Amur Minerals Corp (LON:AMC) (5p/ £8.55m)
We write on AIM listed exploration and development company focused on Far East Russia for the first time. Yesterday Amur announced that nickel sulphide mineralisation has been exposed in a road cut located immediately to the south of the Ikenskoe deposit, which is the largest of the three drilled deposits within the Kun Manie exploration licence. The nickel and copper mineralisation is expected to continue to the east and south of the drilled area of the deposit. During construction of the access road, the projected mineralised zone was exposed and visual inspection indicates the newly exposed outcrop contains abundant sulphides. Results will be announced once the ore has been tested and the results have been verified by a western certified laboratory.
The deposit looks large and the more Amur explores, the more it seems to find. This would appear to be one of the biggest nickel sulphide discoveries of the past decade or so. Nickel sulphide deposits are not being found very often and to make up the shortfall lateritic nickel projects are being developed where the costs are much higher. So nickel sulphide seems to be the place to be. The Company caught the attention of the market in August 2009 with its announcement that it had $6.9bn worth of nickel in the ground. At the current price Amur seems to have plenty of upside potential.
Focus Solutions Group (LON:FSG) (42.5p/ £12.59m)
Focus Solutions Group, a leading provider of software and consultancy solutions to the financial services industry, announced its full year results to 31 March 2010 which saw revenues up to £9.85m (2009: £9.60m) with underlying PBT of £2.38m (2009: £1.88m), EPS 6.88p (2009: 6.03p) and net cash down to £2.4m (£4m) following an R&D spend of £2m on the new focus:360º product line. Apart from a number of notable contracts key events included gaining a US patent which protects the group’s entry into that market and the relationship with Mastek which will see the focus:360 º being marketed across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. The group will address smaller firms with a Software as a Service (SaaS) version. Encouragingly the group restructured its balance sheet, clearing the way from the group to join the dividend list. The market is forecasting PBT this year of around £3m with 7.5p EPS – a…
