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London’s junior AIM market is still attracting potential new resource recruits. One is Graham Mascall, boss of Galahad Gold’s ambitious AIM protégé International Molybdenum (33.5p), who is also lining up Toronto-quoted Eurozinc Corporation for a listing.

Eurozinc owns and runs Portugal’s large-scale Neves Corvo copper mine, described by Mascall, a veteran of the BHP Billiton mining giant, as a ‘big cash earner’. The mine once belonged to Rio Tinto, but has a more chequered recent history marked by an abortive attempt to take it in hand by AIM flop Murchison United.

As revealed by Growth Company Investor in July, the Galahad camp is also preparing to float Jo’burg-based uranium prospector Uranco on AIM. The other day Uranco raised £16.5 million in a private pre-float placing at 41.5p, a price it no doubt hopes to better with the public AIM launch.

Elsewhere, the battle-scarred but indefatigable Brian Moritz has teamed up once again with entrepreneurial figures John Woolgar and Jamie Burgess to raise around £3 million for All African Resources, a gold prospector set up to cash in on Tanzania’s current popularity as a mining area. Broker Hichens Harrison is to handle the float, which should value the speculative concern at some £4 million.

A Congo whale for Jonah

Recent AIM entrant Copper Resources Corporation (CRC) is set to transform itself from a play on the Philippines’ potentially-rich Hinoba-an copper project to a significant copper producer in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Chaired by former Ashanti Goldfields chief Sir Sam Jonah and run by Australian miner Chris Jordinson, CRC has agreed to buy 75 per cent of Miniere Musoshi Kinsdenda (MMK) from the local Forrest family, which has been in mining and general business in the Congo since 1922.

Jordinson says MMK’s three deposits in mineral-rich Katanga province contain an estimated 5.3 billion lbs of copper at high grades, ranging from 2.2 to 5.3 per cent. Two are old mines, which will need dewatering at a cost of £2.75 million, and the third is an exploration play.

He argues MMK could produce 40,000 tonnes a year of 45 per cent copper concentrate at an operating cost of 40 to 45 cents a lb, against recent prices of more than 178 cents. Jordinson puts the capital cost at up to £22 million.
He suggests that, with nearly £9 million in the bank, project finance should be available. The deal gives 40 per cent of an enlarged CRC and board representation to the Forrest family, who should be able to open local doors (and are not, Jordinson insists, concerned to move capital out of the country).

Congo is arguably seen as less politically troubled these days than formerly – while recent threats, real or rumoured, to interests held or being bought by the likes of Sibir Energy and Celtic Resources in Russia show that other parts of the world can be at least as risky. The MMK deal could add speculative spice to CRC shares, now trading at a depressed 45p.

Ascent on the climb

Shares in European oil and gas prospector Ascent Resources have more than doubled since Growth Company Investor highlighted them in early August. RAB Capital, Framlington and Bruce Rowan are among the backers of this AIM-quoted group, whose boss Jeremy Eng has high hopes for Hungary, where Ascent’s 90 per cent-owned joint venture company Petro Hungaria has an agreement with local resources group to develop ‘unexploited assets’ in the Magyar republic.

AIM-quoted Ascent, which raised £2.7 million at 4.55p (with warrants) earlier this year and now trades at 10p, will use ‘state-of-the-art stimulation techniques’ to develop virgin oil and gas reserves. The company also has promising gas interests in Italy’s Po Valley and prospects in such unlikely spots as Holland and Switzerland. Hold on.