Andrew Duffy

Reach Resources believes it edging closer to proving up a fractionated, lithium-bearing pegmatite system at its Bonzer prospect that sits within its 100 per cent-owned Morrissey Hill lithium project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. Assays from the first 4500m of phase-one drilling suggest the holes hit a halo of lower-grade mineralisation with encouraging geochemistry and the company will now double down on its lithium search.

The Spanish Government has boosted Infinity Lithium’s coffers with a cash-ringing endorsement of $31 million for its 75 per cent-owned San José lithium project as the limelight intensifies on the battery metal’s supply chain. The grant funding was awarded to company’s wholly-owned Spanish subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies, which plans to develop an underground mine at the deposit.

Infinity Mining will ramp up its search for a joint venture partner at its Hillside project, 50km south of Marble Bar in Western Australia, after unveiling new nickel assays with headline hits of 135m at 2189ppm from 64m and 95m at 2197ppm from 254m. Other significant results include 107m at 1727ppm from 235m, 52m at 1761ppm from surface and 16m at 2150ppm from 123m.

88 Energy has certified an additional 250 million barrels of oil equivalent in its best estimate of gross contingent reserves within the basin floor fan reservoir at its Phoenix project in Alaska. The maiden resource for the reservoir interval – the deepest hit by the Hickory-1 well in March – provides a project boost ahead of flow testing shallower reservoirs in the well early next year.

A record breaking 29 per cent increase in battery collection, an agreement with MinRes and the fifth consecutive quarter of gross profits have rounded a solid quarter for Lithium Australia. The company collected a whopping 413 tonnes of batteries last quarter, with higher-margin Lithium-ion batteries representing 44 per cent of collections that it will harvest lucrative battery metals from.

88 Energy hopes to bolster its Phoenix project in Alaska this month by certifying a maiden contingent resource for the lower basin floor fan reservoir intersected by the Hickory-1well in March this year. The pay zone was drilled and flow tested successfully by neighbouring company Patheon Resources on its ground to the north, resulting in a significant 962.5 million barrels of total marketable liquid as a best estimate contingent resource for the reservoir.

Galan Lithium has firmed-up the geological pegmatite model at its Greenbushes South project in Western Australia, with Fry’s Block assays suggesting a similarity to the globally-renowned Greenbushes deposit. It says Greenbushes, one of the world’s biggest and highest-grade hard-rock lithium operations, is about 5km north and on the same regional geological structure. More drilling is planned to test new pegmatite targets.

Alma Metals has achieved the stage one earn-in requirements to reach an initial 30 per cent interest in Canterbury Resources Briggs, Mannersley and Fig Tree Hill joint venture copper project in Queensland. Alma has placed an exploration target of between 480m and 880m tonnes on Briggs alone, grading between .20 and .30 per cent copper and between 25 and 40ppm moly – and that’s in addition to the existing resource.

88 Energy has boosted its Phoenix project in Alaska by mapping the Upper Slope Fan System reservoir an additional 7km further south than had previously been modelled. The Upper SFS reservoir boasted abundant oil shows and fifteen times background gas levels when drilled by the Hickory-1 well in March this year, causing the mud tanks to bubble. The Upper SFS represents a new resource addition for the project.

Askari Metals is charging ahead with exploration at its Uis Lithium Project in the Erongo Region of central-west Namibia with multiple pegmatites in sight begging to be drill tested. The lack of vegetation on its ground has allowed Askari to image all outcropping pegmatites with high-resolution aerial data as it eagerly awaits the return of phase one drilling assays in the next two weeks.

Everest Metals Corporation will keep the drillbit spinning after delivering more high-grade rubidium and lithium results at its Mt Edon project near Paynes Find in Western Australia’s Mid West region. New drill results show up to 0.51 per cent rubidium oxide and 0.94 per cent lithium oxide, with an 80m hit at 0.32 per cent rubidium oxide and 0.11 per cent lithium oxide from 25m.

A calculated punt by Allup Silica to test for rare earths at its Pink Bark project, 90km north-east of Esperance in Western Australia, has seen it hit clay-hosted mineralisation beneath the sand in its maiden drilling program. The campaign returned intriguing intercepts of 1m at 1169ppm TREO from 20m, 1m at 1985ppm from 21m and 1m at 798ppm from 8m.

ChemX Materials has established a maiden manganese resource of 13.1 million tonnes at 5.7 per cent manganese at its Jamieson Tank deposit, 150km west of South Australia’s Port of Whyalla. The company says testwork on the resource has shown “excellent” upgrade characteristics through simple gravity and magnetic separation and it will now complete an internal scoping study on the production of high-purity manganese battery-grade products.

Ora Banda Mining has now settled a $10 million deal to sell its non-core Lady Ida tenements, 65km south of Kalgoorlie, in a move designed to sharpen the company’s focus on high-grade underground gold deposits. Ora Banda will retain rights on the tenements to all minerals other than gold and silver as part of the now-completed sale to Lamerton and Geoda.

Emu NL expects an October assay return after completing a maiden drilling program on time and on budget at its Condingup clay-hosted rare earths project near Esperance on Western Australia’s south coast. The company says 34 holes for 2762m targeted clay traps adjacent to and overlying the Booanya granite outcrops that produced rock chips testing as high as 2124ppm TREO.

Lindian Resources has unveiled an eye-watering 1000m intersect grading 2.6 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from a depth extension drilling program at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi. It says the assays extend mineralisation about 700m vertically below the base of the existing inferred mineral resource estimate of 261 million tonnes at 2.19 per cent TREO. Mineralisation remains open in all directions.

