Small caps round-up: Sirius, Sterling Energy, Amur ...

23rd Jul 2010 11:03

Mining and exploration holding company Sirius Exploration saw losses swell to £3.8m in the year ended 31 March from £0.5m a year ago"We will continue to develop these opportunities whilst also potentially acquiring other potash projects to diversify risk and ensure we move rapidly towards our goal of becoming a significant potash producer," said Chris Catlow, chairman of the firm, focused on potash and salt deposits in North America and Australia.Talks with potential backers are ongoing as the company seeks the additional capital needed to develop these opportunities.Oil and gas explorer Sterling Energy's average net group production fell by 34% to 681 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in the first half of 2010 following the sale of its US business last year. Turnover was down 25% to $12.2m, but the Middle East and Africa-focused company made a small profit of $148,000.Amur Minerals has raised £1.24m from a placing of shares with institutional investors at 3.5p each. It will put the cash towards its limited summer exploration programme to try and increase the stated resource and reserve at Russia's Kun-Manie, the company's main nickel exploration project. The total Russian approved reserve currently stands at 31.7m tonnes of ore and averages 0.64% nickel and 0.18% copper.Eastern Platinum saw production of the precious metal in the three months to June 30 from its Crocodile River mine in South Africa climb by 1% from the previous quarter, but output was held back by the dismissal of staff due to safety concerns.The company produced 30,820 tonnes of platinum during the quarter, up from 30,531 the previous year. 'The contract crews were dismissed due to management's concerns over their safety procedures,' Eastern said. 'Lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) was 2.78, compared to 1.77 in Q1 2010.'Elsewhere in African mining, shares in uranium exploration and development company Uranium Resources jumped after it announced that it has raised £800,000 through a subscription of 40m shares at 2p a share. It will use the funds to explore its uranium prospect Mtonya in southern Tanzania.Mobile marketing and advertising technology provider Velti continues to experience increasing demand for its products and services from existing and new customers and expects to report total revenues in excess of $40m for the first six months of 2010. IT services group Scisys' first half of 2010 has been in line with expectations with guidance unchanged this year. Orders remain good, but the group is cautious over the outlook for the second half of 2010 and for 2011 until the outcome of the UK Government's public expenditure review and the Strategic Defence and Security Review becomes clearer.Kubera Cross Border Fund's NAV increased 12% from $1.07 to $ 1.18 from 31 December 2009 to 30 June. The increase in NAV reflects the improved operating performance of the portfolio companies, and also the accretive benefits of the share buyback conducted in second quarter of 2010.