Gold mining minnows jostle for spotlight

Much like gold prices have dominated the headlines of late, the Alternative Investment Market was dripping with updates from the gold mining minnows on Thursday.

In what was shaping up to be a bumper reporting day for the junior index, a host of miners spanning the globe from Australia to Turkey jostled for the spotlight.

First up was Turkey and Saudi Arabia-focused Kefi Minerals, which said that "the strength in the gold market, combined with the opportunities identified by the company" provides it with an exciting opportunity.

However, the company significantly increased its losses during the first half of the year to £669,000 after exploration costs and administration expenses rose.

Despite this, Kefi remained upbeat about its future prospects. Field exploration recently began at its Selib North project, which is the first exploration licence granted in Saudi Arabia. The company is also evaluating the Tiouit gold-copper mine in Morocco, which it said "represents an excellent opportunity for Kefi to potentially quickly become a gold producer".

"Morrocco, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are under-explored countries with excellent potential for discovery of major gold and copper mines. We will continue to progress effective exploration programmes that aim to fast track gold discovery and eventual development of new mines," it told investors.

From the Middle East to Russia, fellow gold explorer Ovoca Gold is also on a mission to beef up its portfolio.

In the first half of this year, it kicked off exploration at two new targets; Podgorniy and Zet.

A 5,000-metre drilling programme was initiated at Podgorniy, of which some 4,000 metres is already completed and indicate "potentially gold bearing mineralisation".

Up to 2,500 metres have also been drilled at Zet, exceeding the original 2,000 metres planned. The focus was to establish that surface mineralisation, as shown by previous trench work, extends to depth.

And in July, the company, which operates in the Magadan region of Russia, published an updated JORC inferred resource at Olcha, paving the way for the company to receive a full exploitation licence for the gold deposit.

Fellow Russian gold miner Trans-Siberian Gold also announced its interim results today and the start of gold production at its Asacha project earlier this month.

The company, which narrowed its losses to $1 million (c£639,197) for the first six months of this year from $1.8 million a year earlier, said it had spent the first half concentrating on completing the construction of the gold plant and infrastructure to aid the start of gold production.

On 24 September, three gold dore bars were produced and are expected to be shipped to the refinery in early October.

Expenditure on the project up to the end of July amounted to $127.8 million, with the remaining costs prior to the start of gold production estimated at some $9 million, the company said.

And last, but not least, across the globe Solomon Gold sought to cheer investors with news of an increased inferred resource estimates at its Rannes project in Australia.

The company unveiled a maiden resource at Brother and Cracklin Rosie prospects, as well as a further upgrade at Kauffmans-Homestead prospect, all part of its wholly-owned Rannes Project in Central Queensland.

A maiden inferred resource of 35,000 ounces contained gold equivalent was announced at the Brother prospect, while Cracklin Rosie notched up 24,000 ounces.

In total, the group's inferred mineral resource estimate at Rannes increased by 24% to 676,000 ounces of gold equivalent.

Drilling will continue at the Kauffmans-Homestead prospect within the project, as well as at the 21 other prospects so far identified in the Rannes project area to meet the company's objective of defining two million ounces of gold equivalent.

The company has AU$9 million (c£5.7 million) in its coffers to continue with its exploration programme.

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