Alien Metals Ltd (LON:UFO) shares have been beamed 27% higher to 0.115p in afternoon trading on Tuesday after the Mexican miner said it was close to beginning two sampling programs and hopes to complete an adjacent acquisition later this month.
Underground sampling at San Celso project is also beginning, with the aim of verifying historic work and identifying possible new target zones to help finalise planned drill hole locations.
Over at Los Campos, an initial exploratory underground program is designed to verify the condition of the underground workings, extract initial samples and map the outline of the core area of the historic mine.
Elsewhere, the top riser was Velocys Plc (LON:VLS), which continues to gain after securing additional £500,000 in grant funding from the government to support its proposed waste-to-aviation-fuels plant.
Shares were up 25% on Tuesday to 8.5p, close to a two-year high.
11.30am: Connect Group puts up Bunting on permanent basis
Connect Group PLC (LON:CNCT) shares have rebounded 17% to 13.5p after hitting an all-time low yesterday after the newspaper and magazine distributor said that Jonathan Bunting has been made chief executive on a permanent basis.
Bunting, previously boss of the group’s Smiths News business for over a decade, has been interim CEO for seven months and delivered a strategic review and disposed of its Tuffnells parcels arm.
“I'm delighted to be appointed CEO and am looking forward to focusing our efforts on Smiths News, free from any other distractions,” he said.
Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (LON:COPL) shares are rallying after a late announcement the day before that it has agreed an unsecured £600,000 loan from YA II and Riverfort.
The oil and gas exploration and development company can draw down £100,000 per month, repayable in cash six months from the respective drawdown date.
“To have secured this funding, especially during these very challenging times, reflects the company's prospects and the high quality of its principle asset,” said COPL president and chief executive Arthur Millholland.
10.20am: Midatech slumps after 'extremely difficult' year
Midatech Pharma PLC (LON:MTPH) shares have sunk 10% lower to 18.1p after the drug delivery technology company reported a net loss from continuing operations of £9.1mln.
It has been “an extremely difficult period” said chief executive Stephen Stamp, after the termination of in-house development of the company’s lead programme, closure of its Bilbao operations and the loss over two-thirds of employees during the year.
“Our focus now is to evaluate all available options for extracting maximum value from Midatech's platform technologies,” he said.
Fastjet PLC (LON:FJET) shares have had an even more turbulent morning, with the shares down 17% to 0.18p after the African low-cost airline warned of a delay to the publication of its annual accounts and consequently its 2020 annual shareholder meeting.
Despite having been granted an extra three months to complete its annual results, the company said it will be unable to post its 2019 annual report to shareholders by the 30 June deadline “due to the current COVID-19 outbreak”.
Fastjet said it has been granted an extension by the AIM authorities and Companies House to delay the filing of its 2019 annual report until 30 September.
9am: Science Group shoots higher after profitable start to 2020
Science Group PLC (LON:SAG) shares shot up 16% to 220.96p in early trading on Tuesday morning after revealing it traded profitably in the first half of 2020.
The provider of science-based product development, advisory and regulatory services said interim operating profits will be around 50% higher year-on-year, with net cash of £4.1mln in the bank.
While some business has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the AIM-listed outfit said this has been more than offset by demand in other areas, such as for its R&D consultancy and regulatory & compliance divisions.
Elsewhere, chains and gears maker Renold PLC (LON:RNO) clunked 34% higher to 9.7p on the back of its full-year results statement.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic related factory closures meant the engineer endured significant disruption in the final months of the year to March 31, 2020, but it said all sites are now operational again.
After cutting costs, the company said it has been cash generative and profitable in the first months of the new financial year.
Proactive news headlines:
Faron Pharmaceuticals (LON:FARN) has reported “continued progress” for two of its clinical-stage programmes, Clevegen and Traumakine, ahead of a virtual R&D day on Tuesday. For Clevegen, a precision cancer immunotherapy targeting Clever-1 positive tumour-associated macrophages in selected metastatic or inoperable solid tumours, Faron said the World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved bexmarilimab as the International Nonproprietary Name (INN) for the treatment. INNs are designed to make communication about pharmaceutical drugs more precise and avoid prescribing errors. Faron also said an additional cohort has been added to Part II of the ongoing MATINS trial which is exploring the potential of bexmarilimab (Clevegen) in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer. Meanwhile, the firm announced that its Trumakine product, which is designed to help treat Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and is being used in two global, adaptive trials investigating potential coronavirus (COVID-19) treatments, will now be subject to a third trial to investigate whether the company’s IV IFN beta-1a can treat coronavirus.
Clipper Logistics PLC (LON:CLG) told investors it is in advanced talks with Arcadia Group over a transportation contract for their store delivery network. If finalised and secured, the contract envisages Clipper making nearly 3,000 deliveries per week starting in August 2020. "Clipper has an enviable track record of developing solutions to meet the needs of retailers in a changing environment,” Steve Parkin, Clipper executive chairman said in a statement. “I am delighted to be working closely with Arcadia on this solution and in developing a longer-term partnership."
Circassia Group PLC (LON:CIR) has reported slight signs of improvement in some areas after sales across all its markets were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. “While it remains highly challenging to predict revenue trajectory, early signs of recovery in certain markets offer some signs of encouragement,” the company said in a statement alongside its results for the year to December 31, 2019. The group is now focused on selling its NIOX asthma diagnostic In China, Europe, the US and elsewhere following the return of two COPD treatments to AstraZeneca in May. In the year to end-December 2019, NIOX sales rose by 27% to £34.6mln out of total sales of £62.4mln which included £27mln from Astra’s COPD drug Tudorza.
