Karnalyte Resources Inc. hit its highest level since listing in late 2010 and was trading near the top end of a $16.77 to $16.99 trading range early Monday after announcing that it has received a positive Feasibility Study for its 100 per cent owned Wynyard Carnallite Project. Based on the technical report, 144 million tonnes of potash product may be extracted and produced from the Project's reserves at 97 per cent KCl and 90 per cent plant efficiency, which suggests a project life of 68 years at a production rate of 2.125 million tpy. But despite the strong gains, with 45 minutes of Monday's trading day gone, only 7,600 shares had changed hands. This compared to an average trading volume of around 38,000 over the previous 30 days.
Dynacor Gold Mines Inc. announced that its board of directors has approved the development of a new gold processing facility located on the Pan American Highway south of Nazca, Peru for $4.5-million. The company said the new state of the art gold processing plant will be built with an initial capacity of 300 tonnes per day and has been designed to be readily upgraded to 430 tonnes per day.
GLG Life Tech rose as much as 8 per cent after announcing the results of its 2011 Agriculture R&D Program. The company said it has successfully reached another milestone in its stevia seed propagation program and that its Huinong Three proprietary stevia varietal propagation is on schedule. These new seeds provide GLG with a significant cost reduction in its production of high-purity stevia extracts, the company added.
Armtec Infrastructure Inc. jumped as much as 15 per cent, touching the top end of a $1.77 to $1.98 range, after announcing that Charles Phillips has resigned as both president and chief executive officer and a director in order to pursue other interests. Mark Anderson will be assuming both roles effective immediately, the company said.
Mercator Minerals Ltd. rose as much as 5 per cent early Monday after forecasting copper output from its Mineral Park Mine in Arizona at an average 51 million pounds annually for the next 5 years, on completing the second stage of the site's expansion project. The company said there may be opportunities for improvement upon the base case guidance as it seeks further operating efficiencies. In addition, there may be additional opportunities for increased copper and molybdenum production.
Western Wind Energy Corp. reported project and financial updates, indicating "how these will relate to meeting the goals and objectives of the shareholders to reflect the DAI valuation, in the earliest possible timeframe." Western Wind in recent weeks engaged DAI Management Consultants Inc. to perform a three-part valuation process of all of the company's assets, both financial and physical. Western Wind rose more than 60 per cent and touched a year high of $2.27 earlier this month when it received an unwanted takeover offer from Algonquin Power and Utilities .
Great Basin Gold lost some of its early gains that saw it touch $1.61 in the opening minutes of Monday's trading session (following through on its gains in U.S. pre-trade) after reporting operational improvements during its third quarter, particularly at its Burnstone facilities, where mechanized ore development rose 80 per cent over second-quarter levels. Nevada operations produced 26,045 gold equivalent ounces, down about 2.6 per cent from the prior quarter due to expected grade declines. Ore tonnage from the Hollister project rose 5 per cent to 26,474 tons and was up 34 per cent at the Esmeralda mill to 29,869 tons.
Australia's Bannerman Resources was down 16 per cent early Monday after reportedly saying it would focus on talks with other parties after its board concluded it was unlikely to know whether Chinese firm Hanlong could enter into a binding acquisition agreement within a reasonable time frame.
Silver Standard Resources Inc. announced an update on the status of production at the Pirquitas mine in Jujuy province, Argentina. The Pirquitas ball mill was shut down on Sept. 24 due to the condition of the ball mill gearbox and repairs on the unit were completed on Oct. 10. The gearbox was tested under load and initially operated the ball mill; however continuous condition monitoring indicated it was functioning outside acceptable parameters. To improve ball mill reliability, the decision was subsequently made to rebuild the gearbox with all new internal parts recently received from Siemens AG. This work is on-going and is scheduled to be complete mid-November. A separate new spare gearbox is now scheduled for delivery in January, 2012, and will provide added reliability and redundancy. Silver concentrate sales have resumed on a spot basis. Spot silver concentrate sales are expected to continue through the second quarter of 2012 until long-term contracts are finalized. Several potential silver concentrate buyers, including smelters, have expressed interest and are analyzing samples. Long-term silver concentrate negotiations are expected to conclude second quarter 2012, in-line with seasonal re-negotiation talks. Zinc concentrate sales have continued as projected.
Arctic Glacier Income Fund , Coliseum Capital Management LLC and Talamod Asset Management LLC announced Saturday the settlement agreement as previously announced and extended on Oct. 16, terminating a proxy contest on mutually agreeable terms, has been set aside. Replacing it is a new agreement that provides the Concerned Unitholders with an option to appoint up to two members of the board of trustees of the fund and up to two members of the board of directors of the fund's Canadian operating subsidiary, Arctic Glacier Inc. These options may be exercised at any time and at their discretion up to and including June 30, 2012.
