LONDON (ShareCast) - West Africa-focused Stellar Diamonds said it had discovered a significant maiden diamond resource at its Tongo Kimberlite Dyke Project in Sierra Leone. The firm said the high diamond grades and values exhibited at its Dyke-1 mine made it one of the highest value kimberlites in terms of dollars per tonne worldwide and provided a "robust platform for Stellar to unlock significant shareholder value'. Its shares jumped 14% on Monday following the announcement.

Bowleven, the AIM traded oil and gas exploration group, cuts back its losses significantly in the first half of its financial year. In the six months to the end of December 2011 the firm made a loss of $5.5m, compared to a loss of $15.7m for the same period the previous year. The company said it had made considerable progress at its Cameroon sites in the second half of 2011 and the momentum had continued into the current year. The company's shares leapt almost 15% in early trading. It has recently been the subject of takeover speculation with fellow oil and gas company Dragon Oil admitting it was running the rule over the company.

Ithaca Energy has announced it will take over the running of the Carna discovery, located in the Southern Gas Basin of the North Sea, from Centrica North Sea Gas. it will also increase its working interest in the site from 16% to 32%. The two companies have decided to keep the terms of the deal secret.

Drilling has begun at Faroe Petroleum's North Uist prospect, West of Shetland. The company believes the site offers significant resource potential and is in close proximity to a number of important discoveries on the Atlantic Margin Corona Ridge, including Rosebank and Cambo. To manage the high well costs in the region, Faroe has secured a number of farm-out arrangements. The drilling operation will be undertaken by BP Exploration Operating Company (with 47.5% interest) using the Stena Carron drilling rig. The other joint venture partners are CIECO Exploration and Production (6.25%), Idemitsu Petroleum (5%) and Nexen Petroleum (35%).

Iron ore, base and precious metals explorer, Baobab Resources, announced it had successfully raised £2.76m through the placing of 23m new ordinary shares. The firm said the new funding would allow it to advance a pre-feasibility study on its flagship Tete project in the emerging mining hub of the Tete province, Mozambique.

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