Lihir rebounds on ASX

AFTER a week of falling prices, Lihir Gold has reversed the trend with a A$0.10 gain yesterday to close at A$3.48, down from a recent high of A$4.45.
Oil Search, meanwhile, continued to follow the weak market downwards, shedding A$0.15 to A$3.81 compared with a recent all-time high of A$5.10 a share.
Mining junior Frontier Resources rallied strongly following wide publicity about the closure of the Kokoda Track by landowners who were miffed that the PNG Government has failed to renew the company’s exploration permit for the block containing the Kodu copper-molybdenum project.
Its shares closed up A$0.018 to A$0.11, a rise of almost 20%, after hitting an intra-day high of A$0.12.
Frontier has announced plans to divest Kodu into a new float that will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, apparently because of negative Australian sentiment regarding Kodu’s proximity to the Kokoda Track.
Other PNG stocks to weaken included Highlands Pacific, which dropped A$0.05 to A$0.115 while Marengo shed A$0.02 to A$0.225.
Allied Gold was steady at A$0.71 and Emperor, which announced divestment of the Tolukuma mine and other exploration assets to the government-owned Petromin, was steady at A$0.06.
Oil Search announced yesterday that it had plugged and abandoned its South Gharib-1X well in Egypt due to poor hole conditions.