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Resource prospectors are enjoying a bracing New Year. First Quantum’s hostile bid for copper play Adastra has added to the cheer, as have plans for 1.18 million oz annual gold production in 2009 from Peter Hambro Mining.

At 125p, Adastra is obviously worth holding, as is Hambro, which I first recommended here at 461p in September 2004 and is now trading at £13.33.

Buoyant Egyptian gas production has another recommendation, Centurion Energy, bouncing forward to 687.5p, where some profit-taking might be wise, though more growth is possible. A solution of regulatory workforce problems has revived Centamin Egypt, now 26.5p and offering speculative potential, while a £30 million pre-feasibility value suggested for speculative Angus & Ross’s Black Angel lead/zinc deposit in Greenland should impart some bounce at 12.75p.

Jubilee’s nickel prize

Colin Bird has had a long haul running Jubilee Platinum, whose impressive-looking platinum group metals prospects in South Africa’s Bushveld have met with scepticism in some quarters. Now nickel projects in Madagascar are winning fans.
 
Jubilee has raised £1.5 million with a loan convertible at 70p and says its first bore hole at Londokomanana in Madagascar shows encouraging average grades of up to 0.64 per cent nickel. That is equivalent to two per cent copper, with gross metal values ranging from $146 to $278 per tonne of rock.

Recommended by me in our Company Watch section last year at 26p, Jubilee shares have reached 65p. They could go further.

Reserve lift for Imperial

AIM star Imperial Energy says testing at its Festivalnaya 252 well in Western Siberia could add 22 million barrels to recoverable reserves, an increase of nearly ten per cent, according to ‘provisional estimates’. Floated at 25p in 2004, Imperial shares have soared to 635p, valuing the company at £221 million. Some profit-taking looks prudent. But Imperial could well have more mileage yet.

Sector minnow Meridian Petroleum, meanwhile, reports impressive-sounding ‘commercial’ gas flows in Louisiana. It is a gamble at 14.25p, as is fast-moving Kazakhstan newcomer Max Petroleum at 145p. 

Solomon takes AIM

As foreshadowed on our news pages before Christmas, Pacific-focused Solomon Gold plans a £3-to-£4 million AIM launch this month. Williams de Broe is nominated adviser and broker to Solomon, which holds four exploration licences in Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, lying on the South-West Pacific’s geological ‘Ring of Fire’.

Solomon, formerly a subsidiary of Aussie-listed D’Aiguilar Gold, is headed by Aussie geologist Nick Mather. Former City mining guru and ex-World Gold Council executive Rob Weinberg is a non-executive director. One of its licences adjoins the two-million oz Gold Ridge deposit, now being developed by another, unrelated company, Australian Solomon Gold, which itself plans an AIM float.

The issue should be well received as long as today’s market climate lasts.

Central China on bid path

Tempted by the Hong Kong stock market’s apparent thirst for Chinese mining shares, Jeffrey Malaihollo is adopting a new strategy for AIM-quoted Central China Goldfields. The company wants to devote 2006 to confirming one to two million oz of gold resources in Sichuan and Hubei provinces.

That will cost money, but managing director Malaihollo, a financier, is on the look out for small producing local mines to buy, with a view to floating minority stakes on Hong Kong. The enthusiasm of Hong Kong punters for Chinese gold producer Lingbao’s 1,200 times oversubscribed float has whetted appetites.

Central China, now 7.5p, has £1.54 million cash and could take £2.5 million more if the shares move enough to encourage 8p warrants to be exercised. Possible acquisitions add potential speculative spice.