Matt Birney

ASX-listed Norwest Energy, along with JV partner and Operator, Mineral Resources, has lodged the environmental plan to drill its highly anticipated Lockyer Deep gas exploration well located near Dongara, north of Perth. Norwest and Min Res are targeting a prospective resource of up to 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas at the prospect that lies only 15kms north of Strike Energy’s huge West Erregulla gas find.

ASX-listed base metals explorer, Legend Mining, has continued to deliver broad hits from aircore drilling at its Mawson nickel-copper sulphide discovery within its Rockford project in WA’s revered Fraser Range district. The Perth-based company’s current aircore drilling program rattled off another half a dozen broad intervals this week ranging from 21m to 43m with anomalous nickel and copper values.

Lithium Australia’s patented “LieNA” process that could potentially change the economics of lithium processing by turning lithium waste ore into battery chemicals, is poised on the brink of commercialisation as the company looks towards its first-generation pilot-plant. LieNA takes fine spodumene ore that otherwise may have become waste and concentrates the lucrative lithium phosphate end-product by up to and greater than 85 per cent.

Tietto Minerals has continued its impressive run of success in Cote d’Ivoire, Africa with ongoing drilling returning high-grade gold intercepts from the depth extensions of the 2.15 million-ounce AG gold resource.

Lithium Australia said its 50 per cent owned lithium battery manufacturing subsidiary, Soluna Australia, is set to turn a profit by the end of December this year. Its modular lithium battery systems that can be linked to roof mounted solar panels can store unprecedented levels of energy for use at a future time when the sun may no longer be shining.

Classic Minerals has taken the plunge in a bid to generate some early cash flows from its Kat Gap project in WA, buying a mobile gravity gold concentration plant for the on-site processing of ore. The high-grade discovery at Kat Gap in the Southern Cross region includes a 1m drill hit going 10 ounces of gold to the tonne.

As Australian Potash clears the last hurdles on the pathway to production at its Lake Wells sulphate of potash project, the company has inked a third binding offtake deal with Tier 1 Mitsui & Co for 30,000 tonnes per annum of its “K-Brite” premium fertiliser. The third deal now brings the company’s total committed offtake to a remarkable 100,000tpa of the project’s 150,000 tonnes of sulphate of potash, expected to be produced annually from the West Australian mine.

Impact Minerals has locked in its ownership of the Blackridge conglomerate gold project, laying claim over majority of the historic goldfield in central Queensland.

Buru Energy has continued to swell its coffers with the first crude oil sale of the financial year from its Ungani oil field in WA’s Canning Basin. The latest oil lifting of 74,819 barrels is expected to net Buru around $1.6m for its share of the sale by the Buru-Roc Oil joint venture sold on a spot price basis.

ASX-listed Horizon Minerals’ operations remain ahead of schedule at its Boorara gold mine, 10km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder with milling now underway at the nearby Lakewood mill and its inaugural gold pour expected next week. Horizon says ore mined to date, 80,000 tonnes at a fully diluted grade of 1.5 g/t gold, is in line with reserve modelling.

Emerging ASX-listed gold player Calidus Resources has received a significant cash injection towards the accelerated development of its flagship Warrawoona project 20km south-east of Marble Bar in WA’s East Pilbara region. The Perth-based company has raised $25 million before costs from a heavily oversubscribed share placement to sophisticated and professional investors of 49 million shares at 51 cents each.

ASX-listed King River Resources has been buoyed by tax credits of up to $975,000 under the Federal Government’s exploration incentive scheme, with the explorer confirming the tax office has approved its application to participate in the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive program. The tax credits can be distributed to its Australian resident shareholders who are issued new shares from any of its capital raisings in 2020-21.

Seeking to complete a trifecta of polymetallic exploration successes in Vietnam, Blackstone Minerals has turned its sights to the Ta Cuong prospect. The company hopes its strategy of geophysical targeting may reveal a third lucrative deposit to add to its coffers already brimming with the spoils uncovered at the nearby King Cobra and Ban Chang prospects.

ASX-listed explorer King River Resources is set to crank up the drill bit next month at its high-grade Mount Remarkable gold project in WA’s East Kimberley region after delays caused by coronavirus pandemic restrictions. Bonanza near-surface gold hits from previous drilling included a best result of 4m grading 113.29 grams per tonne gold including 1m going more than 10 ounces per tonne.

Great Southern Mining has laid claim to the discovery of what could be a significant intrusion-related gold system containing polymetallic credits in its highly prospective Edinburgh Park project in North Queensland. In what is the first systematic gold exploration in the region, the company said its initial results produced all the hallmarks of a major mineralised system.

