Stockpile: Strong gains on AIM, main board lags

Only one of London’s main board listed mineral stocks added more than a tenth to its share price this week, with the majority of the gainers up but failing to gain by more than 3%.

The AIM-listed juniors fared better, with the top ten winners all experiencing a 20% or higher growth in value.

The top miner on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) was Hochschild Mining plc after the silver producer released a positive scoping study for its 30%-owned Inmaculada gold and silver project in Peru.

According to the study, the mine worth US$168 million would have average annual gold equivalent output of 180,000oz/year, at per ounce gold equivalent cash operating costs of US$311/oz. At a 10% discount rate the mine has a net present value (NPV) of US$286 million.

Platinum miners Lonmin plc and Aquarius Platinum plc were also amongst the top gainers this week.

On AIM, the share price of Herencia plc almost doubled. On Friday, the explorer announced some high copper and silver grades from the Doris prospect at its Paguanta project in Northern Chile. Surface sampling produced assays up to 3.3% Cu and silver assays up to 617g/t Au.

Mwana Africa plc was up by about a third this week with no corporate news. Recent research from Ocean Equities described the near £0.09 share price as an “advantageous if contrarian buying level.”
The company owns gold and nickel assets in Zimbabwe and exploration rights in the DRC.

“We believe that risks have been overstated in the market relative to the potential rewards and thus we wish to set out clearly here the assets and the opportunity,” the note said.