Argonaut | The Natural Choice in Resources

The S&P 500 rose Friday and posted a second straight week of gains, as a rise in health-care stocks offset a drop in energy shares in recent sessions. Though the S&P 500's health-care sector slipped Friday, it notched its biggest weekly rise since the presidential election. Shares of pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms jumped this past week following some encouraging data on drug development.

Kibaran Resources (KNL) released a revised Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) for its 100% owned Epanko Graphite project in Tanzania. The study outlines a 50% increase in production to 60ktpa graphite concentrate for a 15% increase in pre-production capex (US$88.9m vs the US$77.5m in the 2015 BFS). The project generates a 30% post-tax IRR and has an initial 18-year mine life. Epanko is differentiated from other potential graphite development projects by its high grade and its large flake size distribution. KNL is the only graphite developer to have the majority of its forecast production in binding offtake agreements with non-Chinese parties. The revised BFS is differentiated from other studies by the rigour of independent assessment to meet Tanzanian and international social and financial standards. The Company is also investigating downstream processing to produce battery grade spherical graphite, with a BFS expected Q3 CY17.

Argonaut has acted as Lead Manager to Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: BOT) (“Botanix”) in its oversubscribed placement of A$7.4 million to new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors.