance discussions further and additional meetings and a site visit have been scheduled for mid-April. Contango intends to open a trial pit and says a bulk sample will be sent to the potential partner so that it can conduct a burn test.

----------

Tertiary Minerals PLC - mineral exploration and development company focused on Nevada, US and northern Europe - Reports analytical results from its maiden drill hole at the Lucky copper project in Nevada, US. The company says two magnetic gossan zones intersected containing low-grade copper mineralisation. Geological evaluation of drill samples is ongoing and follow up magnetic survey is planned. "This maiden drill hole has confirmed the occurrence of copper mineralisation in magnetic gossan zones at shallow depth," says Executive Chair Patrick Cheetham. "Detailed evaluation of the drill samples is underway to define the host rock stratigraphy and a magnetic survey is planned to define additional drill targets."

----------

Capital Metals PLC - natural resources company focused on the development of the Eastern minerals project in Sri Lanka - Says environmental impact assessment in Sri Lanka progressing with the public consultation period now concluded. The next step in the assessment process is a technical evaluation committee meeting scheduled to be held in April before final approval by the Coastal Conservation Department. When the environmental impact assessment approval process is completed, the company says it can then formally engage with the Geographical Survey & Mines Bureau of Sri Lanka under the Mines & Minerals Act of Sri Lanka for issue of the mining licence.

----------

Totally PLC - healthcare services provider across the UK and Ireland - Says its subsidiary Vocare Ltd has, after a competitive process, been awarded a place on the regional Integrated Urgent Care Clinical Support Framework hosted by Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust. Totally says Vocare will undertake emergency department validations and redirection in collaboration with Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust's Yorkshire and Humber integrated urgent care/NHS 111 service. The new framework agreement commences on April 1 and runs to the end of March 2024. The agreement, which is on a call-off basis and dependent on call volumes, is worth up to GBP2.7 million over the framework term.

----------

PureTech Health PLC - clinical-stage biotherapeutics company - Reports publication of full data from a multi-site open-label study evaluating the impact of EndeavorRxTM on symptoms and functional impairments in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. PureTech says statistically significant improvement was demonstrated in all predetermined endpoints of the study, which included parent and clinician ratings of children's attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and related impairments in daily life.

----------

Shield Therapeutics PLC - commercial stage pharmaceutical company - Notes the recent publication in BMJ Open Gastroenterology detailing the positive results from a real-world study using ferric maltol to assess clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with inflammatory bowel disease receiving ferric maltol for iron-deficiency anaemia in the UK. The observational, multicentre study, retrospective cohort study included adults with inflammatory bowel disease and iron-deficiency anaemia, who received ferric maltol. The study concluded that ferric maltol increases haemoglobin and iron indices and is generally well tolerated in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and iron-deficiency anaemia treated in clinical practice. These real-world data confirm the favourable benefit/risk balance findings from randomised control trials, says Shield Therapeutics.

----------

Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC - London-based biotechnology company - Receives a conversion notice from Mint Capital Advisors Ltd in respect of GBP900,000 of the loan notes. Hemogenyx says it will issue 14.3 million new shares at a conversion price of GBP0.063 per share.

----------

Immedia Group PLC - AIM-listed supplier of multi-media content and digital solutions - Enters into a secured loan agreement with Sprift Technologies Ltd, a property data specialist, to lend it up to GBP900,000 in three equal instalments over the next three months. This loan facility was provided for working capital purposes. Immedia says it will make the loan in three equal tranches, the first GBP300,000 now, the second on April 23 and the third tranche on May 21.

In addition, Immedia it has also recently agreed to work towards the possible acquisition of Sprift for GBP35 million in Immedia shares.

----------

FireAngel Safety Technology Group PLC - home safety products supplier - Secures additional bank funding under UK government backed coronavirus loan schemes. Back in June 2020, it had secured funding of GBP3.2 million through the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme from its existing bank, HSBC UK. This loan supported the company through the first lockdown and, in the fourth quarter of 2020, the company says it began to engage HSBC UK for further support to meet the challenges of subsequent and rolling lockdowns. The new loan of GBP3.7 million will be used to pay off the balance of the existing loan, has a term of six years with the first year being free of interest and capital repayments and an interest rate thereafter of 4% over the Bank of England's base rate.

----------

TT Electronics PLC - Woking, England-based electronic resistor manufacturing company - Confirms that the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Authority, which is responsible for ensuring that medical devices meet applicable standards of safety, quality and efficacy, has registered Virolens for use and sale in the UK and iAbra has been granted certificates of free sale. Virolens is a rapid Covid-19 screening device for which TT is the exclusive manufacturing partner.

----------

AssetCo PLC - provides management and resources to fire and emergency services in Middle East - Intends to change its business strategy to focus on acquiring, managing and operating asset and wealth management activities and interests, together with other related services. "There have been challenges in developing an overseas business in the Middle East, and the Board decided it was appropriate to review the structure and future strategy of the Company. This led to a tender offer to buy back 50% of the share capital at a cost of GBP26.9 million, followed by the proposal to utilise the AssetCo platform to build an exciting asset and wealth management business," says Chair Tudor Davies.

In addition, AssetCo says Martin Gilbert to become chair and Peter McKellar to become deputy chair & chief executive. Davies will become a non-executive director of the company.

----------

Braveheart Investment Group PLC - investment firm - Reports progress on the development of a Covid-19 test that Braveheart's investee Paraytec Ltd is working on in conjunction with the University of Sheffield. Paraytec team has used isolated lab-grown Covid-19 virus to optimise the operational sensitivity of its instrument for the detection of pre-symptomatic and early-stage symptomatic virus levels. Paraytec's test requires only 0.1 millilitres of sample fluid to undertake a successful test. This is a smaller volume than is required for the current gold standard qPCR test used to extract material from a nasopharyngeal swab and indicates that the Paraytec test may be capable of detecting as few as 100 virions in a sample. Paraytec's test, therefore, is expected to result in a 40% improvement in overall test sensitivity compared to existing lateral flow tests, due to the reduced chances of receiving a false negative result and thus ensuring that people who obtain a negative test result can be increasingly confident that they have not become infected.

----------

Papillon Holdings PLC - investment company - Signs the formal share purchase agreement with Mayflower Capital Investments Pty Ltd as it progresses towards the acquisition of Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya.

Turning to operations, Papillon says underground mining operations and developments ongoing. High grade underground ore has been stockpiled and is being processed through the plant from which the gold dore is exported to Europe for refining and sales.

----------

Immotion Group PLC - UK-based entertainment and education firm - Says, following an approach from one of its existing institutional investors, it has agreed to raise GBP300,000. The subscription will be settled by the issue of 6.0 million new shares at a price 5 pence each. Following the admission, Immotion will have 415.5 million shares in issue. The subscription price represents a premium of 15% to the closing mid-market price on Thursday.

----------

GCM Resources PLC - London-based coal mining company - Places 13.5 million shares at a price of 7.5 pence each, raising GBP1.0 million. Says the issue orice represents a discount of 19% to the middle market closing price on Thursday. Upon admission, the company will have 132.0 million shares in issue.

----------

Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust PLC - investment company - Notes statement from Octopus Energy Group regarding its proposed acquisition of Octopus Renewables. Says it has been in active discussions with Octopus Energy in relation to this transaction and notes that there will be no change to Octopus Renewables' leadership or people. Octopus Renewables says it will make a further announcement on completion of the acquisition, which is currently expected to occur in June.

----------

By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com