Reach Resources has identified more than 50 new pegmatites during fieldwork at its Morrissey Hill lithium project in WA’s emerging Gascoyne region, as drilling, rock-chip and soil sampling continues. It says it has mapped individual pegmatites extending up to 2km along strike and up to 30m in width in the sequence that hosts Delta Lithium's neighbouring Malinda deposit, which boasts mineralisation from surface to 350m.

White Cliff Minerals will intensify its focus on its rare earths and lithium portfolio after selling Abraxis Mining ¬– including three Pilbara lithium tenements – to Gold Geological Consulting for $200,000. The company says the transaction is part of an ongoing portfolio review that is expected to lead to further divestments of non-core projects as it builds on its significant Western Australian rare earths and lithium holdings.

DiscovEx Resources says it is cashed up to bolster exploration activities at its Sylvania and Edjudina projects in Western Australia after banking more than $250,000 from recent tenement and shares sales. The company says a geophysical survey will follow up on previous soil-sampling gold and lead hits at Sylvania in multiple areas of both disseminated and semi-massive sulphides along the Prairie Downs Faults Zone.

Octava Minerals will become the sole owner of the prospective 202-square-kilometre Talga lithium project in the Pilbara after signing a deal to buy the remaining 30 per cent interest from its partner First Au. Octava will purchase First Au’s entire project holdings – including a 20 per cent free-carried interest – for $200,000, 1.2 million fully-paid ordinary shares and a net smelter royalty of 0.75 per cent.

Auric Mining has started milling the second ore parcel from its 100 per cent-owned Jeffreys Find mine near Norseman and expects the first cash to land in the till next month – at a serendipitous time of strong gold prices. The company says the 145,000 tonnes of ore will take about seven weeks to process, with 52,000 tonnes already delivered to the Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie.

Toro Energy’s 100 per cent-owned Dusty nickel project in Western Australia’s Goldfields continues to grow, with the company’s latest assays showing an up-dip extension to the continuous lens of nickel-rich mineralisation, about 160m thick. Assays from Dimma’s fifth diamond hole showed 2.1m of massive nickel-sulphide grading 1.83 per cent nickel, 0.29 per cent copper and 0.55 grams per tonne platinum and palladium from 147.1m.

ChemX Materials has advanced its high-purity alumina (HPA) micro-plant flowsheet as it prepares to scale up to pilot-plant production. The company has now also identified intermediate HPA product pathways and says investment in high-precision analytical equipment and dedicated human resources has resulted in increased operational performance for its HPA micro-plant. A maiden high-purity manganese mineral resource estimate is also imminent.

88 Energy will flow test four reservoir zones in its Hickory-1 oil well in Alaska’s north during the coming winter operational season. Hickory-1 – part of the company’s project Phoenix, which was previously known as Icewine East – is cased and suspended awaiting the arrival of Rig-111, which is expected to start re-entry of the well from next month.

Lindian Resources has moved to commercialise its Gaoual bauxite project in Guinea by inking a memorandum of understanding for a possible sales contract with prominent miner Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée. Lindian will complete a feasibility study for its 102-million-tonne deposit within two years, while the companies negotiate a possible sales contract for the high-aluminium oxide product.

Buru Energy will feed appraisal drilling plans by collecting 200 square kilometres of 3D seismic data from its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas-condensate project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia’s Canning Basin. The company says interpretation of a fast-tracked volume, also using information from some 2D lines, will be complete in the last quarter of this year.

Lithium Universe is on the ground at its Apollo project in Canada’s James Bay, armed with a helicopter and a swag of targets generated by artificial intelligence – less than a month after re-listing on the ASX. The company has used a combination of satellite imagery, geophysics and fieldwork ahead of testing a regional faulted greenstone belt running through Apollo to Winsome Resources’ Adina project.

Perth-based explorer Emu NL has kicked off its maiden drilling campaign at its 100 per cent-owned Condingup clay-hosted rare earths project, near Esperance on Western Australia’s scenic south coast. The 3000m air-core program will test rare earths enrichment within clay traps imaged by passive seismic, adjacent to and overlying the fertile Booanya granite, which the company says may have leached its pay into the clays.

Si6 Metals has unveiled plans to kick off a 10,000m drilling program next month at three prospects within its flagship Maibele nickel sulphide deposit in Botswana, with a mineral resource upgrade looming. Management says mineralisation may extend along strike and at depth, allowing its inferred resource estimate of 2.38 million tonnes at 0.72 per cent nickel and 0.21 per cent copper to grow.

Software provider K2fly has revealed a steady stepladder towards profit-making after its latest financial year report showed healthy revenue of $12.8 million – a jump of 28 per cent on the previous period. The company’s positive result was bolstered by a 25 per cent increase in annual recurring revenue up to $7.5 million, putting its three-year compound annual growth rate at 48 per cent.

Lithium Universe’s promise to “build a lithium project in Canada as quick as we can” has been boosted by the appointment of experienced industry identity Patrick Scallan as non-executive director. Mr Scallan brings to the table his experience of running the massive lithium hard-rock mine at Greenbushes for 25 years, taking its annual output from 200,000 tonnes in 1997 up to 1.4 million tonnes.

Buru Energy’s coffers are poised to swell by $4 million through the sale of a 72,500-barrel batch of Ungani oil to global giant BP. With the batch now lifted to ship, Buru is also set to assume full ownership of the Kimberley region oilfield, with joint venture partner Roc Oil to hand over its 50 per cent interest and approvals expected next month.