Economy
BacTech Announces High Grade Silver Results from Telamayu Drilling
By Dipo Olowookere
BacTech Environmental Corporation on Tuesday announced the results of the first 47 samples (35 routines and 12 control samples) from 3 holes drilled on a 60-hole drill program (approximately 600 m in total) at the company’s joint venture Silver-Copper-Tin tailings remediation project at Telamayu, Bolivia.
The purpose of the program is to verify earlier work carried out by BacTech’s partner, Mining Corporation of Bolivia, the Bolivian state mining company, and to provide material for upcoming metallurgical work. Additional results will be released in batches over the next few weeks.
Telamayu is an historic mill town situated next to Atocha, Bolivia. Over the past 80 years, the mill has treated material from 2 local mines (Tasna and Animas).
The tailings from the mill make up the Antigua tailings, the subject of these assays, and the much larger Nuevo tailings.
Previously, COMIBOL engaged individuals to dig test holes on the tailings (five wells of 1.5mx 1.5mx10m) with bulk samples taken every meter as well as channel samples. The test holes showed a tin grade of 0.97% and a silver content of 408 g/t.
Upon completion of the execution of the contract with COMIBOL for the remediation and exploitation of the old tailings of Telamayu, which was subsequently approved by the Bolivian Congress and endorsed by an express law, BacTech had access to documents that COMIBOL’s Environment Department had prepared in 2004-2005. These documents present a proposal for the exploitation of the “old tailings dam of Telamayu”.
Specifically, the documents deal with work to be carried out for the evaluation of the dam’s potential, the technical options for metal extraction, the proposed type of plant to be employed and an estimate of the project’s profitability.
The historical data and grades presented above are relevant to the further exploration of the project, which the Company is currently undertaking with a drill program.
BacTech is conducting a tailing evaluation program with approximately 60 holes to be drilled with the Vibracore system with systematic core sampling meter by meter. At present, 65% of the drilling program has been completed and approximately 600 core samples were sent in for chemical analysis.
The results from the 3 first holes are as follows (weighted average, uncut):
Hole ID X Y Z From To Width, m Gold, g/t Silver, g/t Tin, % Copper Soluble, % Copper Total, %
G5X 788 769 7 681 660 3 671 0,00 12,20 12,20 0,12 396,10 1,55 0,97 1,69
H5 788 774 7 681 687 3 671 0,50 12,10 11,60 0,26 504,87 1,56 0,87 1,75
F6 788 775 7 681 642 3 671 0,50 11,90 11,40 0,28 260,11 2,55 0,16 0,29
Admittedly, only 8% of the material has been assayed to date, but these values have exceeded our expectations.
Samples consist of half NQ-size diamond core that are split on site, prepared at the Spectrolab laboratory, an ISO accredited laboratory at the Technical University of Oruro, Bolivia and assayed for gold, silver, tin and copper by fire assay for silver and by Atomic absorption or total fusion for the base metals.
The QA-QC program of the Company includes insertion of certified standards every 20 samples, blanks at least every 20 samples and core duplicates every 20 samples. The remaining half core is retained onsite for verification and reference purposes.
The sampling results from this drill program will be the underpinning of a resource estimation following the guidelines established by Canadian National Instrument 43-101 reporting. Once the drilling program has been completed, the Company will immediately begin metallurgical test work to determine the appropriate method for metal recovery. A complete NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) will then be completed.
“It was a bit tricky in the beginning of the drill program as we discovered a cement-like layer up to 1 meter thick that the Vibracore had a hard time getting through. Alterations were made to the program and, at the time of writing, we are in the final stages of the program,” said Ross Orr, President and CEO of BacTech.
Kamil Khobzi, an engineer and Qualified Person under NI 43-101, who has visited the property, has read and approved this release.
Finally, the Company also announced that it has closed a CAD$30,000 tranche of the current financing. The financing is a 5-cent unit consisting of 1 common share of the Company and 1/2 (one half) of a common share purchase warrant. One full warrant plus 10 cents buys an additional common share for 2 years from the closing of this tranche.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.
This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.
The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.
The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.
The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.
The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.
Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.
It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.
On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day
Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.
Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).
The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.
The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.
The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.
According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”
Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.
For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.
The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.
There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.
“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.
“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.
The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.
The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.
Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.
The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.
According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.
In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.
It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.
In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.
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