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The potential impact of these price increases on Western world consumer demand may be baleful but, for now, beneficiaries stand to coin it in. Investors are backing promising oil hopefuls, such as David Bramhill’s US-focused minnow Nighthawk, now 55p, which is extending its acreage at Cisco Springs in Utah. Among the mega-miners, BHP Billiton’s ongoing £75 billion-plus bid for diversified mining group Rio Tinto has a parallel in the prospect of a £35 billion struggle between Russian oligarchs for control of mining giant Norilsk Nickel.

Deals are also plentiful among smaller groups. AIM-quoted Coal of Africa has risen from 14p when we recommended the shares in 2006 to 92p. Analysts suspect the company’s Baobab and Mooiplaats prospects in South Africa could entice a major group, such as Rio.

Coal glows again
Coal plays are winning favour as worldwide demand sends prices soaring. UK Coal, at 452p, indicates that 2007’s pre-tax profits should be up nearly fourfold at £69 million. ATH Resources lifted profits by 27 per cent to £10.3 million last year and recently received planning permission for a one million tonne extension at Grievehall in Ayrshire, which has boosted the shares at 206.5p.

Acute power shortages in South Africa add speculative spice to Strategic Natural Resources at 37p, the AIM venture headed by Jeremy Metcalfe, the mellifluous and sometimes controversial ex-boss of fallen mining star Minmet, which says its Eastern Cape reserves have trebled to 15 million tonnes. Melbourne-based Merim Proprietary has been building a stake in another fallen star, Cambrian Mining at 76p.

Cambrian, under boss Mark Burridge, has had to restate its 2006 accounts. The group changes could have a favourable impact on Coal International at 25.5p.

From the same stable, British Columbia-focused Western Canadian Coal says its mines can exploit an anticipated doubling in 2009 contract coal prices. Having lost £6.5 million in the year to last March, the company has cut costs and increased output, and expects new contracts to take it back to black. After crashing from 280p to 30p in 2005, the shares have been clawing their way back up and, though not risk-free, at 143p might now fare better.

Iraqi approval for Petrel
The Baghdad government has approved oil explorer Petrel Resources’ exploration and production agreements at the Subba and Lubhais projects in Iraq. Chaired by veteran Irish entrepreneur John Teeling, AIM-quoted Petrel said recently that the Iraqi authorities had agreed to extend their technical co-operation agreement for another year.

The company, steered by managing director David Horgan, now hopes to discuss the Western Desert Block with the Iraqi government. Petrel shares, which surged from 30p three years ago to 155.5p last November (now at 122p), have speculative appeal for the strong nerved.

Aricom cuts loss
Anglo-Russian mineral developer Aricom earned its first annual revenues and cut pre-tax losses 27 per cent to £920,000. A Peter Hambro Mining spin-off chaired by that company’s influential deputy chairman, Pavel Maslovskiy, Aricom made a maiden net profit of £57,000 after a tax credit of nearly £1 million on turnover of almost £3 million.

Aricom started mining iron ore and ilmnenite at Kuranakh in Russia’s far-eastern Amur province and moved an initial 83,000 tonnes of material. CEO Jay Hambro says the company expects Kuranakh to produce around 225,000 tonnes of titanomagnetite this year and sell 36,000 tonnes of ilmenite.

A feasibility study valued Aricom’s K & S iron ore project at nearly £900 million and the company completed a scoping study at Garinskoye, another iron ore project. Aricom raised £325 million during the year, which it closed with cash of £250 million.

The company moved from AIM to the Full List and is now a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. Its 79.25p shares, which soared from 16.5p in 2005 to 86p last April, could outperform peers.