Small cap round up

Romania and Zimbabwe-focused mining company Vast Resources announced on Wednesday that a drilling programme to confirm the mineral resource and provide material for metallurgical testwork has commenced at its Faneata tailings dam, located 7 kilometres from the Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine in western Romania.The AIM-traded firm confirmed that drilling commenced this week at the 4.6Mt tailings dam, which is comprised of approximately 40 years of tailings from the high grade Baita Plai.

Vaccine-focused pharmaceutical company Allergy Therapeutics announced on Wednesday that the European Patent Office has granted a broad technology patent relating to the its unique microcrystalline tyrosine depot adjuvant manufacturing process.The AIM-traded firm said the patent covers the novel manufacture and physiochemical characteristics of MCT in combination with one or more antigens, further strengthening the its core intellectual property.

AIM-listed miner Coal of Africa has announced that the South African government has dismissed an appeal against the environmental authorisation amendment for its Makhado mine in the Limpopo Province. Edna Molewa, the minister of the Department of Environmental Affairs, dismissed the appeal against the amendment which was lodged by the Vhembe Mineral Resources Stakeholders' Forum in August.

Exploration and development company Mariana Resources updated the market on the Bondoukou gold projects on Wednesday, following the acquisition of Awalé Resources.The AIM-traded firm said Awalé is a private exploration company focused on high grade gold projects in Côte d'Ivoire.

Explorer BlueRock Diamonds has raised £750,000 from an equity placing on AIM and a loan note extension in order to invest in its Kareevlei mine in South Africa. About 16.8m shares were issued of 1p each sold at 4p raised £675,000 and an extension to a convertible loan note raised a further £75,000.

Africa-focused agricultural and forestry company Obtala announced on Wednesday that, following the successful review of its year two Impact Report, it has been approved by the Admissions Panel as an ongoing member of the Social Stock Exchange.
The AIM-traded firm said submission of the year two Impact Report is part of the ongoing admissions obligations of membership of the SSX.

Sustainable pallet developer RM2 International agreed that Pactiv, a subsidiary of US packaging company Reynolds Group, will buy and use its pallet product. Pactiv added RM2 to its list of clients and agreed to purchase and use hundreds of the company’s BLOCKPal pallets for all non-wood pallet uses throughout its organisation across various regions.