As previously announced, Keith McMahon, president and chief executive officer of the fund, will resign his interim appointment as a trustee of the fund, effective Oct. 21. The trustee appointment was a short-term measure aimed at facilitating the execution of the original settlement agreement, which is no longer in effect.
The fund is continuing its strategic review process, which seeks to achieve a transaction that enhances unitholder value.
ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. fell as much as 10 per cent early today as it provided updates on its previously announced dual-track process involving a spinoff of the company's combined solar businesses or a sale of Photowatt France and, or Photowatt Ontario. It said detailed discussions with parties in regards to a sale of PWF have recently concluded without producing an acceptable transaction. The state of economic conditions in Europe and further deterioration in the demand for solar products in France, and the rest of Europe, are negatively impacting PWF and have prompted the company to re-examine the viability of the spinoff alternative. Given these developments and the significant reduction in off-balance sheet obligations at PWF (as previously announced), ATS is reconsidering a broader set of strategic options for both PWF and PWO." ATS said it remains committed to the separation of its solar business and expects a modest delay to the previously announced timeline. The company still expects to complete the separation without materially impacting growth plans for its core automation business.
Boss Power Corp. reports that with the matter of the lawsuit against the Province of British Columbia for the expropriation of the Blizzard Uranium Project now behind it, the company is considering what its exploration focus will be moving forward. It said the $30-million costs that will flow to the company as a result of the settlement announced Oct. 20 will provide the company with the ability to seek out new exploration projects and once again make the company an active participant in the junior resource sector. President and CEO Randy Rogers said: "Junior resource issuers need more than viable geological targets to return value to shareholders. For a company to thrive in any given jurisdiction we need political stability and security of tenure. The Province of British Columbia has indicated by settling this expropriation lawsuit that they are willing to listen to the concerns of the exploration industry and now has a chance to demonstrate to the world that British Columbia remains a safe place for exploration investment."
New Flyer Industries Inc. , a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty transit buses in Canada and the United States, announced late Friday that order activity for the third fiscal quarter of 2011 ended Oct. 2 was for 242 buses or 430 equivalent production units, with a total value of $181.6-million. Deliveries in the third-quarter were 442 EUs, an improvement of 11 EUs from the previous quarter. It said the quarter's order activity comprised new firm and new option orders of 49 buses (98 EUs) and exercised options of 189 buses (328 EUs) with approximately 60 per cent of the EUs for clean-propulsion vehicles (i.e., hybrid or CNG). It added the existing backlog position combined with the order intake over the last 12 months is expected to allow the company to maintain the current production line entry rate of approximately 36 EUs per week through the balance of 2011 and into the first half of 2012. This production rate reflects six days during the winter holiday period when the company does not plan to produce or deliver buses.
Harmony Gold Corp. announced Friday that it has terminated the option agreement with ECI Exploration and Mining Inc. pursuant to which it had been granted an option to acquire up to a 70 per cent interest in ECI's Purisima Project located in the state of Nayarit, in west-central Mexico. The company said it recently acquired an option to earn 100 per cent undivided interest in the Foubert Lake Property, comprised of 20 claims for a total of 1,010.93 hectares, located in Carheil Township, approximately 230 kilometres northwest of Val d'Or, Quebec and in addition management is actively pursuing other opportunities.
NSGold Corp. announced Friday that NSX Silver Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of NSGold Corp., has filed a preliminary prospectus with the securities commissions of each of the provinces of Canada in connection with a distribution of NSX Silver common shares to the shareholders of NSGold by way of dividend in kind. NSGold, the sole shareholder of NSX Silver, will distribute an aggregate of approximately 43.4 million common shares of NSX Silver to the shareholders of NSGold by way of dividend in kind. NSGold shareholders will receive one common share of NSX Silver for every issued and outstanding NSGold share on the distribution record date. The record date for the distribution of the NSX Silver shares will be set by the board of directors of NSGold in accordance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. NSGold will issue a press release announcing the record date. It is not expected that NSGold will retain a material number of shares of NSX Silver, if any.
Legend Gold Corp. announced today that it has appointed Douglas G. Perkins as the president and chief executive officer of the company, effective Oct. 24. Scott Waldie has resigned as president and CEO, but will continue on the board of directors, and will provide consulting services during the transition, the company said.
AgriMarine Holdings Inc. , which has been trading near a year low 21 cents, announced today that its subsidiary and licensing arm, AgriMarine Norway AS, is moving forward with its licensing strategy by pursuing concessions in Norway earmarked for closed containment. The company said it believes that licensing is key to rapidly deploying its technology in a capital-efficient manner and is placing a high priority on this endeavour.
Concordia Resource Corp. announced today that it has signed an arrangement agreement with Swala Resources Inc. to acquire all of the issued and outstanding Swala securities. The company said Swala brings an extensive exploration portfolio in the resource endowed regions of Burkina Faso, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Mozambique with a land package totaling over 12,400 kilometres-squared, as well as an experienced management team and board of directors with extensive expertise in Africa.