Small caps round-up: Forte Energy, Stellar Diamonds, Billing Services...

15th Feb 2011 11:33

Miner Forte Energy has discovered further significant intersections after drilling 10 new holes at its A238 uranium prospect in Mauritania.The holes were drilled immediately north of the main shoot of the A238 system "provide a clearer geological picture of the transition from the narrow, low grade stacked veins that make up the northern extent of the A238 mineralised structure, into the thick high grade bulk mineralisation of the main shoot".Diamond drilling on this main shoot continues and Forte thinks it should be able to calculate a JORC resource at the beginning of next quarter.Stellar Diamonds has unearthed "encouraging" initial diamond grades from bulk sampling at the its 100%-owned Tongo kimberlite project in eastern Sierra Leone."The initial processing results from the Tongo kimberlite bulk sampling programme are highly encouraging, with an in-situ kimberlite grade of 130 carats per hundred tons (cpht) being recovered from the first 69 tons processed during the commissioning of the DMS plant," chief executive Karl Smithson said. The diluted grade is calculated at 86cpht.Billing Services is down again as the provider of payment and financial risk management services to the telecommunications industry predicted a big drop earnings and revenue.The firm predicts EBITDA of $20m-22m for 2011 and revenue of $104m-109m, down from $38.9m and $146.5m respectively in 2010."The realities of the current market conditions are clearly constraining the company's performance and the financial covenants in the company's credit agreement are scheduled to tighten in 2011," it said. "Consequently, the company shortly expects to conclude an amendment to its credit agreement to accommodate the current financial outlook." Specialist book publisher Quarto grew adjusted profit before tax by 8% to £7.4m in 2010 and profit on a reported basis by 38% to £5m. Revenue increased by 7% to £113.8m.The final dividend rises to 4.15p a share from 4p in 2009, taking the total payout to 7.5p from 7.15p.Tertiary Minerals has announced positive drilling results for the remaining 32 drill holes from the resource definition drilling programme at its 100% owned Storuman fluorspar project in Sweden."We are confident that today's results have paved the way for the discovery of additional mineralisation and for potential resource upgrades in future," executive chairman Patrick Cheetham said.