Doug Bright

Aurum Resources has delivered yet another suite of lengthy gold hits from its burgeoning Boundiali project in West Africa’s Côte d'Ivoire, this time with a headline act showing 69m at 1.05 grams per tonne gold from 195m including 12m at 2.28g/t. Another hole in the ongoing campaign bored through 10m at 1.97g/t gold from 131m including 2m at 7.37g/t.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the more curious drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Culpeo Minerals’ biggest-ever run of 298m at 0.98 per cent copper equivalent from 90m downhole. We also take a close look at other notable drill hits last week from Wildcat Resources, Spartan Resources and Terra Metals.

GreenTech Metals is putting the finishing touches on a new 2200m reverse-circulation drilling plan aimed at lifting the resource numbers at its Whundo volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit in Western Australia’s West Pilbara region. The move follows the company’s detailed review of the old Whundo and Ayshia deposits and other spatially or geologically-related targets identified between the two zones, primarily from fixed-loop electromagnetic geophysics

Triangle Energy expects to have the drill rods turning late next month at its Booth-1 well in the North Perth Basin after the company today confirmed the rig will soon be released to the joint venture project. Management says Booth hosts a prospective resource range of between 113 and 540 billion cubic feet of gas (Bcf), with a best estimate of 279Bcf.

Classic Minerals has pumped up the combined indicated resources for its Lady Ada and Lady Magdalene deposits to establish a new mark of 69,966 ounces of gold at the company’s Forrestania project near Southern Cross in Western Australia. Management says its inferred resource for the two projects now shows more than 227,613 gold ounces, bringing the combined indicated and inferred resource to 297,579 ounces.

Image Resources has launched the on-ground construction activity for its Atlas heavy mineral sands project in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin as management ramps up the operation’s proposed development. The company plans to soon start building a new accommodation camp at Atlas and will also dismantle and transfer the wet concentrator from its now-completed Boonanarring mining project.

Strickland Metals has launched into a new exploration campaign at its 5.44 million-ounce gold equivalent Rogozna project in Serbia, with two rigs kicking off a planned 60,000m of drilling and another two on the way. The infill, extensional and scout probing strategy devised by the company will be the biggest program ever committed to the project.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we unravel some of the more curious drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including WA1 Resources’ 40.1m at 3.2 per cent niobium pentoxide from 126m. We also take a close look at other notable drill hits in the past week from ACDC Metals, Iltani Resources, KGL Resources and Talisman Mining.

Novo Resources has jagged some solid gold numbers from a six-hole, 2529m diamond drilling program at its Belltopper project in Victoria, with a highlight hit of 2m going 15.18 grams per tonne gold from 185m. The intersection flagged a previously undiscovered gold-bearing reef, while 430m further south, a second hole shows 4.25m going 5.88g/t gold from 274.75m with 2m running 11.15g/t from 277m.

88 Energy says its maiden net mean prospective resource estimate for its Leonis project on the North Slope of Alaska shows 381 million barrels (MMbbls) of recoverable oil from the Upper Schrader Bluff formation. The prospective estimate indicates an unrisked (3U) net high of 671MMbbls, a 2U best estimate of 338MMbbls and a 1U low of 167MMbbls.

King River Resources has completed 11 reverse-circulation drillholes for 1824m at two of the company’s Langrenus gold targets within its Tennant Creek project in the Northern Territory and has sent some 1300 samples away for assay. Management now plans to move the rig to its Commitment deposit, then back to Langrenus to test the orientation of a new quartz-haematite target.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we unravel some of the more curious drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Southern Cross Gold’s 0.5m at 473g/t gold equivalent from 913.6m. We also take a close look at other notable drill hits in the past week from Falcon Metals, Flynn Gold, Northern Minerals and Austral Resources.

Liatam Mining has today confirmed it will spend $6 million in a new hunt for lithium at the Quartz Hill joint venture project it shares with Novo Resources in WA’s Pilbara region. Exploration to date has extended the known hard rock lithium mineralisation at the JV’s Lepidolite Fields prospect, with sampling results reading as high as 2.71 per cent lithium oxide and 828ppm caesium oxide.

Strickland Metals’ Palomino prospect has produced more strong results, with a top new hit of 10.6m at 7.5g/t gold from 161.4m including 3m going 21.2g/t at the project within WA’s Yandal gold belt. Reinforcing other recent gold runs, the company’s latest RC drilling also threw out 9m going 2.4g/t gold from 22m and a deeper 21m intercept in the same hole at 1g/t from 76m.

Aurumin has smashed its previous ASX trading volume record out of the park after it revealed a bonanza gold grade hit of 1m going 344 grams per tonne from 43m in drilling at its Sandstone project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The immediate market response saw 56 million of the company’s shares change hands – more than six times its previous record volume.

Si6 Metals has increased its tenement area in the Limpopo Mobile Belt in Botswana by 45 per cent to a total of 2868 square kilometres after being granted a new 903sq-km prospecting licence. The newly-granted ground in the South African country sits 7km south of the company’s high-grade copper-silver projects at Airstrip and Dibete and the Maibele North nickel-copper-cobalt.

