Resources round-up: Range Resources, African Copper, Wasabi ...

Wasabi Energy has reported that its Kalina Cycle licencee, FLSmidth, has secured a contract to install its second power plant using waste heat from a major cement plant. The plant will be installed in the second quarter of 2013 at a cement plant owned by Star Cement in United Arab Emirates. Wasabi Energy will receive a one-off licence fee based on the gross power output of the Kalina Cycle plant.

The Executive Chairman of Wasabi Energy, John Byrne, explained that "through our licensing agreements, Wasabi Energy receives one-off licence payments of between $50,000 and $150,000 per installed MW, depending on the licensor and the particular industry."

Oil and gas producer Range Resources has posted a significant increase to its proved and probable reserves for the North Chapman Ranch Project, Texas, in which Range holds a 20-25% interest. Proved oil reserves have, between December 2011 and June 2012, risen 64% to 8.4m barrels of oil; natural gas rose 65% to 106bn cubic feet and natural gas liquids climbed 60% to 8.0m barrels. It wasn't all good news though, as total oil reserves fell from 18.7m to 17.8m barrels, total natural gas fell from 242.5 to 227.5bn cubic feet and natural gas liquid declined from 18.9m to 17.5m barrels.

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The company now plans to divest its interest in the project during the third quarter of the current year. The firm added that sales prices of similar production assets in the region have been "encouraging", and said any such divestment will provide significant funding that could be applied to Range's current activities.

African Copper, a producer and exploration company, has secured an additional loan of $6.0m from its controlling shareholder ZCI (84.19% ownership), which will be used to provide the company with further working capital for its Mowana Mine facilities, partially to cover the funding gap caused by the failure of the Ball Mill pinion shaft in May 2012. The loan is a secured loan facility with an annual interest rate of 7.0%, repayable on 31 March 2014. The facility is convertible into ordinary shares of 1p each in African Copper at a conversion price of 2.40p per share, with a maximum of just over 163m shares. If this occurred, ZCI would own 91.09% of African Copper.

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