Helen Barling

Reproductive technology specialist Memphasys has inked an exclusive five-year distribution deal with Vitrolife Japan KK – a subsidiary of the world-renowned Vitrolife Group – to sell its patented Felix system in Japan. Vitrolife is a world-leading global provider of medical devices, consumables and genetic testing services dedicated to the human IVF and reproductive health market, with a presence in more than 125 countries.

Budding gold producer Auric Mining has delivered the first five gold doré bars from its Jeffreys Find gold project near Norseman in WA to the Perth Mint for further refining. The company has also packaged a 36,000-tonne ore parcel for delivery to the Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie for toll treatment, which is expected to be completed in the coming week.

Venture Minerals’ maiden drilling probe at its recently-acquired Greater Brothers project in WA’s Mid West region has landed a swag of high-grade rare earths that included an impressive 45m averaging 1455ppm TREO. The reconnaissance program has tested just a fifth of its 1165-square=kilometre tenure, with plenty of blue sky to scale up the mineralised horizon over the remainder of the company’s prospective patch.

ABx Group has bumped up its Tasmanian ionic-adsorption clay-hosted rare earths mineral resource estimate by 30 per cent to 27 million tonnes averaging 803ppm TREO. The updated figure comes courtesy of an additional 36 drill holes that have stretched the company’s prospective target area across a 16km strike from the Deep Leads-Rubble Mound deposit through to its recent Windbreak discovery.

Meeka Metals has tabled a solid set of numbers from a prefeasibility study into its Murchison gold project, forecasting the return of a post-tax free cash flow of $261 million from a mine life of more than nine years and with a payback period of just 22 months at a gold price of $2750 per ounce. Environmental studies are being fast-tracked.

Valor Resources has entered into a binding agreement with Firetail Resources to offload an 80 per cent interest in its Peruvian copper assets for an upfront cash payment of $750,000 and 15 million shares in the junior explorer. The raised funds will be used to accelerate Valor’s uranium hunt in Canada’s world-class Athabasca Basin at a time of rising uranium prices and surging investor interest.

St George Mining has fired up the drill rig in its maiden nickel-copper hunt at its Ajana project east of Geraldton in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company is plunging about 3000m into a duo of intriguing geophysical anomalies in the heart of the underexplored Northampton mineral field that is prospective for Julimar-style intrusive-related nickel-copper-platinum group mineralisation.

AVZ has reeled in monster lithium hits from the final 36 holes of a 53-hole resource drill-out of the Roche Dure deposit at its Manono project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The latest results include an extraordinary 342m at 1.86 per cent lithium oxide from 208m. The remarkable ore body stretches more than 1.8km and remains open along strike and at depth.

Critical metals explorer Reach Resources has uncovered more high-grade niobium from surface sampling at its Wabli Creek project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. New rock-chip results, peaking at 10.3 per cent niobium oxide, were taken 400m from previous sampling of a 1.5km mapped pegmatite that returned 14.3 per cent niobium oxide, suggesting Reach has its foot on the tail of a potential stacked pegmatite swarm.

Zuleika Gold has wrapped up a plethora of soil-sampling surveys at its Zuleika, Goongarrie and Menzies projects in Western Australia’s golden heartland. Employing CSIRO’s patented “Ultrafine” assaying technique, which can detect mineralisation blanketed by transported cover, the company is looking to later this year drill-test a string of compelling anomalies that are coincident with historical workings and favourable structures. Planning is well underway.

Legend Mining is midway through a diamond drilling program targeting two significant nickel-copper sulphide targets at its Octagonal prospect in Western Australia’s Fraser Range – home to IGO’s mammoth Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper-cobalt mine. Legend is bouncing off a slight delay in drilling operations at its first hole, running a downhole electromagnetic survey to pinpoint additional targets, while the rig lines up on the second hole.

Budding critical materials producer ChemX Materials is set to kick off construction of its high-purity alumina (HPA) pilot plant in Perth’s southern suburbs in Western Australia. Tweaks to the process flow and plant design have slashed infrastructure costs from $2.5 million down to $600,000 for a refined plant capacity of 24 tonnes per annum of HPA destined for the lithium-ion battery market.

Surefire Resources is tallying up the hits from its latest drilling probe at its promising Yidby project in Western Australia’s Murchison goldfields. Early composite assay results returned 4m averaging 5.5g/t gold from 118m, housing a 1m intercept tipping the scales at an impressive 20.81g/t. The gold mineralised envelope has been etched out over a whopping 3km strike length … with no end in sight.

ASX-listed Neometals’ joint venture (JV) with Primobius is a step closer to bridging the lithium-ion battery circular economy. Improvements to the partnership’s refining process in its patent-pending battery recycling technology have increased metal recoveries to more than 95 per cent of nickel, cobalt and copper – far exceeding the recovery requirements in the European Union’s pending battery regulations.

A maiden RC drilling program at BMG Resources’ Bullabulling project in WA’s East Yilgarn lithium corridor has tapped into an intriguing swarm of potentially lithium-rich pegmatites. The junior explorer’s shares spiked nearly 85 per cent to 2.4 cents today on the back of the encouraging discovery. BMG has until next month to make the final decision to acquire full ownership of the prospective tenure.