ClearStar Inc (LON:CLSU) said its revenue run rate experienced a “significant uptick” from the end of May as the labour market and employers began to slowly recover from the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In a statement to be made at the background and medical screening specialist’s AGM on Tuesday, ClearStar chairman Barney Quinn said while the company has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic run rate, the increased sales were “extremely encouraging” and they expected the growth to continue as the US market continued to recover. He added that the company had not lost any customers during the period and has “continued to make progress in onboarding new customers and generating new business”, notably the onboarding of three new financial institutions, the latest of which was a sizeable household name that was now generating revenue for the group.
Bidstack Group PLC (LON:BIDS) said it has received a Gold Standard 1.1 certificate from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the UK industry trade body for digital advertising. Launched in 2017 to improve standards in digital ads, the Gold Standard focuses on three key areas; reducing ad fraud, improving the digital advertising experience and increasing brand safety. Bidstack, which specialises in in-game advertising technology for video games, said the certificate should provide “further confidence to global advertising agencies when allocating client spend to the new "native in-game" digital advertising category” offered by the company.
European Metals Holdings Ltd (LON:EMH)(ASX:EMH) has been granted an updated preliminary mining permit for the eastern part of the Cinovec lithium deposit by the Czech Ministry of the Environment. The permit has been issued for a period of eight years. A preliminary mining permit is a necessary legal pre-qualification before obtaining a final mining permit. The approval covers an area of 0.201 square kilometres and means that, in combination with previously granted preliminary mining permits, the entire Cinovec ore reserve is now permitted.
Union Jack Oil PLC (LON:UJO) has revealed the highlights of a GaffneyCline authored Carbon Intensity Study on the West Newton project, onshore East Yorkshire. The group said the study had positive conclusions including an AA rating for carbon intensity for its potential upstream crude oil production, confirming it is significantly lower than the UK average and also when compared to other onshore analogues. According to the GaffneyCline report, West Newton could produce the equivalent of just 5 grams of CO2 per megajoule of energy created and that could be reduced further, to 3.5, with the application of gas-to-grid technologies.
Thor Mining PLC (LON:THR)(ASX:THR) has completed the field component of the due diligence for its acquisition of American Vanadium Pty Ltd, a company which holds interests in uranium and vanadium-focussed projects in Colorado and Utah. Thor announced on June 1, 2020, that it had signed an option agreement to acquire American Vanadium, subject to satisfaction of due diligence requirements. The non-field component of the due diligence is also nearing completion with finalisation pending assay laboratory results, the group added. A total of 21 samples were collected in the field component, including four outcrop samples and 16 samples from historic mining dumps, all of which appear to host uranium, Thor said in a statement, while outcrop samples appear to host vanadium.
AfriTin Mining Ltd (LON:ATM) said mining operations at the Uis tin mine have now returned to full scale following the easing of coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown measures in Namibia. The lockdown has resulted in delays to planned throughput increases, and optimisation work has now been resumed to allow the operation to reach design capacity. Meanwhile, an internal review has identified staged modifications that could potentially increase the net present value to US$122mln, and the internal rate of return to 60%. Additionally, the company has now despatched its fourth shipment of tin concentrate.
88 Energy PLC (LON:88E) confirmed it has so far had received acceptances of 37.58% in its takeover offer for fellow Alaska explorer XCD Energy. The offer remains open until June 25 and, to date, the proposal has been accepted by shareholders with a total of 262.96mln shares and 21.5mln listed options, representing 18.3% of those in issue. Significantly, 88 Energy noted that XCD directors – which previously recommended the offer to shareholders – have now provided their acceptances for their shareholdings.
Tekcapital PLC (LON:TEK) said its investee company Guident, which is developing in-car apps for autonomous vehicles, has appointed three new members to its scientific advisory board. They are professors Naphtali Rishe and Hayder Radha and Dr Marielle Gross. In a statement, Guident's chairman and CEO Harald Braun said: “Their combined experience and knowledge in artificial intelligence software for autonomous vehicles and bioethics will provide valuable insight as we expand the development of our remote monitoring and control centre for AVs and land-based delivery drones." In the same announcement, investors were also told that Guident had secured a US patent to protect its intellectual property around the "methods and systems for emergency handoff of an autonomous vehicle". This patent teaches new methods to improve the safety of autonomous vehicles and land-based delivery drones, the company said.
Touchstone Exploration Inc. (LON:TXP) (TSX:TXP) has announced that on June 15, 2020, the conditions precedent were satisfied in respect of its previously announced US$20mln, seven-year term loan agreement with Republic Bank Limited. Touchstone said it withdrew US$15 million to satisfy obligations relating to prepaying the company's former C$20mln credit facility and has the option to withdraw the remaining US$5mln available balance prior to June 15, 2021.
Iconic Labs PLC (LON:ICON), a multi-divisional new media and technology business, has announced that it has received a notice of exercise from European High Growth Opportunities Securitization Fund in respect of the exercise by the investor of its conversion rights under convertible bonds issued in respect of the first tranche drawn down under a financing and settlement agreement for the aggregate principal amount of £170,000 resulting in the issue to the Investor of 1,700,000,000 new ordinary shares in Iconic Labs.