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Harvest Minerals Ltd (LON:HMI) shares were among the day’s failures as the Brazilian potash miner posted a larger half-year loss.
The company, which is developing the Arapua fertiliser project in Minas Gerais, reported a US$1.84mln loss before tax for the first six months of 2020, double the amount from a year earlier as revenue from customer contracts tumbled to US$0.3mln from US$1.4mln.
While the period saw encouraging trials on its KPfertil product, Harvest said the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic affected trading but it had “made significant inroads towards developing and expanding its customer base” and it had “recorded increased sales” in the past three months.
Investors seemed sceptical, with the shares wilting 16% to 2.35p.
12.20pm: High IQ-AI as imaging project advances
IQ-AI Ltd (LON:IQAI) shares were looking good on Friday afternoon, up 15% to 4.95p, as the artificial intelligence group said its contrast-free medical imaging project was advancing to the penultimate stage before regulatory clearance.
In the validation testing stage, the company’s Imaging Biometrics arm will subject its technology to a varied set of data, where it will be compared to MRI images acquired using contrast.
IQ-AI noted that one in three MRI scans use a contrast medium, such as injected dyes, to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the scan, which in the USA equates to roughly 10mln scans per year.
10.30am: Tekmar tanks as new offshore rivals emerge
Tekmar Group PLC (LON:TGP) shares tanked on Friday, almost halving to 36.5p, after warning that of contract delays due, increased composition and a change of its financial year-end.
The provider of technology and services for the global offshore energy markets said “short-term delays in contract awards and sales order intake as a result of the COVID-19 disruption” would lead to half-year sales being 10% lower than the same time a year earlier.
The AIM-listed company also said that it was seeing increasing competition for its subsea cable and piping subsidiary’s core market as the “long-term structural growth prospect of the global offshore wind market is now attracting new entrants”.
9am: Arc Minerals flies on Fwiji copper prospects
Arc Minerals Limited (LON:ARCM) shares curved 8% higher to 3.8p in early trade on Friday after the explorer said it has found the first major levels of copper mineralisation after three years of drilling at its Zambia site.
Lab results from samples taken from drilling at the Fwiji prospect confirmed high-grade sulphide mineralisation and oxide mineralisation, which continued across a distance of over 1,000 meters from the first hole drilled.
Thicknesses and grades were the best the project has ever yielded and there are further drill results from Fwiji to be released, with executive chairman Nick von Schirnding saying the company’s expectations have been surpassed and that many more holes will be drilled through to the end of the year.
Surpassing this, Anglesey Mining PLC (LON:AYM) shares rose at an even sharper angle, up 11.4% to 1.95p as it revealed that 12%-owned associate Labrador Iron Mines has started work on a preliminary economic assessment for its Houston project in Labrador, Canada, having received expressions of interest about potential off-take deals.
This is Labrador Iron Mines’ first development since production halted in 2014 because of the low iron ore price, said Anglesey, but with market prices starting to recover over the past two years and with increased inquiries the company is working to advance Stage 2 of its planned direct shipping ore mining operations.
The deposits are estimated to contain a resource of 40mln tonnes grading 57.6% iron, said Anglesey.
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Anglesey Mining PLC (LON:AYM) said its12%-owned associate Labrador Iron Mines Holdings (LIM) has started work on a Preliminary Economic Assessment for its Houston project in Labrador, Canada. It is the first development of LIM’s assets since production halted in 2014 because of the low iron ore price, said Anglesey. Iron prices have started to recover over the past two years and with increased inquiries and expressions of interest from potential off-takers, LIM is now working to advance Stage 2 of its planned direct shipping ore mining operations, Anglesey added.
Symphony Environmental Technologies PLC (LON:SYM) said its partner Promociones Fantásticas has launched new biodegradable and antimicrobial drinking straws using the group’s technology. Promociones Fantásticas is a Colombian drinking straws producer, with Symphony’s exclusive distributor Latin Pack is the masterbatch supplier. Promociones Fantásticas has been using the d2w technology, which makes plastic to biodegrade quicker, for three years.
Westminster Group PLC (LON:WSG) said its CSR arm, the Westminster Foundation has delivered and installed a sanitisation tunnel to Freetown International Airport (FNA), Sierra Leone. The company added that the tunnel will help reassure passengers that FNA is a coronavirus (COVID-19) secure environment and boost traffic through the airport. Westminster provides security and screening services for the airport and said it had promised earlier in the year to provide it with a mass sanitisation tunnel.
Applied Graphene Materials PLC (LON:AGM), the producer of specialty graphene additives, revealed that it has signed a distribution agreement with GOBARR Kimya Ticaret ve Pazarlama Ltd. Sti (Gobarr). The agreement will further expand Applied Graphene’s distribution network to target customers in the Turkish coatings and polymers sector. Gobarr’s team of industry specialists has over 25 years’ experience in supplying innovative products to the paint and coatings market across Turkey. The agreement will make Gobarr the market’s leading supplier of graphene dispersions focused on Turkey’s industrial coatings sector.
