Thursday, October 20, 2011 PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Uranium Resources, Forte Energy, Epistem Holdings, Angel Biotechnology, Ortac Resources Today’s news coverage by Proactive Investors featured an in-depth report on the uranium sector, which has livened up overnight after Rio Tinto (LON:RIO, ASX:RIO) weighed into the bitter battle for control of Canada’s Hathor Exploration (TSE:HAT).
Its US$578 million deal trumped a rival offer from Cameco (TSE:CCO, NYSE:CCJ) and has drawn attention to other unranium stocks, including companies such as Kalahari Minerals (LON:KAH), Uranium Resources (LON:URA), URU Metals (LON:URU), Forte Energy (LON:FTE, ASX:FTE) and Vane Minerals (LON:VML).
The industry has taken a hit in the wake of the Fukushima tragedy in March, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
A subsequent rethink of nuclear policy worldwide, with Germany at the vanguard, sent the price of the fuel plummeting, bringing the valuations of the companies mining uranium down with it.
However in recent months faint stirrings of interest in the uranium sector have been detected, as bargain hunting majors looked to take advantage of depressed prices.
One of the aforementioned companies, Uranium Resources , said today the latest drilling results from the Mtonya project in southern Tanzania extend near-surface mineralisation and confirm multiple uranium roll-front type deposits at depth.
The company was “very pleased” with the results as were investors, sending shares in the company up 12.5 percent to trade at 2.25 in early deals.
“By confirming mineralised roll-fronts at depth, we have achieved one of the most important milestones in our exploration at Mtonya...We are particularly impressed with significant continuities of the identified roll-fronts and we are looking forward to improving their grade and thickness,” said managing director of Uranium Resources Alex Gostevskikh.
Another report by Proactive covered a note on the biotech sector from Daniel Stewart. The broker highlighted Epistem Holdings (LON:EHP), ReNeuron (LON:RENE) and Angel Biotechnology (LON:ABH) as ‘buys’ in the regenerative medicine sector in a new note this week.
Regenerative medicine is focused on the regeneration and repair of damaged tissue using cells, stem cells, tissues and through the stimulating of stem cells within the human body. “As such,” said the broker, “the sector holds the significant promise of offering entirely new treatment options for diseases and conditions that cannot currently be addressed.”
The broker noted that there are almost 700 regenerative medicine companies worldwide, with the US leading the way. 386 of these firms are based in the country, where the market for regenerative medicine is expected to grow to more than US$8 billion in 2020.
In other news, Ortac Resources (LON:OTC) was in the spotlight this morning after telling the markets that it is embarking on a 1,200 metre drilling programme on its Zlata Bana exploration licence in eastern Slovakia.
In total the company’s contractors Drillrock will sink five holes, the aim being to verify the results of previous exploration which points to the existence of gold and silver in bonanza grades.
An extensive work programme was carried out during the 1970s and 1980s on the area, which has an historic non-JORC resource of 500,000 ounces of gold equivalent.
In that period over 100 holes were drilled from surface to depths of 300 to 1,800 metres for a total of 40 kilometres.
Exploration was originally focused on a potential copper porphyry, but instead uncovered “disseminated and vein type precious and base metal mineralisation”, Ortac said.
EXT Price at posting:
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