Red Metal Resources (OTC: RMES), Radius Gold (TSXV: RDU; OTC: RDUFF) and Cyalume Technologies Holdings (OTCBB: CYLU) are three small cap stocks that either issued press releases or found themselves the subject of “news” releases. Specifically, rising copper prices has copper mining stock RMES “cheering” and reaching close to its 52 week high while RDU or RDUFF and CYLU have completed their dilutions of existing shareholders via private placements. And while there is nothing wrong with a small cap stock toting achievements via press releases, its also important to remember that just one news release from OTC stocks like RMES, RDU, RDUFF and CYLU can send shares skyrocketing. Hence, here is a closer look at all three to help you decide whether any of them warrant a closer look:

Red Metal Resources (OTC: RMES) “Cheers” Rising Copper Prices

Red Metal Resources is an exploration stage mining company with various copper and gold mineral claims in the III Region of Atacama, Chile. On Thursday, an “article” (more or less a company provided press release) appeared on a newswire noting that July Copper futures closed up 10 cents that day to $4.43 per pound, making exploration stage mining companies like Red Metal Resources “cheer.” The “news” article also noted that RMES has added its fourth Chilean property to its mining portfolio. Hence, Red Metal Resources rose 7.84% to $0.55 a share (RMES has a 52 week trading range of $0.20 to $0.59 a share). It should also be noted by investors that back in April, Red Metal Resources had a private placement of 6,723,333 units priced $0.30 per unit to raise $2,017,000 for further exploration work. Moreover, I would suppose that this funding could last awhile as RMES had losses of $285k, $203k, $154k and $118 for the previous four quarters respectively.

Radius Gold (TSXV: RDU; OTC: RDUFF) Completes a $3.66 Million Private Placement – By Issuing More Shares

Radius Gold is an exploration stage mining company with a portfolio of gold projects in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru and the Yukon. Radius Gold recently announced that they have closed a non-brokered private placement of $3.66 million by issuing 6.1 million units at $0.35 per unit. And while issuing additional shares is usually bad for existing shareholders, all of the shares and warrants that were issued in this private placement have a resale restriction until November 5, 2011. Hence and on Thursday, RDU rose 7.27% to C$0.59 (RDU has a 52 week trading range of C$0.28 to C$0.97 a share) while RDUFF rose 2.34% to $0.620 (RDUFF has a 52 week trading range of $0.25 to $0.97 a share). Investors should note though that Radius Gold had losses of $5,156k, $1,155k and $3,481k for each of the past three years. Moreover, I’d want to take a closer look at Radius Gold’s mineral portfolio given that Peru has just elected a leftist President who may start to renegotiate mining concessions and some of the company’s other properties are located in Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Cyalume Technologies Holdings (OTCBB: CYLU) Dilutes Its Existing Shareholders But Strengthens its Balance Sheet in the Process

Cyalume Technologies Holdings produces an array of products using chemiluminescent (chemical-light) technology that is used for training and battlefield operations by the USA and NATO country militaries as well as by safety professionals around the world. Cyalume Technologies Holdings recently announced that they have entered into agreements with certain subordinated debt holders that will allow them to exchange $3.4 million in unsecured notes in exchange for 736,334 shares of common stock priced at $4.60 per share. CYLU’s CEO pointed out that the deal will strengthen their balance sheet by allowing them to eliminate substantial future cash payments. I suspect that this savings will go straight to CYLU’s bottom line as for the 1Q2011, the company reported a 2% increase in revenues from $8.9 million in 1Q201o to $9.1 million while adjusted net income increased 9% from $0.6 million to $0.7 million. Nevertheless and on Thursday, Cyalume Technologies Holdings fell 13.04% to $4 (CYLU has a 52 week trading range of $3.01 to $5.90 a share).

The bottom line: RMES’s last real news was probably the private placement it did in April which will hopefully give it enough funds to “cheer” rising copper prices at some point while the recent news about private placements by RDU or RDUFF and CYLU seem to have garnered mixed reviews by investors.