Power Metal Resources (LON:POW) has provided shareholders with their quarterly business update that included progress at their Tati project, updates on spin-outs and a £1.05m fundraising in November.

Exploration progress was recorded in the Tati project in Botswana where a drill programme was completed and 10 out of 19 holes were drilled at their Canadian Silver project.

Power Metal Resources also secured an option agreement for Kalahari Key Mineral Exploration Pty Ltd which would see Kavango Resources as POW’s operational partner at the Molopo Farms Complex Project.

Power Metal’s spin-off vehicles also had a busy quarter with Golden Metal Resources acquiring the Pilot Mountain Project whilst preparing for an IPO in London.

Power Metal’s FDR Australia subsidiary company had a number of technical updates from gold/copper targets at the Wallal Project.

Paul Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Power Metal Resources plc, commented: 

“We have chosen a non-conformist path for Power Metal in order to build a company, and investment proposition, quite unlike any other within the London junior resource space.”

“We have opted for scale and diversity, assembling a large portfolio, widely spread across multiple jurisdictions and commodities, with a main focus on district scale opportunities.”

“Our mission, after the first phase of portfolio building, was to create value through proactive exploration and corporate activity.  We are doing just that as you will see from the project level detail provided for the most recent quarter below.”

“We currently sit at an important point in the Power Metal life-cycle, coincidentally, at a time when the world is demanding unprecedented quantities of metals for investment security, new infrastructure builds and to power the ongoing green technological revolution. “

“Despite the world’s aspirations, the practical reality is that in recent years we have seen metal supply attrition with a lack of large-scale metal discoveries combined with subdued investment in the exploration and project development space.”

“With such skewed supply/demand fundamentals, sectors can come alive, and we believe 2022 will be an exciting year for the junior mining resource space.”

“The final quarter of 2021 is captured below with a brief assessment by the Company of each project and company within our portfolio.  The work completed during the final quarter of 2021 has set up Power Metal well for the coming year.”

The IAG share price was the top riser in London’s leading index on Tuesday as fears over the omicron variant diminished and investors picked up the beaten down shares.

“Stocks reliant on international travel are powering ahead, with British Airways owner, International  Consolidated Airlines Group rising 7% in early trade. With yet more indications that Omicron, though highly infectious, does not cause such serious illness, a wave of relief is pushing up companies which have been hit by worries about tighter restrictions,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

IAG shares were up over 10% at the time of writing in morning trade on Tuesday.

The rally in the IAG share price came a day after US airline shares soared in the first trading session of 2022 in the US.

The rally in US airlines was sparked by a research note by Citigroup analyst Stephen Trent who said the declines due to the Omicron variant could be ‘unreasonable’.

“Nevertheless, higher vaccination rates and emerging anti-viral treatments are just some of the factors that could make negative, knee-jerk stock price reactions to the emergence of future variants look increasingly unreasonable,” Trent wrote in a research note.

IAG shares rose in a broad rally that saw most sectors gain. 79 of the 100 stocks in the FTSE 100 were higher on Tuesday morning with IAG the FTSE’s top riser.

“The best performing stocks in London were in the travel, leisure and energy sectors. Rolls-Royce, also taking off thanks to its heavy footprint in aircraft engines and spares and repairs, announced some corporate housekeeping with the completion of the sale of its Bergen Engines business,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

“The gains for oil firms, airlines and hotel, pub and restaurant operators reflect diminished investor concern about the Omicron variant of Covid-19 amid hopes it is milder, if more transmissible, and therefore may have a limited impact on the economy and won’t require onerous or long-lasting restrictions.”

“This is not a certainty, and there is the possibility the market might change its mind on Omicron again if there are signs the sheer volume of cases threatens to overwhelm countries’ health systems.”

The FTSE 100 kicked off 2022 with strong gains on Tuesday as optimism grew around the impact of Omicron and US tech shares boosted sentiment.

The FTSE 100 was 1.27% higher at 7,478 in early trade on Tuesday.

“There is no sign of an extended New Year hangover for the UK markets. The FTSE 100 was instead in fine fettle on the first trading day of 2022, reaching new post-pandemic highs,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

“Sentiment was helped by a strong showing on Wall Street yesterday, with Apple reaching the remarkable milestone of a $3 trillion valuation before any of its tech giant peers. Tesla also enjoyed a super-charged response to impressive fourth quarter sales report. So much for the technology sector being out of favour.

“The best performing stocks in London were in the travel, leisure and energy sectors. Rolls-Royce, also taking off thanks to its heavy footprint in aircraft engines and spares and repairs, announced some corporate housekeeping with the completion of the sale of its Bergen Engines business.”

IAG was the FTSE 100’s top riser, gaining 9.7% at the time of writing, as investors picked up shares on hopes Omicron would not be as damaging to the industry as first thought. IAG was one of the FTSE 100’s worst performing stocks of 2021 and although their were standout gains for the airline in the first session of 2021, the stock remained well below 52-week highs.

“With yet more indications that Omicron, though highly infectious, does not cause such serious illness, a wave of relief is pushing up companies which have been hit by worries about tighter restrictions,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Further evidence of optimism around the longer term impact of Omicron came from weakness in shares considered to be ‘COVID’ stocks or ones with defensive characteristics.

Ocado was off by 4% whilst Fresnillo gave up 4%.