SMALL CAP MOVERS: Vast Resources; Kinovo

When you are a company named Vast Resources with a market capitalisation of less than £10million, the risk of ridicule is high but no one was dissing the company this week.

Vast’s shares rose by an astonishing 436 per cent after the company joined a consortium with local company Takob in a new but unnamed project in Tajikistan.

The company also revealed its revenue increased by 236 per cent to $2.3million in the first quarter of 2022. 

The second quarter will see a fundamental change in the way the underground Baita Plai mine operates, with a move to mechanised drilling and cleaning. 

This is forecast to result in substantially increased production of copper concentrate, commencing in June 2022, which ‘will be reflected in results from Q3 2022 onwards’, said the company’s statement.

Vast’s stupendous share price gain put the 40 per cent leap by Sunrise Resources in the shade although I don’t suppose Sunrise shareholders will mind too much.

Sunrise’s chair, Patrick Cheetham, held several meetings with existing and new interested parties during a recent visit to the US, the company said in an update on its CS pozzolan-perlite project in Nevada.

Cheetham met with multiple parties, including two cement & ready-mix companies, one major fly-ash distributor, a large building materials company, and a new cement clean-tech company.

The ongoing talks are taking place amid a fundamental change in the cement and concrete industries driven by cement industry targets to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, said AIM-traded Sunrise.

Inspirit Energy Holdings surged 38 per cent after a complaint against two of its directors was settled out of court. The complaint, which the company announced at the end of 2020, related to a matter that had nothing to do with Inspirit.

i-nexus Global, which must be a tech company based on his ‘rebellious’ disregard for convention in its use of capital letters, advanced 37 per cent after appointing Drew Whibley to the board as chief financial officer, replacing Alyson Levett, who will remain available to enable an orderly handover.

Whibley will join the project management software firm from Aptitude Software Group.

Shares in UK Oil & Gas were ‘off to the races’ after the Environmental Agency granted the company a full production permit for its Horse Hill asset.

The shares galloped 22 per cent higher this week after the contentious project, which is in the heart of Surrey’s stockbroker belt, finally received the green light ending a saga that spanned two-and-a-half years.

Elsewhere in the oil sector, Reabold Resources added a fifth to its market value after its 49.99 per cent-owned associate Corallian Energy received a takeover approach from what was described as a credible bidder.

Corallian’s board have indicated they consider the offer attractive and have started talks with the potential purchaser over a sale.

As part of the deal, Reabold will acquire six of Corallian’s exploration and appraisal licences for £250,000 but not the Victory gas field development.

Reabold said it will be the licence administrator for Victory but does not want to be the operator and will farm out that role following the Corallian sale.

Kinovo, the specialist property services group, plummeted 46 per cent after providing an update on the sale of DCB Kent Ltd, the company’s non-core construction business.

The pre-tax loss on the disposal of DCB for the company is anticipated to be around £5m. Kinovo had agreed to provide a working capital facility to support DCB in completing active projects and initially thought the overall net outflow of cash would be minimal. 

DCB, however, experienced delays resulting in Kinovo paying £3.7million to date in support, with it expected to increase further in the short term.

The departure of chief executive officer Nick Jones from premium British lifestyle group Joules PLC did not go down too well with the market, and neither did a cautious trading statement.

The shares shed 21 per cent after the company revealed that market conditions have become more challenging during and following the Easter period as consumer confidence has been affected by the rising cost of living.