Small Talk: Nviro can clean up in coal arena

Coal is a nasty, dirty fuel. But it is also cheap and plentiful, so industries that are facing ever growing energy costs are increasingly tempted to switch to coal, choking the environment at the same time.

Nviro Cleantech reckons it has the solution. The company helps to bring to market clever bits of environmental science that are developed in university laboratories, usually by adding a bit of hard-headed commercialism.

The jewel in the group's crown is its coal cleaning technology. Its chief executive, Chris Every, reckons that power stations using Nviro's technology, which works by removing the sulphur and other harmful nasties, will benefit in two ways: they will be able to meet ever tougher environmental standards and, by removing impurities, the coal will burn more efficiently and will cut energy costs.

The group publishes its interim results today, which show a loss of £1.45m, pretty much on a par with the £1.54m loss recorded last year. Nviro also has a £4m "investment position".

Most significant is the £10m rights issue Nviro also announces today. Given that the group has a market capitalisation of just over £21m, the rights issue is nothing if not ambitious.

Mr Every is not concerned. He argues that the group's existing investors, who have already been sounded out on the fund raising, are happy with the move, that will be used to finance operations in China, India and the United States. The comforting news is that it already has agreements with power generators and expects that by this time next year it will be able to announce solid revenues. With the amount of money that Nviro is hoping to raise, investors will be keen to start seeing progress as soon as possible.

Discovery Metals

There is a plethora of mining companies on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) that have nothing more than a licence to drill into a mountain that may or may not contain anything, in a far off land.

Until recently, Discovery Metals was one of those companies, with land it hoped contained lots of copper in Botswana. What is lucky for the company, and therefore for its shareholders, is that feasibility drilling has come up trumps and it seems that Discovery has found more copper than you can shake a stick at.

In fairness to the company, which is based in Brisbane, the abundance of copper should not come as a huge surprise. The tract of land, which is about 700km long, is part of a copper belt that stretches across sub-Saharan Africa from Zambia to Namibia. Moreover, Discovery is not the first group on the site in north-western Botswana. The then Billiton group was in the region 30 years ago, according to Discovery's chief executive Brad Sampson, but due to poor infrastructure did not stick around.

The company announced last week that three exploratory drills have all shown encouraging yields; unusual, as most initial explorations lead to at least partial disappointment.

Like so many other AIM-listed miners, Discovery does not make any money. Instead, it raises money to fund its bounty hunts. In order to make what is undoubtedly an exciting find in Botswana profitable, it will have to borrow in the debt markets and issue more equity to fund a bankable feasibility study. Given the market's reaction to its initial drilling last week – the shares were up nearly 100 per cent – raising the money might not be too challenging.

Mr Sampson laughs at the suggestion that one of the mining big boys will be after Discovery if there is as much copper as he thinks. But he does not say that he does not expect it to happen.

Latchways

Latchways' equipment has never failed, which is a relief considering it installs "fall protection" equipment. The group designs harnesses attached to sockets on the roofs of tall buildings so that in the event of someone slipping off, they are saved from serious injury or worse.

The company announces its annual results today. Analysts at WH Ireland say they will show revenues up by 10 per cent and operating profits increasing by 14.4 per cent to £8.7m. Sources say these estimates are pretty accurate. As well as fitting its attachments to the top of tall buildings, the group has a number of clever harnesses that fit on aeroplane wings.

The group benefits from health and safety legislation that only ever seems to add to other companies' general irritation. Shareholders will not feel bothered at all, especially if WH Ireland is right and the share price reaches its predicted 1,170p, up from 870p last Friday.