Precious metals miner Claude Resources was down 2.5 per cent after saying it has increased its offer for the rest of gold exploration company St. Eugene Mining Corp. to $19-million. St Eugene jumped 35 per cent with around 4.5 milion shares traded compared to an average trading volume of around 340,000 over the previous 30 days. In July, Claude said it would buy the rest of St. Eugene's shares for about $14-million, or 0.0601 of its share for every share of St. Eugene. Under the terms of the new deal, St. Eugene shareholders will get 0.0789 of a Claude share for every St. Eugene share. This values St. Eugene's shares at 16 cents each, nearly a 40 per cent per cent premium to its Tuesday closing. Additionally, at closing, each St. Eugene shareholder will receive 0.25 common shares of a newly formed, wholly-owned, subsidiary of St. Eugene (Spinco) in respect of each St. Eugene share. Spinco will be transferred St. Eugene's interests in the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project and approximately $800,000 in cash. Claude will maintain its pro-rata stake in Spinco.
Bellhaven Copper & Gold Inc. announced a strategic investment by IAMGOLD Corp. that will see IAMGOLD subscribe for 11 million units of Bellhaven at $0.55 per unit, thereby providing it with a 10.2 per cent equity interest in Bellhaven. Closing of the Subscription Agreement is subject to regulatory approvals. Today's gains takes Bellhaven further away from a year low of 35 cents and bang in line with its 50 day SMA. It was above a 200 day SMA of 41 cents. More than 210,000 Bellhaven shares had changed hands inside the opening 45 minutes of Wednesday's trading day compared to an average trading volume of around 240,000 over the previous 30 days.
Full Metal Zinc Ltd. share were up 30 per cent in early Wednesday trade after the base and precious-metals explorer said that Steve Hayes will join the company as chief executive officer and president, effective Nov. 1. Mr. Hayes succeeds Robert McLeod, who will remain with Full Metal as a board member and special consultant as it continues its exploration programs in Alaska. Hayes began his career with multiple commodities groups at Noranda Sales Corp. and later worked 14 years at Breakwater Resources, opting to leave Breakwater following its acquisition by Nyrstar NV.
MI Developments Inc. has hit new year highs early Wednesday after it announced late yesterday that its board of directors has completed its previously announced strategic review process and unanimously approved a strategic plan that encompasses the following major elements and objectives: convert MID from a Canadian corporation to a Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust; increase the company's quarterly dividend to $0.50 (U.S.) per share to reflect a targeted annualized dividend of $2 (U.S.) per share; fortify MID's relationship with Magna International Inc. by selectively investing in MID properties and opportunistically growing with Magna in new strategic locations; diversify by significantly increasing the lease revenue derived from new industrial tenants and reducing the proportion of capital invested in Magna properties to less than 50 per cent within approximately three years; increase leverage to 40-50 per cent of total capital. MI is a Canadian-based real estate company engaged primarily in the acquisition, development, construction, leasing, management and ownership of a predominantly industrial rental portfolio of properties in North America and Europe leased primarily to Magna and its automotive operating units.
Imperial Metals Corporation , which lost 2.5 per cent yesterday, touched as high as $19.37 early Wednesday as it reported results from the completed 2011 underground diamond drill program at its Ruddock Creek property located 155 kilometres northeast of Kamloops, B.C. Highlights included two mineralized intervals intercepted in drill hole EUG-11-083 grading 14.43 per cent zinc and 2.27 per cent lead over an estimated true thickness of 8.4 metres and grading 11.64 per cent zinc and 2.34 per cent lead over an estimated true thickness of 5.9 metres. The underground diamond drill program was designed to further define the Lower E zone, and consisted of 76 drill holes totaling 14,133.4 metres from seven underground drill stations.
Construction company Aecon Group Inc. was adding to the 5 cents gained yesterday after saying its mining division secured a $80-million contract for site preparation and early work at a new potash mine in Saskatchewan. The company said work at the mine was scheduled for completion in the fall of 2012.
