Edenville Energy EDL

Well I didn't re-buy ant BMR shares even though they were down to 4.05p! Instead I bought more Edenville Energy shares at 0.648p and today they closed at 0.75p so already I am getting some of the money I most on BMR back! It was interesting also that someone took out a spread bet for 1M GBP on Edenville, presumably that the price will rise. My original purchase was at 1.74p so if the sp gets back there then I will be nearly tripling my investment. If the sp gets above 0.92p then I will be breaking even. As the sp has been over 2p before then it seems a reasonable target.

I also had an RNS from Redrock today saying that Andrew Bell and another director had sold some shares, always a bad sign but later in the day an email popped up explaining the situation.

Dear Shareholders and Colleagues,

You may have seen that I and a colleague sold a few Red Rock shares this week.

Those of you who have been shareholders for a while will know that each time we exercise options, we also shortly after tend to sell a few to meet the immediate tax bill. In recent years, the tax regime on options has become quite unfavourable, and we have to pay income tax and NI on the difference between the exercise price and the market price, and do it promptly.

We do try to explain, and then the next time it happens, there are again some shareholders who worry that we are showing a lack of confidence in the company and sending a bad signal to the market.

So, for the avoidance of doubt, let me clarify that if and when I am in a position to sell options in the future, it is highly probable that I will again be obliged to sell some to meet tax obligations. I will not enjoy doing it, and this will say nothing about my view on the stock price.

The options we exercised in May expired at the end of May, so had to be exercised or lost. My colleague and I are selling about half of those we recently acquired, so that our shareholdings at the end of June are higher, not lower, than our shareholdings at the beginning of May. This has also been the case with past sales following exercise of options: each time the holding of shares at the end of the exercise is higher than it was before.

There is never a ‘right time’ for directors to sell, and I do assure you of our complete commitment to and confidence in the company.

Andrew 

So  it seemed a reasonable explanation and the sp closed up on the day so all's well that ends well!

Berkeley Mineral Resources BMR

Ok, so it is a really bad day on the markets and BMR is down. Tomorrow 145M new shares will be released onto the market so I decided to sell my BMR shares and try a short on BMR for today and then close the short tomorrow and buy some more BMR shares cheaper. Unfortunately, TD Waterhouse don't do short selling so I have sold my BMR shares at a loss and now hope that I can buy them back tomorrow at about 3.9p so that I end up with more shares! Will it work, I don't know but I feel it is worth a try!

I have had some more RNS today, I from BMR saying they know of no reason for the sp to drop! Perhaps they aren't aware of the effect of dilution on share price!

The second, I didn't actually receive but found on the LSE BB, and this was the 6 months results for PINN which were very good. Sales up, profit up but the sp didn't do anything much:(

Then one from Red Rock saying that Jupiter Mines had started a feasability study and also saying that their issue of equity will take place on 30th not 29th of June.

Finally, I had 1 from EDL saying that Nomura International had increased their stake in the company.

So all in all, a lot going on when there was chaos in the market. In fact I am thinking of staying out of BMR all together as I have lost confidence in the company.

A day of RNS!!

I have had 3 RNS today, 1 from Greencore and  2 from Red Rock. The Greencore one was mildly good as it stated that Sheffield Partners had slightly increased their holding  and it had crossed the 5% threshold!

The first from Red Rock was that they were issuing another 16,666,666 shares to raise 1M GBP and the second was a total voting rights RNS saying that they now had 723,983,283 shares in issue! I rang them to find out why they needed to raise more funds but no-one was available but later on the LSE board SpikeyDT posted this letter from them explaining the need for cash.


You may have seen that we issued shares at 6p today, in a placement to raise £1m before expenses.

Apart from our recent exercise of the right to acquire 51% of Mineras Four Points SA, we have a continuing exploration programme, and had a tax bill of over £800,000 to pay (a problem of success!), so our outflows in the first half of 2011 have certainly exceeded what we planned for at the beginning of the year.

We have been arranging, as we announced, a long-term facility which we want to complete soon. However, as our financial year end is 30 June, we need a plan B in case the receipt of funds from this facility is after rather than before 30 June, since we have to publish our balance sheet as at the end of June, and there is little point in spending more this year on a better produced and more informative Annual Report if the first page people turn to does not give a fair picture of our underlying financial strength.

You may have seen the encouraging upgrade and expansion in Resource at Resource Star’s Livingstonia uranium project, announced yesterday. We hope soon to have similar news from Cue. At the moment, uranium is not to the market’s taste, but outside the OECD delays to the building programme for nuclear reactors are not expected, and that is what counts, not Germany.

Jupiter continues to make great progress, but this has not been reflected in the share price. We believe the quality is there, and quality will out.

In Colombia, the improvements from here we hope to be in leaps and bounds rather than tiny steps, as has been the case recently. Progress is progress, but rapid progress is what was needed and what we now aim for.

