Oil and gas company Empyrean Energy (LON: EME) says the Mako joint venture, where it has a 8.5% participating interest, has entered a binding gas sale agreement with PGN for the domestic portion of gas from the Mako field in Indonesia. The deal is subject to the construction of a gas pipeline. This covers 122.8 trillion British thermal units. The rest of the gas will be sold to Singapore. The share price jumped 51.1% to 0.355p.
Portable oxygen devices developer Belluscura (LON: BELL) says that there is significant interest in its proposed placing of convertible loan notes. An investor has also subscribed £300,000 for shares at 15p each. This provides additional working capital. The share price recovered 13.3% to 17p.
Better news from video games publisher tinyBuild (LON: TBLD) because sales in the first five months of 2024 are slightly ahead of expectations. Cash burn is reducing, although there is still investment in new games. The performance will be second half weighted, though. Surgeon Sim IP has been sold to Atari. The share price rebounded 10% to 5.5p.
Aptamer (LON: APTA) has signed two more contracts for Optimer binders for a total value of up to £235,000. The larger contract is for the use of Optimer binders for use in immunohistochemistry. The other involves the development of Optimer binders for diagnostic assay kits. The share price moved 7.14% ahead at 0.75p.
FALLERS
Beacon Energy (LON: BCE) says that the stabilised rate for the Schwarzbach-2 sidetrack is in the range of 50-100 barrels/day, which is much lower than the 900 barrels/day expected. This could be due to reservoir damage in the higher reservoir or poor permeability in the lower reservoir. Costs are being reduced and the accounts will not be ready by 1 July so trading in the shares will be suspended.
Kore Potash (LON: KP2) says that discussions with PowerChina over the engineering, procurement and construction proposal for the Kola potash project in the Republic of Congo continue and the singing of documentation could be in July, rather than by the end of June. More cash will be required for further development of the Kola project. The share price has fallen by one-quarter to 1.2p.
Graphene technology developer Directa Plus (LON: DCTA) says investors with nearly one-fifth of the shares intend to vote against the £6.8m fundraising at 18p/share. Management says that it needs the cash to grow the company and other funding may not be on as good terms. Shareholders are being urged to vote in favour of the general meeting resolution. The share price is 10.3% lower at 17.5p.
Ariana Resources (LON: AAU) has set up a low-cost and relatively mobile detectORE laboratory at the Dokwe project in Zimbabwe. This can produce gold analytical results much faster than sending the drill core to a laboratory. This technology could be used in Turkey. Ariana Resources reported a much lower pre-tax profit of £59,000 in 2023, down from £5.02m, partly due to exchange gains on the Turkish currency declining from £712,000 to £2.82m. The share of the profit of the Turkish associate company slumped from £6.01m to £2.08m. The share price slipped 5.88% to 2.4p.