Neometals is looking to stage a US$10 million ($AU15.1 million) cash-and-shares payment to grab an 80 per cent share in a United States-based company which has developed a hydrometallurgical process that selectively recovers precious metals from industrial waste streams. The company says it has secured an option for the acquisition, believing its expertise could increase production by further refining the pilot-plant process.

Terrain Minerals says the latest gallium and rare earths hits at its Larin’s Lane project have provided more compelling evidence of an emerging mineralisation province in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company’s air-core sample assays show total rare earth oxides (TREO) to a high of 3254ppm and surprisingly-elevated gallium signatures to a maximum of 53.74ppm gallium oxide.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we unravel some of the more curious drill intersections revealed on the ASX last week, including Turaco Gold’s long 105m hit at 1.61 grams per tonne gold from 135m. We also take a close look at other notable drill hits from Everest Metals Corporation, Toubani Resources, Venture Minerals and Aurum Resources.

Image Resources has edged a step closer to its mining plans at its high-grade Atlas mineral sands project 90km north of Boonanarring in Western Australia after securing environmental approval for the proposed development. Atlas’ 18 million-tonne resource features a heavy mineral grade of 6 per cent, including 9.3 per cent zircon, 46 per cent ilmenite, 4 per cent leucoxene and 6.5 per cent rutile.

Askari Metals has revealed some tantalising high-grade copper-silver mineralisation in rock chip sampling at its Callawa project in WA’s Pilbara region, jagging a top hit of 6.78 per cent copper with 2.34g/t silver. The headline result is supported by a second sample that produced 4.35 per cent copper with 8.25g/t silver and a third offering of 2.02 per cent copper with 6.42g/t silver.

A granted 21-year mining lease over two gold deposits set to join Classic Minerals’ stable of operations will give the company what it says is a bigger play at its Forrestania project area near Southern Cross in Western Australia. The new 1804-hectare lease complements the company’s existing Kat Gap mining operation and clears the pathway to an expanded operation.

American West Metals has delivered three holes intersecting between 30.5m and 47.2m of visible copper sulphides after reverse-circulation drilling at its Storm copper project in Canada’s Nunavut territory. The second hole in the program revealed a visible copper sulphide run of 36.5m dominated by chalcocite – an important copper ore mineral – between 79.3m and 115.8m downhole, just north of the company’s Cyclone deposit.

Askari Metals’ mapping and sampling at the Kestrel target within its Uis project in Namibia has unveiled visible high-grade spodumene – a lithium mineral – with rock chips assaying up to 3.06 per cent lithium oxide. Ten of the 32 samples taken produced lithium grades exceeding 1 per cent lithium oxide, with the top five assaying 3.06, 2.97, 2.91, 2.88 and 2.28 per cent, respectively.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we unravel some of the most curious drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Warriedar Resources’ stunning gold hit of 4m at 14.49g/t. We also take a close look at other notable drill hits in the past week from Ora Gold, Australian Gold and Copper, Dateline Resources and Patriot Battery Metals.

GreenTech Metals has taken the first steps towards forming a copper alliance with its neighbour Anax Metals in Western Australia’s Pilbara region after the pair signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at establishing a new processing hub. The pair will now move to assess the potential to treat base metals from GreenTech’s Whundo project at Anax’s proposed Whim Creek processing facility.

Aurum Resources has added extra punch to its Boundiali gold project in northern Côte d'Ivoire, adding more ground to the north of the West African operation that last week recorded a glittering hit of 90m at 1.16g/t gold. The company can earn up to 70 per cent in the adjacent ground after signing an agreement with local Ivorian company Geb & Nut Resources.

Horizon Minerals has inked a toll milling agreement with FMR Investments to process 200,000 tonnes of gold ore from its Cannon underground mine at the Greenfields Mill near Coolgardie in Western Australia. The binding agreement comes alive in December, with Horizon arranging contract mining and the 67km haulage of ore to Greenfields by road. Milling is expected to take up to eight months to complete.

With world copper prices remaining close to all-time highs, GreenTech Metals believes it now has a “significant exploration opportunity” after an exhaustive review at its Whundo project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The review highlighted four significant volcanogenic massive sulphide copper-zinc targets within a 2.2km-long zone, offering considerable scope for resource extensions to the 5.3 million-tonne Whundo copper-zinc deposit.

A project-wide lithium sweep of St George Mining’s Mt Alexander operation near the historic Western Australian town of Menzies has isolated multiple new drill targets for a campaign slated to launch in the second half of this year. The company’s soil sampling and lithium pegmatite fertility review also identified geochemical analogues and a relationship between local gold mineralisation and pegmatites.

The identification of multiple new high-grade copper targets at American West Metals’ Cyclone prospect in Canada has the company contemplating its potential for resource growth at its wider Storm project. The company’s recent moving loop electromagnetic survey at the Somerset Island site in Nunavut has unveiled what it says are “outstanding” new copper targets that include likely resource extensions in most directions.

White Cliff Minerals is ready to scratch into the surface at Canada’s Great Bear Lake after securing Federal Government approval for all of the licences at its Radium Point uranium-copper-gold-silver project. The company’s total project tenure at the Northwest Territories site encloses 2900 square kilometres of the Great Bear magmatic zone that is known for its iron oxide-copper-gold and uranium potential.