RNS Hotlist: African, Artemis, Ascent, Bidstack, Bradda, Caerus, Castillo, East Imperial, Goldplat, Open Orphan, Sabien, Tekcapital, UKOG, UOG

Another day, another update from Open Orphan (ORPH), a specialist contract research organisation, as it announced that hVIVO, a subsidiary of Open Orphan, has been awarded a new study with an existing Big Pharma client to act as a vaccination site for a Phase II field study of the client's respiratory syncytial virus vaccine candidate.

Cobra (COBR), a gold and rare earth exploration company, announced results from the Stage 2 and 3 re-analysis of a further 96 (of 104) drillholes from historic drilling at the Baggy Green and Clarke prospects. Drillholes were re-analysed for lanthanides following the confirmation in April 2022 of Rare Earth Elements mineralisation at Baggy Green.

Castillo Copper (CCZ), a base metal explorer, has received diamond core assay results for drill-holes BH1 and BH2 at The Sisters Prospect, within the BHA Project's East Zone, which confirmed significant cobalt mineralisation is apparent.

After the recent share price shakeout, Artemis Resources Limited (ARV) announces that on 4 May 2022, Mr Alastair Clayton, Executive Director of Artemis, purchased 1,250,000 shares at 2.4p – clearly leading from the front.

African Pioneer (AFP) , the exploration and resource development company, provided a corporate update for the period from 30 June 2021 in relation to its projects in Namibia, Zambia and Botswana. The company said that the second half of 2021 and the start of 2022 have been very positive for African Pioneer. The company has since listing last year entered into option agreements with Sandfire and First Quantum.

Bidstack Group (BIDS), the in-game brand activation platform, announced an exclusive new partnership with Highbrow Interactive Pvt Limited which will see four of its simulation games added to the Company's portfolio. Highbrow specialises in game production, virtual reality and augmented reality and has seen over 80 million installs across its library of games.

Tekcapital (TEK), the UK intellectual property investment group, announced that portfolio company Guident Ltd. has been selected as a vendor by JTA's Procurement Review Committee for JTA Proposal No. P-22-010 entitled "JTA Test Environment" to provide remote monitoring and control services for phase I of the Ultimate Urban Circulator (U²C) Project in the Jacksonville urban core area.

Sabien Technology Group (SNT), a ompany focused on a Green Aggregation Strategy, updated on b.grn, the Special Purpose Vehicle, formed by the company and Parris Group Limited. The company said the strategy of creating the b.grn SPV is proving “successful”. The company has progressed negotiations for sites at a rapid pace.

Goldplat (GDP), the AIM listed gold producer, announced an operational update for the 3rd quarter, ended 31 March 2022, of the current financial year. The company said the two recovery operations continued a strong combined operating performance from the previous quarter and achieved a combined operating profit for the quarter of £2,286,000 which represented a 96% increase against Q3 in the previous period (Q3, 31 March 2021 - £1,165,000).

UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) said that the Environment Agency has granted UKOG's 85.635% owned Horse Hill oil field a full Production Permit. The PP enables production and water re-injection operations, incineration of waste gas, maintenance/workovers and the drilling of further development wells. To date, production at Horse Hill has operated under the umbrella of prior testing consents which excluded any ability to reinject produced saline formation water.

Ascent Resources (AST), the onshore energy and natural resources company, said that Ascent Resources and its subsidiary Ascent Slovenia, have today formally notified the Government of the Republic of Slovenia of further breaches under the UK - Slovenia bilateral investment treaty and the Energy Charter Treaty.

Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG), an independent oil and gas company, announced its full year financial results for the twelve months ending 31 December 2021, together with the publication of the 2021 Annual Report. The company said 2021 saw it accumulate significant cash flows, resulting in unrestricted cash reserves of US$165m.

Insig AI (INSG), the data science and machine learning group, has signed a data share partnership agreement with Snowflake Inc, the NASDAQ listed cloud based data warehousing company. Insig AI's data products are now available via the Snowflake data marketplace. Snowflake's users consist of data scientists, quant researchers, data engineers, and other assorted boffins.

United Oil & Gas (UOG), the oil and gas company, announced the appointment of Peter Dunne, as CFO, effective from today. Dunne will be appointed a Director of the Company and as Company Secretary at the conclusion of the Company's forthcoming Annual General Meeting on 1 June 2022.

Caerus Mineral Resources (CMRS), the Cyprus-based exploration and resource development company, provided an update on exploration on the Kalavasos Project licences in Cyprus. The company said preliminary results from grab samples across various sites within the suite of Kalavasos licences have returned very encouraging results particularly for the presence of both residual gold in dumps and in new targets.

Sounding like something from Star Trek, Argo Blockchain (ARB) a cryptocurrency miner said that its flagship mining facility, Helios, has been “energized”. Additionally, an inauguration ceremony will take place today at the facility in Dickens County, Texas, and mining operations are expected to commence next week.

East Imperial (EISB), the global purveyor of ultra-premium beverages, revealed audited full-year results for the year ended 2021 and a strong start to 2022 in line with the company's expansion plans. Sales were up 62% over the year to £2.8 million driven by the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in the second half of 2021 across key markets as well as growth in off-trade and Direct to Consumer.

Bradda Head Lithium (BHL, the North America-focused lithium development group, has received conditional permission to begin a drilling programme  at its Basin North sedimentary claims in Arizona. The company said evidence from drilling at Basin East and geophysics suggests that the higher-grade Upper Clay layer seen at BE could be relatively continuous, and it looks forward to evaluating its potential further.