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Metal prices have stagnated of late, with platinum well below its peaks, gold still short of the chartists' $277 an ounce target and copper futures said to be heading south. Rio Tinto at £12.19 has eased marginally, but remains a hold, as do Antofagasta, off 5p at 510p, and Lonmin at 887.5p. For now, the show is being stolen by Australian companies or companies with Australian links, such as Aquarius, Dwka, CBH and Perilya.

Payout and production hopes for Aquarius

Imminent results from Aim-listed Aquarius Platinum are expected to show production at its Kroondal project in South Africa rising at the rate of 50 per cent a year. A maiden dividend is also on the cards.

The production increase should offset the impact of lower platinum group metal prices. At 286.5p, the shares have fallen nearly £1 from their 12 month high, though they are still more than 50p above their low.

This volatility is not likely to vanish, though the prospect of dividend payments should in theory make the shares less speculative. They offer long-term value by comparison with other producers.

Gems twinkle at Dwyka

Australian mining counter Dwyka, which broker Beeson Gregory is bringing to Aim next month, is well pleased with Diamix, the company with diamond deposits near Kimberley in South Africa which it it is acquiring. Advisers say Diamix's latest output has averaged $920 a carat, against $750 seen previously, with larger stone sizes than before.

That has, unfortunately, not prevented Dwka's shares from easing 15 per cent to 30 cents (11p) since Beeson's recent £3.5 million fundraising for the company Down Under. Diamix brings to Dwyka a potentially exciting array of assets and the expertise and local clout of its founding Hohne brothers, and Beeson will be striving to impress this as forcibly as it can on investors ahead of the London listing.

It should repay a medium-term punt.

Aussie Londoners in Pasminco battle

As revealed here recently, another antipodean mining hopeful planning a London listing is Consolidated Broken Hill, which broker W H Ireland intends to bring to Aim in a few weeks with a £6.5 million fundraising. CBH plans to break into the big time Down Under by acquiring as much as it can of the lead, zinc and silver deposits in Broken Hill, New South Wales, which have fuelled Australia's economic growth for more than 120 years.

CBH, which has already bought Broken Hill's central CML7 mining title from tough guy Robert de Crespigny's Normandy group, is now bidding for the Broken Hill operations of Pasminco, a local mining giant brought low by multibillion dollar debts. The company is offering an undisclosed sum, to be paid in stages in cash and shares.

To operate the target deposits, CBH is forming an 85-15 joint venture with Clough Engineering, an Aussie-listed engineering, construction and mining combine. Clough is to subscribe for A$2 million (£700,000) of CBH shares to help develop the CML7 property.

There is, however, one fly in the ointment, in the shape of Perilya, another London-listed Australian miner. Perilya, now trading on the LSE at 11p, also wants Pasminco's Broken Hill properties.

CBH director Ian Plimer claims his company's bid is worth more than Perilya's, though the details have not been disclosed. He describes CBH and Perilya as 'two jackals', but insists CBH will bite deepest.

CBH shares at 4p are down from a 7p 12 month high, but have lately been rising against a falling market. Perilya, up from a 7p low, has shed less ground.

Both have speculative possibilities for the strong-nerved. CBH could have the edge, in the near-term.

Oxus plunge hurts others more

Shares in Oxus Mining, Aim-listed gold explorer with prospects in central Asia, have fallen yet again to 11.5p. That is scarcely more than a third of the price at which DWA Capital recently helped raise £8 million for the company.

There has been talk of a concerted bear operation by a handful of large private investors. Brokers report that fund managers who had been contemplating putting some money behind other small- and medium-sized mining companies have decided to give them a wide berth following the Oxus slump.

For Oxus itself, however, it is a different story. The company has received its £8 million and SRK Consulting Engineers has completed an audit of the bankable feasibility study of Oxus' Amantaytau project, commissioned by Barclays Capital.

Oxus says this audit suggests production from the first mine there could reach 637,000 ounces of gold and 6.6 million ounces of silver over nine years. Capital costs are put at $35.8 million (£25.5 million) and cash operating costs are estimated at $113 for each ounce of gold, against a current price of $273.

Oxus now says that, with newly acquired areas included, its overall attributable resources are 6.5 million ounces of gold, plus 81 million ounces of silver in AGF, a company where Oxus holds 50 per cent. All this implies there could be value in Oxus – but, as we said last week, not unless and until current uncertainties are removed and the company manages to restore its credibility.

Product Power develops finance package

Shares in Product Power International, the Ofex-traded equipment supplier to mining and infrastructure groups in central Asia, have fluctuated widely over the past 12 months, between a 15.25p low and a high of 32.25p. They now stand at 21.75p in the wake of a claim from managing director John Webster that the company has developed an equipment financing 'formula' for clients, with Royal Bank of Scotland and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Webster says the formula uses 'a very creative scheme', called the EBRD Trade Facilitation Programme. Noting that Royal Bank owns Lombard, one of Britain's leading heavy equipment leasing companies, he says PPI is negotiating to obtain access to machinery coming off-lease in the UK and Europe and work with Royal Bank to refinance this equipment for PPI clients in the former Soviet Union.

PPI shares are an illiquid market and not without risk. But, if Webster's financing package is accepted and ultimately bears fruit, they could repay a modest gamble.

African Mining tries again

Remember African Carnegie Diamonds, the Aussie company whose eagerly touted gem prospects in the west African state of Ivory Coast never seemed to come to anything? After two years on hold, it seems there is life in the old dog yet.

Now renamed African Mining & Petroleum Resources and trading on Ofex at all of 1p, the company says it keen to reactivate the Ivory Coast diamond project. Local diggers are continuing to recover stones in the area and geologists have been to inspect the prospect.

The plan now is to return to the site after the rainy season towards the end of January to carry out tests, which can be evaluated after three months. Chairman Chris Fyson and directors Max de Vietri and Stuart Kinner and other backers have put in another £228,000 at prices ranging from 0.15p to 1p.

This is a highly risky, speculative venture, with a dismal track record. But it is safer than Russian roulette.

Coronation looks for deals

Suren Merchandani, boss of Ofex-traded Coronation International, with gold and base metal projects in West Africa, says he is unruffled at operating partner Ranger's decision to pull out of the Essakan gold project in Burkino Faso. Others have expressed interest, he claims, and, anyway, he has always seen Coronation, whose shares now trade at 11p, as much as a deal broker as a mining company.

The company still has its Pagala zinc joint venture in Togo with the Anglo American colossus and is willing to look at non-mining ventures too, using the Merchandani family's local connections to open doors. It seems that local observers reckon trading group Lonrho Africa (at 15p a share) has been resting on its laurels of late, but whether that is the sort of challenge Merchandani has in mind remains to be seen.