TomCo Energy, the oil shale exploration and development company, rose 3.8% after it said it had commenced measures to secure the necessary approvals and permits required for commercial production at its Holliday Block in Utah. The firm said it was currently streamlining its corporate structure to focus all of its efforts on the oil shale opportunity in Utah.

Shares in Sunrise Resources jumped 13.8% after it announced positive results from diamond evaluation work on surface samples at its wholly owned Cue diamond project in Western Australia. Chief Executive Patrick Cheetham said the overwhelming majority of stones recovered so far were white/colourless, transparent and without inclusions.

Weatherly said arbitration proceedings before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) over its rights in Burkina Faso would go ahead. The case revolves around Weatherly's rights to the Tambao manganese deposits in the country. The government there had argued the arbitration was inadmissible. However, the ICC has now confirmed the arbitration will go ahead with a final decision expected in 2014, Weatherly said.

Thalassa said its subsidiary, WGP Energy Services, had successfully completed a 2D survey in the Russian High Arctic on behalf of State Sevmorgeo Company. "To achieve over 5,000 survey kilometres without incident or damage to in-water equipment endorses WGP's expertise of working in challenging and frontier locations, providing bespoke marine geophysical services and solutions," said Operations Manager Marcus Smith.

Aurum Mining, the gold and tungsten explorer focused in Spain, reported "extremely encouraging results" from the initial trenching work carried out on the Cabeza de Caballo gold prospect area in Salamanca Province. The results indicated the possible identification a new, near surface gold system, the firm said. Aurum has a 54% majority interest in Cabeza held through the company's joint venture with Ormonde Mining. Share in the two firms rose 3.9% and 1.8% respectively.

MM

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