In Kenya, the exploration effort is so intense that although we have staffed up, we are always undermanned, but as we have consistently said, there should be a steady news flow in the second half of the year and we have great ambitions for progress.

Greenland sees a virgin exploration territory getting attention from our ten-man geological team. We had encouraging results recently from the satellite ASTER interpretation, with one 3.5km feature previously mapped as sandstone (to take just one example) now understood to be a prominent iron ore feature and therefore a priority target. If we map and sample and find no major targets at the end of the season, we may of course walk away, because there is no point in such a latitude looking for anything but a major deposit, but we have fair prospects of success.

So the message is that all is well, and we see steady progress. We cannot blame shareholders who are impatient with the share price, and hate to see us raise money at low prices, but in sailing our boat we sometimes have the wind behind us and sometimes in our face, and we have learned, like sailors, to be patient. T

So, it seems reasonable and the letter was quite upbeat. Lets hope that the sp moves north after the shares are admitted to the market next week.

Berkeley Mineral Resources BMR

Well they finally issued their RNS this morning on the acquisition of Kabwe and as I suspected there was not much reaction on the sp. There were 22M shares traded in the first 15 minutes but the sp moved only 0.3p!! The RNS announced that there would be a placing of 145M shares at 4p next Tuesday and with each 2 shares there would be an excisable warrant for 6p a share. In other words more dilution! There won't be a JORC RNS until the end of July so I don't see much upward movement in the sp before August. I still have my sell order and it runs out on the 1st August so it will be interesting to see whether it is triggered!

Update: This morning the sp has fallen to just over 5p as many shareholders have got fed up and are selling to use their money elsewhere. I have thought about selling and buying in at a lower price but I am afraid I am afraid I might get caught out if the sp rises! I see that this is going to fall to around or even below 4p next Tuesday but I am still holding and may top up to lower my average price if it goes lower. Difficult times on the AIM market at the moment but there should be news on some of my shares in the next week!

Victoria Oil and Gas (VOG)

Despite the market being in chaos, Victoria Oil and Gas is doing OK. Since yesterday the sp has been blue whilst many other shares are red! OK its not setting the world alight but it is holding up well.

At the weekend, a poster posted an alleged email from Masoud Alikhani; the main man at BMR, suggesting that the Kabwe deal was done and an RNS would be issued shortly. Whether it was real or not I don't know but in light of that you would expect the sp to rise, more volume etc. Instead the sp has fallen and currently stands at 5.49p so it is not doing well.

Things are not going well at Edenville Energy EDL where the sp has dropped substantially and is currently 0.7p. I bought at 1.75p and the fundamentals have not changed but the sp is doing badly. Yesterday they issued an RNS saying Gradinex had sold some of their holding and crossed the 10% barrier and today they issued an RNS saying that Barnard Nominees had increased their holding to 13.74%!! So funny old times

Weekly Roundup

Well, it's been a bad week in the markets with the Greek debt crisis. My portfolio is down 30% as are many other peoples'. I just read an interesting article stating that a number of hedge funds are going long on gold and short on gold miners! There was a similar situation to this in 2008 and it recovered about 7 months later. I am not panicking and not selling any shares at a loss as I don't need to realise the cash at the moment.

June is the month when there should be news from a number of companies and there is only 2 weeks left so I am hoping for a little excitement soon. I am expecting news on PTCM, PINN, BMR and RRR are committed to giving an update RNS every fortnight!

VOG is slumped down around 4p when it should be approaching 7p but in Q4 the situation should improve dramatically. It is interesting to note that Cameroon are keen to develop industry in the country and for that VOG are well positioned to supply gas for factories and homes.

Red Rock Resources PLC RRR

I bought into Red Rock Resources PLC yesterday as they had just issued a good RNS. They are engaged in gold mining in Chile and Kenya and have interests in Australia also. They are producing gold, which is good and means that they have revenue coming in. The management have just been out to Chile and whilst they were there the output improved as did the % of gold mined. If they can keep this up then I will be looking for the sp to move up soon.

Markets take a hammering!

Big problems in Greece yesterday and today the market is down. Many shares have fallen but not all. Mine shares that are holding up well are Alternative Energy and Pinnacle Telecoms! My BMR shares and VOG have fallen just over 2%. If I was not significantly topped up then I would buy some more of both but particularly VOG as I see them rising by October. The other share that I am keeping an eye on is VIR as I will buy back in if it falls below 0.5p. It has been up to 1.1p last week and on news I feel it will go up again. Time will tell!

Victoria Oil and Gas VOG

Victoria Oil and Gas   issued an RNS this morning and for me the best bit was "a further 10 GSAs which have been contractually agreed subject to legal due diligence and final approval."
Certainly VOG are keeping shareholders up to date as their website is an example to others Whilst the sp has fallen of late I see no reeason for this and with 10 more customers almost signed up, when the gas starts flowing in Q4 then the money should start flowing in. This is my biggest holding and I see no reason not to continue to have full confidence in the company

With revenues flowing it will enable then to explore their site in Cameroon more and West Med in Siberia. Go VOG GO!!

