Small caps round-up: MDM Engineering, Panther Securities, Stratex, ...

1st Sep 2009 08:32

MDM Engineering, the minerals process and project management group that provides services to the mining industry in Africa, has been awarded a contract to undertake a scoping study for Rand Uranium.The scoping study will explore the economic viability of reprocessing medium grade gold and uranium tailings and the retreatment of the concentrate at a new plant as supplementary feed. Trading in the shares of Panther Securities was suspended on 1 September as the property investment firm has been unable to publish its results for the first half of the year in time, due to operational reasons.Gold exploration and development company Stratex is to expand its Ethiopian operations through the purchase of a 5.6% interest in PLUS-quoted Sheba Exploration for £40,000.Stratex has signed a letter of intent with Sheba to earn-in to an initial 60% of the prospective Shehagne project and explore new prospective targets and licence areas in northern Ethiopia on a 70:30 joint venture basis. Kenmare Resources, the Irish firm that owns the Moma Titanium Minerals Mine in Mozambique, said it is on target for full production by the end of the year.The firm, which is not yet revenue-accruing posted a pre-tax loss of $200,000 for the half year, compared with $8.1m over the same period the previous year.Material handling solutions provider Clyde Process Solutions said trading performance has been slightly ahead of market expectations in the first half. The group said the strong performance has been achieved despite the current challenging macro-economic environment within its key customer markets. "The group has also benefited from the full implementation of its cost savings initiatives," it said.Shares in Meridian Petroleum gushed higher after the oil and gas explorer and producer said a recent analysis confirmed 'the significant prospectivity' of its PEL 82 licence in South Australia.Norseman Gold improved Tuesday after the Australian gold producer made a full year profit before tax from continuing operations of A$22.2m versus a loss of A$8.7m a year ago. A 4.6% hike in production for the 12 months to 30 June to 80,753 ounces and higher gold prices sent revenue up 36% to A$96.7m. Communication services firm Daisy has appointed Anthony Riley as its new finance boss, replacing Stewart Porter who leaves after nine years to pursue other interests. 'We are delighted to welcome Anthony to the Board and we are confident that his experience at Daisy Communications Limited and elsewhere will prove valuable to the next stage of our growth,' said chief executive Mathew Riley.Shares in environmental services firm Fountains have been suspended pending the result of the Court hearing to sanction the £13.3m recommended offer from social housing firm Connaught.Beowulf, the mineral exploration company which runs several exploration projects in Northern Sweden, saw half year pre-tax losses widen to £232,055 from £203,074 last time.Data centre and web site hosting company Iomart has teamed up with digital agency Cimex to provide critical support in Cimex's management of a number of high profile government portals. The contract, which will incorporate a comprehensive disaster recovery solution, is regarded by both companies as the beginning of a long-term relationship between the two companies.Drug developer Antisoma said that that the ATTRACT-1 phase III trial of ASA404 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has reached its enrolment target of 1,200 patients. The trial is conducted by Novartis, Antisoma's development and commercialisation partner for ASA404.Mobile e-mail and synchronisation specialist Synchronica has won a contract with a mobile phone network operator in Pakistan. The unnamed operator has more than 20m subscribers in Pakistan. It has issued an initial $0.12m purchase order for 50,000 user licences for Synchronica's mobile gateway product, and has also ordered professional services worth $29,750.