LONDON (ShareCast) - Platinum Australia has started commissioning of the processing plant at its Smokey Hills mine in South Africa.

“We believe that this is possibly the most important milestone in the history of our Company as it marks our transition from explorer/developer to producer,” said managing director John Lewins.

The firm expects Smokey Hills to produce 45,000 to 50,000 ounces four-element PGM in the year to 30 June 2009 and an average of 95,000 ounces per annum in future.

Construction and legal consultant Driver Group expects its full year results to be in line with expectations and net borrowings to be “significantly” reduced from the £1m reported in March.

Sales and profits have increased in the UK and more than doubled in the Middle East over the year.

Billing Services, which provides financial risk management solutions to the telecommunications industry, announced the repurchase of $3.6m of its senior debt at a discount to its face value.

"The dislocation in the credit markets has created a strong buying opportunity for BSG, enabling the Company to repurchase its senior debt at less than the issuance price," said CEO Greg Carter.

Construction and property consultancy firm Cyril Sweett said trading for the half year to 30 September is expected to be in line with expectations, with strong demand from the public sector helping to cushion the blow of weakness in the commercial and retail sectors.

Fusion IP, which commercialises biological research, saw losses in the year to 31 July widen to £5m from £3.1m the previous year, reflecting its first full year of operations at Cardiff University.

Oil and gas business Rheochem said initial indications on its Sundance 2-22 well in Wyoming, USA, are that it may not contain commercially viable gas reserves.

Australia-focused tungsten-molybdenum and uranium miner Thor Mining has received encouraging results from its partially completed drilling programme of the Bundey River tenement.

The company said some of the coal intersected appears to be high quality anthracite and has been re-sampled for further analysis. Numerous basement samples also returned anomalous uranium assays.

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