With uncertainties over oil supplies from the Gulf and Libya, and the Nigerian oil industry constantly under threat from militant criminal gangs, there's increasing interest in East African plays.

Italy's ENI and Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum recently found about $US800 billion ($748bn) worth of gas off Mozambique. Last month, the International Monetary Fund said Tanzania could become an important gas producer by the end of the decade. We have also seen Brazil's Petrobras, Britain's Heritage Oil and India's Motherland Industries enter the Tanzanian oil and gas hunt.

There will, of course, be disappointments. Royal Dutch Shell is writing off $US200 million after drilling a dry hole offshore from Tanzania.

We should also caution that the West Africa story had its ups and downs, with some investors no doubt remembering the disappointments associated with the supposed Mauritanian bonanza.

Now there is an Australian entrant, with Jacka Resources (JKA) signing a production sharing agreement with Tanzania last week.

Among others exploring in the region are Pancontinental Oil & Gas (PCL), which recently raised $15m for its Kenya projects, WHL Energy (WHN), with 21,426sq km in the shallow waters around the Seychelles, and FAR (FAR), in Kenya as part of its global spread.

It is a region to watch.

While on the subject of the oilies, StockAnalysis has drawn attention to variations in cost of debt being taken on.

It notes market darling Aurora Oil & Gas (AUT) is paying 9.875 per cent on its $200m facility, Linc Energy (LNC) is paying 11.4 per cent and Antares Energy (AZZ), which is exploring in Texas, just 4.6 per cent.

Will Wayne Swan tell AUT and LNC to shop around for better terms?

We think not: lenders rule.

Dudley returns

IT sure has been a week of blasts from the past. The latest was the re-emergence of Melbourne-based explorer Clarke Dudley.

In those seemingly distant days before Pure Speculation came into existence, your correspondent followed Dudley's story at the then Alcaston Mining, long before its 2006 transformation into Golden Rim Resources (GMR), now exploring in West Africa and Sweden.

Dudley started grabbing land in Sweden prospective for diamonds in the early 1990s, but by 2001 a new board led by Perth investor Rick Crabb changed the direction of Alcaston.

Then Dudley and his allies tried unsuccessfully to wrest back control of the company.

Now, no doubt with wounds fully healed, Dudley is back with a new float, Boadicea Resources (BOA when listed), suggesting in adopting the name of the warrior queen who led a revolt against the Romans that he has lost none of his fight.

He and his fellow ousted Alcaston directors contributed $2m in seed money and are going to the market with gold projects near Cue, Leonora and Norsemen.

BOA is seeking a minimum raise of just $800,000, mainly to get spread, which is probably a modest enough sum to get over the line.

Wise, too, in view of market sentiment: of the 23 IPOs listed on the ASX site, 16 are resources companies with "TBA" showing under listing date.

Hillgrove back

ANOTHER reappearance, but of more recent vintage, is the Hillgrove antimony (and gold) mine.

Owned and mothballed by Straits Resources (SRQ), the operation was to have been the core of a float by Ancoa, a company run by Greg Steemson, formerly a founder of Sandfire Resources (SFR) and Allied Gold Mining (ALD).

But the IPO could not get away and so Ancoa is being backed into Emu Nickel (EMU), which has been much in need of a reboot.

Steemson is going to run the show, which will take the Ancoa name.

The antimony price has lost ground in recent months from around $US15,000/tonne to less than $US12,500.

But the long-term story is intact, with the Chinese, the main producer of the flame retardant, cracking down on their worst polluting and energy-consuming mines.

In the meantime, the Ancoa crowd has been working on the marketing strategy.

It has been Steemson's plan to team with a US-owned antimony mine in Mexico to set up a supply chain in competition with China.

Strange beast

AND coming round the track for a second (or maybe third) time is Nowa Nowa, an unusual beast in being an iron ore project in Victoria. It was reported by the Victorian Geological Survey in 1901 and there were thoughts then of processing it using the local brown coal. However, it was not until 1955 that Victoria's mines department got around to drilling.

Then there was another gap until Gulf Mines (GLM) began work in 2008, but that eventually petered out. The project, east of Bairnsdale, is being acquired by Eastern Iron (EFE), which has just reported an inferred maiden resource based on the 50 holes drilled in the 1950s.

The company has declared Nowa Nowa its primary focus for early development and -- most importantly -- cashflow generation.

Good as gold

YOU could indeed make money out of resource stocks last year, notwithstanding the experience of many. Local advisory Gresham Investment House says of the top 150 resource stocks Guyana gold explorer Azimuth Resources (AZH) had the best share appreciation last year with a rise of 141.5 per cent. In second place came Rocklands Richfield (RCI), up 106.5 per on the year, and then goldminer Northern Star Resources (NST) with 101.3 per cent.

In fact, if you take an 18-month range -- as NST's profit announcement last week helpfully pointed out -- the stock went from 5c to $1 as at December 8.

But figures compiled by Citigroup for the first six weeks of the year show the best performer since January 1 has been silver (up about 22 per cent), followed by zinc (yes, surprising), then copper and nickel.

On the silver front, no wonder Investigator Resources (IVR) saw its shares double over the week.

Drilling at its Paris project in South Australia produced impressive intercepts, including one of 11.6m at 3847 grams/tonne silver and containing a 1m section at 22,500g/t.

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