Comet Ridge raises exploration funds
Comet Ridge has raised $24 million at 17.5 cents a share in a placement.
About $8.6 million will be directed to pilot well drilling at its northern Maholo blocks. Another $8.2 million would be used to repay loans relating to its acquisition of APLNG’s 30 per cent stake in Maholo.
FEG gets drilling approval
Far East Gold has been granted approval from the Indonesian Government for drilling at its highly prospective Woyla project.
The decree allows for the exploration in the forest area of the tenement.
The Woyla project has a defined strike length of 13,000 metres and assay results had shown up to 119 grams per tonne of gold and 1179 g/t of silver.
ACCC calls for Apollo views
The competition watchdog has called for submissions relating to the takeover of Apollo Tourism by THL.
The two companies are involved in the rental, sale and manufacture of recreational vehicles and earlier this year the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raised preliminary concerns about the deal.
But the companies have offered a court-enforceable undertaking to sell off some assets held by Apollo to Juicy.
The ACCC said it would need to be satisfied the deal would satisfy its competition concerns and has called for submissions.
G8 earnings hit by floods, Covid
G8 Education has posted a June half statutory net profit of $8.5 million, down from $23.5 million in 2021.
Chief executive Gary Carroll said the first three months of the half was significantly impacted by Covid lockdowns and floods, but earnings and occupancy recovered in the second quarter.
Core occupancy was down slightly.
He said the long term demand fundamentals for the sector were positive.
A 1 cent a share dividend was declared.
PPK gets good results
PPK said its subsidiary, White Graphene, had received “highly encouraging” results from its polymer and coatings R&D project.
It has been researching the effects of adding white graphene to commercially available gelcoats which are used to protect boats and wind turbines blades from corrosion and moisture.
It was found the addition of small amounts of white graphene significantly improved gelcoat properties and underwater friction was reduced by 50 per cent.
Felix revenues jump
Felix Group said its EBITDA jumped $1.3 million while annual recurring revenue was up 24 per cent. It reported a bottom line loss of $7.5 million.
Despite that, chair Michael Bushby said it was a successful and productive year.
The company, which provides the construction sector with a procurement platform, secured new customers and was seeing traction in areas like diversified real estate and resources.
Awards for two
Aug 22: Moura-based Pick and Shovel Miner Jim Parsons and Industry Safety and Health Representative, Greg Dalliston from Morayfield were recipients of the Legends Award at the 2022 Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference (QMIHSC) held on the Gold Coast.
QMIHSC 2022 chair Peter Newman said the two men were both outstanding examples of the world-class workforce behind the state’s mining sector, who foster an environment of proactive health and safety behaviors at the mine, organisation and industry levels.
EML buyback
Aug 22: EML has announced an underlying net profit of $32.1 million, down slightly on last year’s $32.4 million.
$20 million buy back of its shares and struck a deal to sell its finlabs investment in Interchecks Technologies.
Costs related to its Central Bank of Ireland and a class action totalled $21 million.
It said its guidance for 2023 was to be in line with 2022.
CTP revenues spike
Aug 4: Central Petroleum said its revenues for the June quarter were 18 per cent on the March quarter with an average sales price of $8.49 a gigajoule equivalent.
Annual sales revenue was up 12.7 per cent to $42.2 million on a like-for-like basis.
Sales volume fell 6.5 per cent because of planned maintenance on its northern gas peipline but it said 15 per cent of its gas was sold into the east coast spot market.
Sayona on track with NAL
Aug 4: Sayona Mining has completed 30 per cent of the upgrades on plant and equipment needed for the restart of lithium production at its North American Lithium project.
The company said it was on track to restart production in the first quarter of 2023 following a spend of about $100 million.
Selwyn permits granted
Aug 4: Red Fox, 40 per cent owned by Chase Mining, has been granted exploration permits at the Selwyn project, near Cloncurry.
Chase said the Selwyn project covered highly prospective zones extending from the south of Selwyn towards the Osbourne copper-gold project.
Three EPMs were granted in June and July.
Cosol snaps up WA company
Aug 3: Cosol has completed the acquisition of Perth-based Work Management Solutions for $3.67 million plus 5.6m shares at 53 cents a share and further $2 million through an “earn-out” payment based on the company’s upcoming profit.
Cosol has also negotiated new financing through Westpac worth $19.5 million.
The funds would be used to pay down its existing financing through Bankwest and to fund the WMS deal.
Tritium expands in US
Aug 2: Tritium has announced it would partner with EVCS to deploy 300 electric vehicle charging units in California, Oregon and Washington.
The deal means Tritium would have 800 charging units in the EVCS network.
EVCS has plans for a total of 1500 EV chargers by the end of 2023.
Eumundi bumps guidance
Aug 1: Property company Eumundi Group said it expected to report a profit of between $9 million and $9.1 million for the June year.
This compared to a $5.5 million profit last year.
The profit would include fair value gains in the Aspley Arcade Shopping Village and Court House Hotel of about $2.5 million before tax.
Fair value gains on the Aspley Shopping Centre and the Ashmore Tavern of about $7.7 million would be recorded through other comprehensive income.
Excluding non-cash fair value gains and adjustment and government subsidies relating to Covid net profit was expected to be between $3.5 million and $3.7 million.
QML raises exploration funds
Aug 1: AML said it had raised $2 million through a placement of shares to sophisticated and institutional investors at 15 cents a share.
The company’s chairman Andrew Sparke subscribed for shares worth $250,000 and general manager of operations James Anderson took up $50,000 in shares.
Sparke said the placement was structured to provide capital to continue exploration while minimising dilution to existing shareholders.
Metro Mining raises $19m
Jul 29: Bauxite producer Metro Mining said it had received commitments for a $18.9 million, two-tranche placement at 2 cents a share as well as a $6.5 million loan conversion.
The capital raised under the placement would be directed to its expansion to 7 million tonnes a year.
Managing director Simon Wensley said the company was happy with the strog support for the placement.
A share purchase plan would also be carried out allowing for purchases of up to $30,000 to raise a further $2 million, at the same price as the placement.
Alliance boss walks
Jul 28: Alliance Airlines chief executive Lee Schofield has resigned joining the growing list of corporate figures to quit in recent weeks.
Schofield resigned for undefined personal reasons after seven years in the job and 10 years with the company.
Alliance, which operates charters, is being taken over by Qantas.
Schofield said it had been a privilege to work for Alliance.
Managing director Scott McMillan would take on Schofield’s responsibilities.
Thiess bids for MACA
Jul 26: Thiess has made an off-market bid for mining services company MACA at a 42 per cent premium.
The offer price of $1.025 for each MACA share compared with its volume weighted average price at July 25. Its most recent close was at 80 cents.
MACA’s board has recommended the offer.
The bid is conditional on FIRB and ACCC approval.
Thiess said it expected to run MACA in “materially the same manner”.
Hawsons bulks up ahead of financing
Jul 26: Hawsons Iron has increased the mineral resource at its Broken Hill iron ore project by 21 per cent to 484 million tonnes.
Managing director Brian Grazien said the combined measured and indicated resource of 247 million tonnes set up the bankable feasibility study for the ore reserve to satisfy project lenders that there was sufficient high grade material to meet concentrate production of 20mt a year.
Hawsons also expected another upgrade by the end of the September quarter.