Budding Australian gas producer Empire Energy Group has wound up the latest round of flow-testing at its Carpentaria-2H gas well in the Northern Territory, pulling up a total of 323 terajoules over 127 days. As Empire gears up to commence testing at its Carpentaria-3H well, its impressive flow rates are eliciting the attention of a growing list of potential suitors for the in-demand energy source.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (KalGold) has wrapped up a deal to secure a valuable 22km-long swathe of the Laverton tectonic zone, north of Ramelius Resources’ 1.1-million-ounce Rebecca gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. The company appears to have hit early paydirt, stumping up visible gold in one of the first three RC holes probing its Kirgella Gift prospect.

Meeka Metals has played its trump card, revealing its highest rare earths mineralisation to date from the latest resource drill-out at its Circle Valley project near Esperance – Western Australia’s newest rare earths hotspot. The headline hit returned 4m running at 7475 parts per million total rare earths oxides, which will feed into a maiden mineral resource estimate due to be tabled next month.

DiscovEx Resources’ JV partner, Carnaby Resources, continues to rack up high-grade copper hits at the duo’s Burke & Wills discovery near Mt Isa in Queensland, pulling up 12m averaging 2.4 per cent copper from 126m. Drilling continues at the evolving copper find, with results set to feed into a maiden mineral resource estimate for Carnaby’s Greater Duchess project slated for the third quarter of this year.

Australian oil and gas company Empire Energy Group has turned the tap back on at its Carpentaria-2H gas well in the Northern Territory’s world-renowned Beetaloo sub-basin as it sets its sites on a pilot production plant. The well clocked a March quarter production rate of 2.81 million standard cubic feet per day over a 30-day period, up 17 per cent from previous tests.

Triangle Energy has reeled in $11.4 million in the March quarter – a staggering 73 per cent increase from the previous quarter – courtesy of oil sales associated with its Cliff Head JV partnership with Pilot Energy. The record sales round off a busy quarter highlighted by two oil shipments and finalising the acquisition of two oil and gas permits in WA’s Perth Basin with Key Petroleum.

Venus Metals and joint venture partner, Rox Resources, continue to serve up bumper hits at their Youanmi gold project in WA’s Murchison goldfields, with the latest drilling at the Link prospect striking 22m at 6.31 g/t gold. The duo is plunging 24,000m of drilling into the project in a bid to upgrade the current 3.2-million-ounce inferred mineral resource to the higher indicated category.

Surefire Resources is one step closer to obtaining a mining licence at its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA’s Mid West with a baseline environmental study revealing no hurdles in the approvals process. The junior mineral explorer is sitting on one of Australia’s biggest undeveloped deposits of vanadium with a resource of 321 million tonnes averaging 0.39 per cent vanadium pentoxide.

Allup Silica has etched out an exploration target of five to seven million tonnes grading between 98 and 99 per cent silica at its Sparkler C sand project in WA’s Great Southern region. The freshly-minted JORC-compliant exploration target adds weight to the company’s nearby Sparkler A mineral resource estimate of 70 million tonnes at 96.84 per cent silicon dioxide.

Conico is set to feed more thick high-grade nickel-cobalt-manganese-scandium hits into an imminent updated mineral resource estimate on its Mt Thirsty nickel-cobalt project near Norseman. Recent drilling has pulled up a clutch of significant hits including 10m running at 0.09 per cent cobalt, 0.71 per cent nickel, 0.38 per cent manganese and 23 grams per tonne scandium.

With iron ore prices hovering around US$120 per tonne (A$178) Venture Minerals is seriously considering restarting its Riley iron ore mine in Tasmania which has been on care and maintenance since September 2021. At the time of its closure, the price of iron ore was in free-fall plunging to US$80 per tonne (A$118) in late 2021.

Oil producer Triangle Energy Global has wrapped up the acquisition of two highly-prospective oil and gas permits in WA’s Perth Basin, handing over 31.3 million shares to Key Petroleum to seal the deal. The company previously held a major stake in both assets and mopped up the balance in exchange for $600,000 in cash and $500,000 in shares to be issued by June 30.

Multinational explorer Askari Metals has expanded its exploration hopes in Namibia after acquiring a key patch of dirt abutting its Uis lithium project, bringing its strategic footprint to more than 308 square kilometres in the distinguished mineral postcode. The company is midway through a 3000m RC drilling program targeting outcropping pegmatites at depth where the rods have already pulled up many thick pegmatite hits.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has quickly escalated its chase for a lucrative 647 million barrels of oil by tapping into the giant Alaska North Slope basin with drills intersecting three primary reservoirs at its Hickory-1 well. Early interpretations allude to a hydrocarbon pay that will be further assessed by wireline logging and a coring program, as drilling continues to target two deeper secondary reservoirs.

Aruma Resources has set the rods in motion at its flagship Salmon Gums gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields as it looks to follow up previous bonanza hits of 5m running at 50.2 grams per tonne gold. The exploration program is designed to probe the extent of gold mineralisation at the company’s Iris and Thistle prospects which sit along a 4km stretch of greenstone belt housing Pantoro’s nearby 3.9 million tonne Scotia deposit averaging 3.6 g/t.

Quantum Graphite says it is poised to take advantage of the respective booming markets for battery anode materials and long-duration energy storage after positive flake-sampling tests in South Australia. First-phase flake test-work achieved a purity of 97.59 per cent graphitic carbon and the company predicts increased temperatures will raise that mark to the 99.5 per cent needed for anode production.

Surefire Resources hopes a “unique” high-purity alumina deposit, with returns grading up to 31 per cent aluminium oxide, will lead to lucrative rewards from its flagship Victory Bore vanadium project, 400km inland from the WA port city of Geraldton. The company has appointed Queensland-based consultant Lava Blue to start purification test work aimed at leading to the production of high-purity alumina product.