Doug Bright

Meeka Metals’ reverse circulation drilling west of its current Turnberry South stage one open pit design has nailed a string of gold runs with a best intercept of 21m at 5.13g/t gold, including 5m going 15.65g/t. The top intercept was obtained from 51m. With most other hits from less than 83m downhole, the new shallow high-grade zone will likely justify westward expansion of the pit design.

ABx Group is examining its options to monetise its bauxite projects - the biggest gibbsite-type bauxite deposits in eastern Australia - to capitalise on increasing bauxite prices and supply shortages. The company is in talks about potential offtake deals, direct investment and asset purchases and is also updating its resource figures and mine studies to support the earliest possible start to production.

Quantum Graphite and its JV partner Sunlands Energy have received a big federal government tick that will help develop the companies’ graphite hub on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. The hub will support the biggest commodity-focussed graphite supply chain between Australia and the US, centred around Quantum’s flagship Uley 2 graphite project and using Sunlands’ associated manufacturing, logistics and inventory management facilities.

Uranium American Resources is making a strategic pivot from its gold-silver focus in the US State of Nevada under its old Tonogold Resources shingle, with a rebrand reflecting the company’s greener uranium and vanadium focus. The company last year acquired three low-risk west-central US projects known for their historic uranium and vanadium production, which are also close to relevant mines and processing plants.

This edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Tanami Gold’s Central Tanami project in the Northern Territory, which intersected 3.80m at 268.34g/t gold from 317m. James Bay Minerals’ Independence gold project in Nevada, Lode Resources’ Montezuma antimony project in Tasmania and Titan Minerals’ Dynasty gold-silver project in Ecuador also reported interesting drill hits.

Lindian Resources has signed a milestone works contract for an access road and civil works at its Kangankunde rare earths project, saying the deal shows the strength of the Malawi-based project. The US$1.3m contract is the first to be awarded to advance the project and includes primary highway access, internal access and other site works.

Neometals Ltd has launched a maiden drilling campaign at its Barrambie project in WA’s Barrambie Greenstone Belt, where records indicate more than 27,000 ounces of gold were produced at an average grade of 27.8 grams per tonne. From reviews of multiple historic mine records, Neometals estimates an initial project exploration target of between 8 million tonnes at 1.3g/t and 10.5mt at 2.3g/t for 335,000 and 775,000 ounces of gold respectively.

St George Mining has engaged one of the world’s leading authorities in niobium ore processing, Ricardo Maximo Nardi, to its high-grade niobium-rare earths Araxá project in Brazil’s Minas Gerais region. Nardi comes to the project with more than 30 years of experience in processing high-purity niobium oxide and its typical by-products, including barite, magnetite, phosphate and rare earth elements.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits this week examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Antipa Mineral’s single WA hole that jagged up to 0.55m at 90.7g/t gold. Battery Age Minerals had some interesting high-grade hits at its Falcon Lake lithium project in Canada, and Centaurus Metals intercepted high-grade copper at its Nelore prospect in northern Brazil.

88 Energy could be sitting on an estimated 283 million barrels of oil recoverable from its Canning prospect at the company’s Project Leonis in Alaska, according to its just released maiden, total net mean, unrisked prospective resource estimate. The unrisked net entitlement to the estimated prospective oil resource comprises 3U (High) 469MMbbls, 2U (Best) 259MMbbls and 1U (Low) 136MMbbls.

Aurum Resources’ drilling of two targets at its Boundiali BM tenement has returned multiple high-grade gold intercepts, including a top hit of 1m at 150.5g/t gold in a 3m intercept going 50.56g/t gold from 124m. Drilling of 17 diamond holes for 4550m at its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire also produced 2m at 63.55g/t gold from 111m, including 1m assaying 110.95g/t gold and 23m at 2.04g/t gold from 118m.

Lycaon Resources recently completed scout drillhole at its Stansmore target in WA to test a magnetic anomaly has intercepted 1m at 425ppm combined niobium, neodymium and praseodymium and 217ppm yttrium and ytterbium from 302m. The zone is associated with up to 12 per cent sulphides and weakly elevated multi-element geochemistry within a mafic intrusive with trace sulphides in fresh rock below 80m depth.

Galan Lithium has extended a 2019 resource estimate for its Candelas resource in Argentina from 685kt lithium carbonate equivalent to 1634kt LCE, an impressive rise of more than 138 per cent. Upgraded estimates put the Candelas LCE resource at an indicated 1284kt and an inferred 350kt, for a total 1634kt, boosting Galan’s total combined resource for its Candelas and Hombre Muerto West projects to a world-class 9501kt LCE.

In this edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some notable drill hits revealed on the ASX, including Cygnus Metals’ 9.1 per cent copper hit at its Canadian Chibougamau Copper-Gold project. Brazilian Critical Minerals has another interesting drilling program underway at its Ema rare earths project in Brazil, as does Astral Resources at its Mandilla gold project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Suvo Strategic Minerals has extended for a further three years a major hydrous kaolin supply contract with Tasmanian paper mill operator Norske Skog, which may boost sales by up to 50pc. Suvo also anticipates sales volume growth this year from other existing clients and is awaiting larger batch field trial results for its kaolin products.

It’s raining gold! Meeka Metals has produced a veritable shower of significant gold hits from drilling ahead of mining at its St Anne’s North zone, with a best intercept of 33m going 3.07g/t gold from 42m. The intercept includes 8m assaying 4.51g/t gold, another 6m running 4.58g/t gold and an additional 1m at 28.50g/t gold.

