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A US government-backed bank has made an early stage commitment to fund the restart of the South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall to the tune of $225mn (£165mn). Cornish Metals (TIN) said on Thursday it had a letter of intent from the US Export-Import Bank.

A preliminary study on the restart from last year said it would cost just under £200mn to get the old underground mine back into action. 

The tin price has surged in recent months because of declining supply from Myanmar and Indonesia, which feed China’s electronics sector. Myanmar’s opaque market is supposedly seeing supply increases but so far this year the tin price has only risen.

Fellow South West mining hopeful Tungsten West (TUN) announced on Thursday morning it would raise a total of around £43mn through new share issues. This is split into £29mn from a new institutional investor, up to £11mn from existing institutional holders and £3mn from retail shareholders. Earlier this week, Tungsten West said it was in talks with lenders to fund the project restart. 

The company’s shares rose on Monday when it plugged in higher spot tungsten and tin prices into its model for the Hemerdon mine in Devon, raising the net present value of the mine. 

The raise will be done at 29.5p, a discount of 39 per cent to Wednesday’s share price. Given Tungsten West started the year trading at 11p, this is not such a hit for existing shareholders. The shares did drop back to 25p on the announcement, however. 

A complication is that Tungsten West cannot issue all the shares it has promised in the capital raise – there is a limit of 100mn under its company rules, and the subscription by the institution will be 162mn alone. 

This means a ‘first tranche’ will go up to the limit and then shareholders will vote on a second tranche on 26 February.

presented a pretty humdrum set of earnings for the three months to December. Group revenue was 4 per cent lower at £4.98bn, below consensus forecasts. Adjusted cash profit came in 1 per cent lower at £2.08bn, which was in line but largely due to cost cuts.

The telecoms giant is up against a series of alternative network providers (altnets), many of whom are lossmaking and cutting prices to try to win market share. On this score, it is holding its own. Chief executive Allison Kirkby could point to small gains in the number of broadband, mobile and TV customers.

Yet the competitive market meant that average revenue per user was 1 per cent lower, so overall consumer revenue was flat. With sales to business customers falling by 6 per cent and international revenue down 11 per cent on the back of disposals, its top line remains under pressure.

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Vodafone (VOD) shares slid more than five per cent in early trading despite a broadly in-line third-quarter trading update, as investors drew critical conclusions about the quality of the company’s growth, rather than the headline numbers themselves.

Group total revenue rose 6.5 per cent to €10.5bn (£9bn) in the quarter, while group service revenue increased 7.3 per cent to €8.5bn, or 5.4 per cent on an organic basis.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation and lease costs grew 2.3 per cent organically, and management reiterated guidance that annual adjusted cash profit would come in at the upper end of the €11.3bn–€11.6bn guided, along with €2.4bn–€2.6bn of free cash flow for 2026.

Strong performances in Africa and Turkey and progress integrating Three UK provided support. However, the market homed in on softer trends in its core European markets: Germany posted only a 0.7 per cent rise in service revenue and lost 63,000 broadband customers after price rises, while underlying UK service revenue slipped back by 0.5 per cent.

Shares in CT Automotive (CTA) jumped by 13 per cent as the company confirmed it would grow underlying pre-tax profit for the third year in a row.

The maker of parts for car interiors is set to generate an underlying pre-tax profit for 2025 of at least $10mn (£7.3mn), an increase from $8.7mn last year and roughly in line with consensus forecasts of $10.5mn. New contracts and programme launches in Mexico also mean that it expects profitability this year to be “modestly aheadâ€� of last year, despite ongoing upheaval in the car parts market. 

The company’s shares have fallen by 28 per cent over the past 12 months, though, and trade at under three times forecast earnings.

Future (FUTR) said performance in the first four months of its financial year has been “broadly as expected�, noting it is on track to meet market expectations for 2026. However, there are pressures building in some divisions.

In its business-to-consumer (B2C) arm, the publisher expects direct digital advertising revenue in both the UK and the US to drive growth during the first half. On the other hand, programmatic advertising and ecommerce revenue are still being impacted by lower audience trends, largely attributed to rising competition from AI search. 

Panmure Liberum analyst Johnathan Barrett said overall B2C digital advertising is likely to be down “at least a couple of points�. Go.Compare’s decline is moderating, supported by better trends in car insurance premiums. However, the company expects inflation in pay-per-click costs to hit profits.

Management said the magazine business continues to be “highly resilientâ€�, while the business-to-business (B2B) division is improving. When it comes to the balance sheet, net debt is expected to tick higher in the first half due to the payment of dividends, ongoing share buybacks and the acquisition of digital lifestyle magazine SheerLuxe for £40mn in late January. The shares fell 4.2 per cent to 489p.