Berkeley Mineral Resources PLC (BMR)

Berkeley Mineral Resources PLC issued and RNS this morning which was not quite was expected. Basically it said that the Kabwe Due Diligence had been completed and they were moving towards completion of the deal! It also said that BMR are not going to proceed with the acquisition of another business in Zambia which would have advanced their plans by 10 months as it was too expensive.

So they raised money via dilution they didn't need and have put back production by 10 months. The net result was that this morning the sp fell by 7% and dropped below 6p. The sages! on the BBs think that this is just getting bad news out the way before a good RNS next week!!! Perhaps they are right but I would like to get out of this share quickly and put the money back into Viridas.

TOO LATE Viridas up 46% this morning!! 

Recovery day today!

No RNS from BMR this morning but a little bit of blue from VOG and PTCM and then just now an RNS from Edenville Energy saying that UBS had bought 228M shares, 6% of the company. That is a bit of positive news and hopefully we will see the sp rise back over 1p soon.
Nice to see Porta Communications rise by 11%  and it would be nice to see them put out a positive RNS and go back up to 0.3p. We will have to see!

Weekly Round-up

Well despite my success with Viiridas this week, my pf is looking under the weather as the AIM market has taken a bit of a battering and I don't think I am alone.
Greencore, Pinnacle Telecom, Alternative Energy Ltd and IMIC have just about stayed the same. However, Edenville Energy has dropped to 0.87p, less than when I first bought it last year! Idon't know what is happening with VOG, perhaps people are getting bored with waiting and selling but it has fallen to the level I first bought in at nearly 15 months ago despite now have its Licence and beingin a position to start selling gas by the end of the year!
BMR is very disappointing in that nothing has been confirmed and the sp just drifts downwards, I was able to buy some more share to lower my average but that is scant comfort!
TSTR has drifted downwards as there is nothing likely to happen before September.
PTCM has drifted down to 0.12p as there has been no news. There must be a statement by end of June soI hope it picks up then.
At the end of the day my pf is down 25% so it is not looking well. However, I am holding and am confident that I will make a profit in due course. I believe my policy of spreading the risk is sensible and I need to now consider holding cash in my trading account to take advantage of market movements.

Edenville Energy! EDL

Edenville Energy issued an RNS today with their Final Results. These were interesting because they appear to have sufficient funding to carry out drilling for a JORC compliant resource, they have 6 mining licences and thermal quality coal,so things are looking promising. The news was greeted by an improvement in the sp.

Still now news from BMR so we will have to wait until next week before the much heralded announcement of the Kabwe acquisition is published!

Viridas PLC (VIR)

I'm afraid I couldn't help myself yesterday, the sp of Viridas was moving up and I cancelled my sell order and sold all of my shares. I bought at o.35p last week and sold at 0.6181p yestreday netting £650 from an investment of £882! Because it was Negotiated Trade some of the time, I put in a limit order for 0.58p and went for a cycle ride with my son. When I came back TD Waterhouse had sold them at 0.6181p, so well done TDW! In hindsight I might have made an error because I could have sold 148k shares and kept 100k shares riding free but what's done is done. Better than putting my money in the bank!

Yesterday, there was a lot of excitement about what info may come out of the mining conference where Masoud Alikhani was speaking. The general belief is that the deal is almost done, the money and paperwork is in escrow, and an RNS should be issued next week. Based on that information I increased my holdings in Berkeley Mineral Resources and have put a sell order in for 10.5p, to sell about two thirds of my shares. I intend to top slice these shares come what may as I haven't achieved that yet!

Yesterday was also the AGM of Tristar Resources and they intend to be in full production of antimony by the end of 2012! They are doing some more drilling testing and the results will be available with their interim results on 30th September! We will have to wait and see what happens.

Alternative Energy Ltd (ALR)

Alternative Energy Ltd posted their interim results yesterday and they were telling us little new. The company is still making a loss as a result of initial development work. The staff are committed to the company and are taking shares as part of their remuneration package, a good sign. Chris Nightingale is continuing to back the company and having spoken to him recently, I am happy that ALR are on the right track. What they need to do now is to generate some sales. Once that starts to happen then the future of the company will change for the better.

No RNS from Berkeley Resources again today  so the wait continues.Masoud Alikhani, the CEO, is addressing a mining conference today and many thought that an RNS would be issued to coincide with that.

Viridas PLC is flying agin today!! 0.5/0.6p and up 17%. Over 9M shares traded this morning and some meaty buys going on. It was on the volume board of LSE yesterday and I wouldn't be surprised if it was there again today. Just need an RNS saying where the company is going. I have put my sell order in again today for 0.7p but I am not expecting it to make it today!