In this edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Ordell Minerals’ 22.70m at 4.09g/t gold intercept from 71.3m from its Barimaia project in WA. We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Sierra Nevada Gold in the USA and Asian Battery Metals in Mongolia.

Meeka Metals’ drilling at its Turnberry resource in WA’s Murchison continues its alluring run of gold hits in combinations of thick intercepts and high grades that would make any seasoned miner salivate. The best intercept from one of its reverse circulation drill holes was 10m at 15.71g/t gold from 114m, including 1m going 34.70g/t gold and another 1m interval at an astonishing 113g/t gold.

GreenTech Metals has rebooted its 4000m stage two diamond coring drilling program at its Whundo massive sulphide-hosted copper-zinc project in WA’s West Pilbara, chasing downhole conductors at four target areas. A stage one 1710m reverse circulation drilling program, done and dusted last July, produced encouraging results supported by follow-up geophysics, prompting the current stage two campaign.

Meeka Metals is charging along in fine style developing its flagship Murchison gold project near Meekatharra in WA’s Mid West region, with first gold production slated for mid-New Year. Establishment of new milling, processing, administration and camp infrastructure and other earthworks, such as site access and tails retention, continues in tandem with new surface and underground resource development at the company’s Turnberry and Andy Well deposits.

Aurum Resources has delivered a massive 50.9 million tonne maiden resource estimate averaging 1g/t gold for 1.59m ounces of contained gold at its 1037-square kilometre Boundiali gold project in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. The resource estimate includes mineralised zones from its BST, BD and BM tenements, where its systematic drilling campaigns are ongoing.

Empire Energy has attained a milestone at its Beetaloo operations in northern Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, completing a new 3310m C-5H horizontal well into the target Velkerri-B shale and obtaining a strong gas flow. The well was successfully completed with 5 1/2” casing to a total depth of 5310m in 41 days, from initial spudding-in to release of the Ensign rig from the permit three days ago.

Pilot Energy has identified a further 27 million tonnes of carbon storage capacity at its Cliff Head carbon storage project following recent technical assessments by the company’s sub-surface consultant. CO2Tech undertook the review of Pilot’s WA 31-L licence area in anticipation of the next phase of regulatory approvals, increasing the 2C/P50 storage resource from its previous capacity of 45.6mt to 72mt.

BMG Resources has bored three diamond holes at its Wiluna Abercromby project in WA. The company began drilling 19 days ago and has booked 1076m drilled so far in a phase one program on the Capital deposit to expand and upgrade Capital’s maiden 518,000-ounce gold resource. The resource had previous hits of 1.45 g/t gold with high-grade zones up to 5.94g/t gold.

Larvotto Resources has received US$4 million (A$6.2m) as pre-payment from Wogan Resources’ sister and financing company Xcelsior Capital under an exclusive antimony off-take agreement with Wogan. The agreement, signed on December 2, will see Wogen provide exclusive global off-take sales for Larvotto’s antimony concentrate produced at its Hillgrove project.

Latitude 66’s diamond core drilling at its key KSB gold project in Finland has extended its K8 prospect in both strike directions, with latest results including a best run of 3.1m assaying 6.1g/t gold from 41.8m. The top-shelf result, coupled with the second best hit of 3.2m going 1.3g/t gold from 25m, points to extension potential at the southwestern and northeastern extremities of the mineralised trend.

Thunderbird Resources is poised to launch a maiden on-ground exploration program at its recently acquired Rockvale-Kookaburra antimony-gold project immediately north of Larvotto Resources’ storied Hillgrove project in NSW. The preparation included detailed desktop analysis with encouraging results covering more than 100 years of exploration and mining history at the site, with boots now expected to be on the ground in January.

First-pass air core drilling by Kalgoorlie Gold Mining on a blind target at its Kirgella West prospect, 140km northeast of Kalgoorlie, has been rewarded with good hits up to 3.66g/t gold over a 1200m strike. The 63-hole, 3518m program is adjacent to KalGold’s Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits, with their combined 76,400 ounce gold inferred resource, and produced strong gold anomalism and potentially economic gold grades over a wide area.

GreenTech Metals has launched a 4000m stage two diamond core drilling program at its Whundo copper-zinc-silver project in WA’s West Pilbara region. The program aims to test electromagnetic conductors generated from previous surface fixed-loop and downhole electromagnetic geophysical surveys of previous drill holes to identify and potentially expand the project resource.

Larvotto Resources continues its winning run with its final five drillholes at Clarks Gully deposit at its Hillgrove project in NSW, jagging broad high-grade gold-antimony intercepts, including 22m at 9.87g/t gold equivalent. The 59-hole program for 4469m of RC drilling was designed to infill and extend the current 266,000t Clarks Gully mineral resource, grading 3.8 per cent antimony and 2.0g/t gold for 10.6g/t gold equivalent.

Estrella Resources has received encouraging responses from its first geophysical survey line across its recently discovered Ira Miri manganese zone at Lautém in Timor-Leste, prompting its maiden drilling campaign. The low resistivity anomaly is interpreted as a potential target for supergene manganese and aligns with previously reported outcrop mapped onsite, although more work is required to gauge the potential scale of the anomalism.

Javelin Minerals has completed 2921m of a phase one maiden drilling program at its Coogee copper-gold project near Kambalda in Western Australia, with phase two slated to kick off early in the New Year. The 18-hole reverse circulation program recovered 1698 samples sent for assay and identified a copper-gold mineralised trend extending from about 270m south of the southern open pit rim to about 450m north of the northern rim.