Enough junior resource shares are languishing at or near new 12-month lows to prove the sector is not immune from today’s wider financial markets’ malaise. Oil’s recent retreat from above $140 a barrel to below $125 – still historically high – has not helped nerves, though gold has lately been strong at around $930 an ounce.

Value remains, though, and some worthwhile projects can still secure funding. Gulf Keystone Petroleum has raised £25.1 million for exploration and appraisal of the company’s HBH permit in Algeria and the drilling of an additional well in Kurdistan, seen as a potential ‘company maker’. The money came at 28p, against a 2005 peak of 94.5p. That implies speculative eventual recovery possibilities for the shares at 29p.

Vietnam milestone
Energy group SOCO International has announced the first crude oil and wet gas flows from Vietnam’s Ca Ngu Vang field. The company has 25 per cent of Ca Ngu Vang, which it says it expects to be able to produce 10,000 to 20,000 barrels of oil a day and 25 to 50 million cubic feet of gas a day for the next 20 years. SOCO shares, which hit £23.95 last September, have since fallen back heavily and now trade at £14.38, but they could rally if production gets under way in earnest.

Albidon makes progress
Africa-focused Albidon says nickel production at Munali in Zambia has exceeded budget, for delivery to China. Quoted on AIM and based in Western Australia, Albidon says Munali has produced more than 100,000 tonnes of ore at 0.7 to 0.8 per cent nickel since going into production earlier this year and sounds confident about ramping up production to a target 1.2 million tonnes a year.

Albidon says a stockpile of nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals concentrate is being built for sale to China’s Jinchuan Group, the biggest nickel producer in Asia.

Recommended by Growth Company Investor at 37p two years ago and again at 83p last August, Albidon shares hit 216.5p in May and now trade at 121p and are likely to fare better than several sector peers.

Peter Hambro ‘on track’
Russian gold producer Peter Hambro Mining lifted production nine per cent to 134,300 oz in the first half of this year. Directors of the AIM-quoted company say it is ‘on track’ to meet its 2008 production target of 350,000 to 400,000 oz of gold.

A new operation at Pioneer yielded an initial 3,600 oz of gold. The company says its average realised gold sale price for the period rose some 35 per cent to $901 an ounce.

A rip-roaring stock market success from their 130p float in 2002 to £17.10 in May 2006, Peter Hambro shares have since retreated and now trade at £10.72p.

However, the company has good connections in influential Russian circles, which ought to reduce the risk of operating under the Putin regime, and the shares should outperform several others in the sector.

New cheer for Discovery
Brisbane-based Discovery Metals has produced a bullish pre-feasibility report on its Boseto copper project in Botswana. This suggests an estimated resource of 49 million tonnes at a respectable 1.2 per cent copper, with a firmer indicated resource of 8.9 million tonnes at 1.4 per cent copper, an overall project cost of £93 million and a 23 per cent internal rate of return.

Within this, AIM-quoted Discovery says it has extended its Plutus project and found encouragingly high grades. The shares, which rose from 13p in 2007 to 30.5p last March, now stand at 23.75p, where their appeal is speculative.