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Afferro Mining, Atlantic Coal, African Consolidated Resources, Bullabulling Gold, Kula Gold, Nyota Minerals, Randgold Resources news briefs

Contributed by Fox-Davies Capital

Afferro Mining has announced the resignation of Ousmane Kane from the Board of Directors with immediate effect.

In this news:

Mr Kane aims to concentrate on his responsibilities as Vice Chairman of African Iron Ore Group Ltd and its associated companies.

FD Comment: Mr Kane was only appointed last June. As the former Minister of Finance and Governor of the Central Bank of Mauritania, Director General of Mauritania's state-owned iron ore company Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière and VP of the African Development Bank. As the only African, his resignation may leave the board unbalanced.

Atlantic Coal PLC announced that it has exercised its lease option over the fully permitted 410 acre Pott & Bannon anthracite mining property in New Castle Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Further details of the lease option agreement are contained in the Company's announcement on 3 January 2012. The consideration is US$6.0M in cash, coal and shares payable to Reading Anthracite Company ("RAC") plus the grant of US$3.0M worth of warrants over Atlantic Coal new ordinary shares at 0.75 pence per share. As announced on 03/01/12, at that time the Directors believed that the Property could contain up to 13.6M tons run-of-mine coal, equating to approximately 4.1M tons of washed, saleable anthracite based on information provided to the Company in a report, commissioned by RAC in January 1999 and prepared by John T. Boyd & Company. The average strip ratio was estimated to be 3.9 ROM. The site is located 25 miles from the Company's Stockton site in the productive Pennsylvanian Anthracitic Belt with established infrastructure and industrial and domestic demand. This agreement is part of the Company's strategy of increasing its current reserves and production profile, particularly in the Pennsylvania Anthracitic Belt.

African Consolidated Resources announced that it has agreed a subscription of 54,330,200 new ordinary shares of 1p each in the Company at a price of 3.50 pence per New Ordinary Share to raise gross proceeds of £1.90M. The Subscription is not underwritten. In addition and further to the announcements of 24 October 2012 and 18 January 2013, the Company announces the issue of 1,379,200 new ordinary shares of 1p each in the Company at 2 pence each pursuant to employment services rendered to the Company. The Directors estimate that the net proceeds of the Subscription will be sufficient to fund the Company's near term liabilities and progress towards the advancement of its key projects, particularly the Pickstone-Peerless Gold Project. It is anticipated that further funding will be required in Q2 2013 in order for the Company to both continue operating as a going concern and develop its Pickstone-Peerless Gold Project together with its portfolio of high impact assets. The Company continues to explore all sources of funding.

Bullabulling Gold has released its December Quarter activity report.

In this news:

- PFS to date indicates initial 10 years mine life, producing 650koz over first 3 years at A$884/oz with LOM cash costs of A$1,104/oz
- The key PFS activities remaining are the review and finalisation of the mining schedule, risk assessment, financial modelling, project development schedule and finalisation of the scope for the feasibility study
- First full draft of the PFS report expected by the end of January, 2013
- Work on the full feasibility study will commence from the beginning of February, 2013
- Cash at end of December was A$4.1m.

FD Comment: Bullabulling is progressing well and we believe that the current 3.5Moz resource could be substantially bigger. Infrastructure is readily available, however, this is a low grade, bulk operation and keeping tight control on costs will be key to the projects viability. In the short term based on current expenditure the Company only has enough cash for 1H'13 we expect the Company will need to raise cash during the current quarter.

Kula Gold Limited announced the lodgement, with the PNG Department of Environment and Conservation, of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Company's Woodlark Island Gold Project. Lodgement of the EIS completes the submissions to the PNG Government in support of the Mining Lease Application and development process. This follows the lodgement late last year of the Company's Mining Lease Application in conjunction with the Feasibility Study and Development Proposal. Kula Gold has worked closely with the people of Woodlark Island since the commencement of the Project in 2007 and has implemented an extensive stakeholder engagement programme in support of the EIS approval process.

Nyota Minerals has released a drilling update on the Feeder Zone at Tula Kapi.

In this news:

- New high grade intersections in the Feeder Zone include: 15.04g/t Au over 9.45m, 10.55g/t Au over 13.96m, 5.34g/t Au over 12.25m and 5.24g/t Au over 26m
- Initial in-house Inferred Resource estimate of 1.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 5.4g/t containing 188,000 ounces of gold
- Technical and financial studies by independent consultants are expected to commence shortly - to consider underground mine of 159kts - 350ktpa, which at 5g/t would increase gold production by 15koz-45koz pa
- The Company had A$3m cash at the end of December and the Company faces a shortfall in working capital
- Significant cost cutting measures are being introduced immediately
- The Board is confident of securing interim financing.

FD Comment: Whilst the latest drill results are positive and should lift production at Tula Kapi, the immediate focus is on the cash crunch expected this quarter. Whilst cost savings will help, we expect the Company will have to raise capital and based on the Boards confidence we expect this to be announced imminently.

Randgold Resources Ltd announced that production at its Tongon mine in Côte d'Ivoire is returning to normal after a fire in the mill section of its plant three weeks ago. Both mill circuits are expected to be fully operational within two weeks and, despite a series of setbacks, the mine produced 210,000 ounces of gold in 2012.