IQ-AI Ltd. (LON:IQAI) said it has advanced its contrast free imaging project to the next stage, validation testing. The group said the validation stage includes subjecting the Artificial Intelligence (AI) model to a large and varied set of data, and statistically comparing the model’s output to “ground truth”, or actual, images acquired using contrast. The testing results will refine the model sufficiently to prepare it for the final stage – regulatory clearance, it added.
Open Orphan PLC (LON:ORPH) said its Venn Life Sciences arm has won a two-year contract with a ‘tier-one’ German pharmaceutical company. The new agreement is an extension of work already being undertaken and will see Venn deliver further analytical services. These services will include pharmacometrics (using maths, statistics and the sciences to model the interaction of drugs in the body) and pharmacokinetics, a branch of pharmacology that assesses how a drug is absorbed and distributed by the body.
Oncimmune Holdings PLC (LON:ONC) said it has a “growing pipeline” of opportunities as it completed the first year of its three-year plan to commercialise its EarlyCDT lung screening technology and its ImmunoINSIGHTS service. In its full-year results statement, investors were told the company was in “active late-stage discussions with a number of national health systems and pharmaceutical partners, globally”. It said further opportunities for ImmunoINSIGHTS have been created as a result of the group’s close involvement with the government’s coronavirus (COVID-19) programme, and specifically, the development of an infectious disease NavigAID panel.
Supply@ME Capital PLC (LON:SYME), the online inventory finance platform, said it has chosen to issue its securitised note to one investment group rather than syndicate it. In a statement, SYME said that following detailed evaluation it has agreed to partner on an exclusive basis with a global investment fund whose intention is to subscribe for the whole of the first issuance and become an ongoing partner of the company. “Whilst this decision has put back slightly the date of completion of the first issuance, the opportunity to form an ongoing partnership with the Investor will provide valuable benefits to SYME, both in the short and long-term,” the group said in the statement.
Minds + Machines Group Limited (LON:MMX) said it has concluded its formal investigation to determine whether certain revenue associated with a specific contract had been correctly recognised in the year ended December 31, 2019, and the six months to June 30, 2020. The domain name specialist said it believes that revenue attached to the specific contract has been incorrectly recognised. It was previously announced that cash of US$1.125mln was received in connection with the specific contract and revenue of US$938,000 was recognised in the 2019 financial year. Following its investigation the company said it believes any cash sums initially received pursuant to this contract should have been classified as a deposit against future sales and then recognised as revenue as the company’s partner made sales to end-users. To date, the partner has made US$201,900 of end-user sales under the contract.
Metal Tiger PLC (LON:MTR), the AIM-listed investor in natural resource opportunities, announced on Thursday that it has purchased 300,000 shares in ASX-listed Los Cerros Limited (ASX:LCL) at an average price (before costs) of approximately A$0.1575 per share for a total consideration of approximately A$47.2k. Following this investment Metal Tiger will be interested in 3.50 million shares and 1.25 million A$0.10 warrants in Los Cerros. Los Cerros is an exploration and mining company with a dominant land position within the Andes and Quinchia regions of the Mid-Cauca Gold belt in South America. Los Cerros’ primary focus is the Qunichia Gold Portfolio, which is located in Colombia. For the year ended December 31, 2019, Los Cerros reported a net loss of A$4.16mln and, as at June 30, 2020, reported net assets of A$15.76mln.
In a separate statement on Friday, Metal Tiger provided an update in relation to its investment in Cobre Limited (ASX:CBE) which has released its quarterly activities report to September 30, 2020. Metal Tiger owns 18.79% of the issued share capital of Cobre. The link to Cobre’s quarterly activities report can be found here: https://asx.api.markitdigital.com/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02302328-2A1260301?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4. Additionally, the link to Cobre’s quarterly cash flow report can be found here: https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02302329-2A1260302?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4
Location Sciences Group PLC (LON:LSAI), the leading location verification company, has announced the issue of a total of 16,969,098 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the company to a number of directors as payment for fees owed for certain periods since February 1, 2020, totalling £81,451.67. The new ordinary shares are being issued at a price of 0.48p per share, a 6.7% premium to the closing mid-market share price on October 29, 2020.
Thor Mining PLC LON:THR) ( ASX:THR) has said its annual general meeting will be held at 7pm (Australian Central Standard Time) on November 25, 2020, at the Thor Mining offices, 58 Galway Avenue, Marleston, South Australia
Seeing Machines Limited (LON:SEE), the advanced computer vision technology company that designs AI-powered operator monitoring systems to improve transport safety, has announced that its CEO Paul McGlone will present the company’s Year-End Results presentation via Webcast on Monday, November 2, 2020, at 9.00am GMT. Hosted by Proactive Investors, the webcast can be streamed via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KlBkoQ2vME&feature=youtu.be
Rosslyn Data Technologies PLC (LON:RDT), a leading global big data technology company, has announced that at its annual general meeting held on Thursday, all resolutions were duly passed. Full details of the voting results, as well as the full proceedings of the AGM and questions, are available on the company website at: https://www.rosslyndatatech.com/investors/2020agm
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