Tarsis Resources Ltd. said it has completed its 2011 exploration program at White River, Yukon, and is provided an update on recent activities and partial results. The company said its 2011 focus has been largely directed toward expanding its detail grid soil geochemical coverage and geological understanding of the targets within the western part of the property where "significant" gold-copper-silver discoveries have been reported from a number of showings and zones. Additional work has also been conducted within the eastern part of the property including ridge and spur soil sampling plus subsequent follow up grid soil sampling. The company expects to receive additional assay data from soil and trench samples in November.
Amaya Gaming Group Inc. was slightly higher at $2.21 – compared to a 50 and 200 day SMA of $2.21 and $2.20 respectively – after announcing earlier today the official launch of the YOOLA OBUKADDE SMS GAME, its short message service game in Uganda. The entertainment solutions provider said this launch "is an exciting milestone for Amaya. Our previous experience deploying similar SMS solutions validates the effectiveness of our technology and the strong market demand for such a service."
Argex Mining Inc. touched as high as 55 cents – compared to a 50 and 200 day SMA of 52 cents and 49 cents respectively – after announcing that it has received the results of the preliminary economic assessment completed on its 100 per cent-owned La Blache project. The company said the La Blache PEA study includes production profile of 195,000 tonnes of TiO2 at capacity, price per tonne of TiO2 (trailing three-year average): $2,846 (U.S. per tonne), and payback period of seven years – assuming a staged, modular plant construction.
Adventure Gold Inc. moved higher by about 10 per cent to touch its 50 and 200 day SMA of 40 cents in both cases after announcing the results from its 100 per cent-owned Pascalis-Colombiere property, strategically located in the eastern part of the Val-d'Or mining camp, Quebec. The company said recent work led to the discovery of a high-grade gold-copper-silver showing located 1.2 km northwest of the shaft of the former L.C. Beliveau gold mine. Grab samples collected within the new mineralized zone returned up to 4.7 g/t gold, 11.4 per cent copper and 112 g/t silver, the company added.
Marifil Mines Ltd. lost an early gain that saw it touch 22 cents in the early minutes of Wednesday's trading day before succumbing to selling pressure as it announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the Dos Lagunas and the Maquinchao gold projects from a private party. The properties total 2,221 hectares and both properties are located in Rio Negro Province, Argentina. The terms of the contract call for payments of $10,000 on signing (paid) and escalating payments over five years totaling $125,000 followed by a final payment of $1-million to earn a 100 per cent interest in the properties, the company added.
Americas Petrogas Inc. was down by more than 10 per cent and below its 50-day and 200-day SMAs of $1.73 and $1.85 respectively after announcing three conventional oil discoveries from the recently-completed exploration drilling program on the Rinconada Norte block (96 sq.km. or 37 sections) located in the eastern margin of the Neuquen Basin of Argentina. All three wells are capable of production but only RN.x-1004 is likely to be in production during the fourth quarter of 2011, the company added.
Wireless services provider Choice Wireless said today that it has entered into an agreement with Redline Communications Group Inc. to provide high-speed broadband services to enterprise customers across the United States Virgin Islands. Tony Shepherd, general manager of Choice Wireless, reportedly said Redline's products "meet our business customers' needs for low latency and high capacity broadband services and they provide us with the ability to utilize our existing backhaul facilities and tower facilities."
CRH Medical Corp. reported today its unaudited financial results for the three months that ended Sept. 30. The distributor of innovative medical products said it ended the quarter with a net income of $301,087 or $0.006 per share, erasing year ago loss $228,919 or $0.005 per share. Revenues were $1.4-million, up from the previous year's $927,775. The increase in revenue is the result of the sales of its O'Regan System direct to physicians, the company added.
Discovery Ventures Inc. announced today the appointment of Mike England as president and chief executive oOfficer. The company said Mr. England has extensive experience in resource company management, venture capital financing, and mergers and acquisitions.