Commodities

By Stewart Dalby In line with its established practice, Alkane Energy the UK gas-to-power producer has released a trading statement ahead of its final results for 2014 which are due to be announced on March 11. The company has reported a weak final quarter to 2014. The mild and stable weather at the start of…

Noricum’s exploration work on its Austrian ground continues apace. The company has just announced the completion of three further drill holes on its Schonberg gold and precious metals project in the central southern part of the country. Results are due in a few weeks’ time, but ahead of those Noricum has said that all three…

By Amy McLellan Royal Dutch Shell delivered its full year results on Thursday, the first of the oil majors to get its numbers out, and the statement was much scrutinised as investors sought clues as to the impact of the rout in the oil price, down 60 per cent since June. Even for a company…

By Amy McLellan Oil companies, wherever they operate, are no strangers to political interference, be it fiscal fiddling, fracking policy or offshore drilling bans. Companies also often find themselves at the mercy of geopolitical forces beyond their control: witness the travails of Gulfsands Petroleum following the outbreak of civil war in Syria. A number of…

By Alastair Ford “When we discovered NICO in the mid-1990s, only one per cent of cobalt consumed globally was used to manufacture rechargeable batteries”, says Fortune Minerals’ Troy Nazarewicz. “Now, with the ubiquity of smartphones and other portable electronics, it’s a little over 40 per cent.” So a seismic shift has taken place over the…

The latest research from GMP Securities on Mincor makes no bones about what the implications are of the recent drill results from the company’s Cassini, Voyce and Durkin nickel projects. “Impact: positive”, says GMP succinctly. “These are very encouraging results.” Mincor, as regular Minesite readers will already know, is well-established as an existing nickel miner,…

By Amy McLellan Those companies that took on too much debt without shoring up defences against a rout in the oil price – and four years of high oil prices lulled some into complacency on oil price risk – are now feeling the pain of falling cash flows, breached covenants and looming bankruptcy. Swedish oil…

 by Our Oilbarrel Staff There was support for the executive team at Gulfsands Petroleum at the end of last week as strategic partner Arawak Energy International said it would recall its US$20 million loan facility if dissident shareholders succeed in getting CEO Mahdi Sajjad and commercial director Ken Judge removed at a general meeting set…

By Stewart Dalby Central Petroleum has amassed what it says is the largest package of proven and prospective oil and gas acreage across central Australia at a critical time for Australia’s energy supply. We last wrote about Central in July (2014) when we said that two years on from the bruising boardroom struggles that marked…