Undaunted by coronavirus-related delays, Barton Gold’s exploration plans are back on track as it prepares to kick off a drilling campaign aimed at resuscitating its Tarcoola gold project in the Gawler Craton, South Australia.

ASX-listed Lindian Resources has tabled world-class, high-grade alumina numbers at its Gaoual conglomerate bauxite project in Guinea, West Africa. The maiden indicated resource estimate for Lindian’s readily mineable surface deposit of 102 million tonnes at 49.5 per cent alumina includes uber-rich tonnage of 84Mt at 51.2 per cent alumina.

ASX-listed PharmAust Limited has delivered the final report on its successful Phase II clinical trial, using the Monepantel drug to treat cancer in dogs, to the US$8.8B market capped pharmaceutical giant, NYSE-listed Elanco. Under an option agreement inked two years ago with PharmAust, the animal health-focused mega-Pharma company now has six months to take up the option to licence, manufacture, and market Monepantel globally.

Hammer Metals has returned further encouraging assays from drilling of the Target 1 prospect at its North Orelia gold project in Western Australia’s Yandal greenstone belt, which boasts an enviable gold endowment of 24 million ounces. Better intersections from the first 66 holes, or 3,889m, of a planned 8,000m aircore program were 4m grading 5.79 grams per tonne gold from 40m depth and 4m going 4.38g/t gold from 48m.

Classic Minerals has tabled first pass metallurgical numbers from its Kat Gap project near Southern Cross, WA. The test work results show an average gold recovery at Kat Gap of up to 75 per cent in the oxide material using a low-cost gravity separation process. Conventional cyanide leaching of the gravity gold concentrate showed between 95 per cent and 96 per cent recovery from oxide and fresh ore.

In a move that will bring Horizon Minerals’ gold assets to the fore, the Perth-based company will divest its Nadine Well West Australian copper project to Cyprium Metals Limited for $1.5m in cash and Cyprium shares in a deal that will see Horizon retain exposure to the prospective copper-gold-PGM region in the Murchison district.

Troy Resources has weathered the challenges of Guyana’s wet season, producing impressive drilling results while maintaining operations at its Karouni gold project in South America. The standout diamond drilling results from underneath the existing Smarts open pit include a 32-metre zone grading 4.29 grams per tonne gold from 168m down hole. At the Goldstar prospect, near surface RC results also include 17m grading 2.21g/t gold from just 3m.

Emerging ASX-listed gold player Calidus Resources is set to kick off an initial round of regional drilling at its recently acquired Otways gold-copper project in the Pilbara, in tandem with continued drilling to beef up a maiden ore reserve estimate at its developing Warrawoona gold asset, about 50km away also in the Pilbara.

Hot Chili has the drill rigs firing again at its Cortadera copper-gold project in Chile, zeroing in on extensions to the high-grade zones across a 2.3km strike that is likely to form the backbone of an imminent maiden resource at the project. Hot Chili has doubled the size of the mineralised system in less than 18 months at Cortadera which the company believes may propel it to Tier 1 status.

ASX-listed oiler, 88 Energy will now mop up all remaining stock in its Alaskan neighbour, XCD Energy, after its takeover bid secured 90.97 per cent of XCD’s shares and 93.31 per cent of listed options. Its all-scrip bid as originally announced back in April went unconditional last month after the company achieved the 50 per cent required threshold.

ASX-listed high purity alumina player Altech Chemicals has reached the next construction milestone of its proposed US$280 million processing plant development at Johor Bahru in Malaysia as it works towards a production start-up target of 2023. Engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contractor, German engineering firm SMS, has now completed the remaining component of the Johor Bahru project’s stage two work – an electrical substation – at the Altech plant site.

As Novo Resources ramps up to a full 2020 exploration program capacity, the company has continued to produce impressive results showing ‘proof-of-concept’ that its Egina Terrace in the Pilbara is host to an extensive shallow gold-bearing gravel deposit. Bulk samples from broad areas across the Egina mining lease have yielded gold particle counts exceeding 48 particles per tonne from consecutive sample pits.

Uranium exploration is undergoing a resurgence as the world grapples with the challenge of feeding a seemingly unending appetite for energy. Against this backdrop, ASX-listed Deep Yellow is sitting on a veritable powerhouse of potentially stored nuclear energy across its portfolio of Namibian uranium projects. The latest drilling results from its Nova JV point to what could be the addition of another significantly mineralised system.

Classic Minerals has reported a spectacular high-grade gold drill hit from a new mineralised zone at its Kat Gap deposit in WA. The company’s resumed drilling campaign returned an intersection of 4m grading 76.72g/t gold from 79m depth including 1m going a whopping 304g/t gold from 82m or an eye-watering 10 ounces of gold per tonne.

Wiluna Mining is continuing to deliver strong results from its namesake project located in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The Golden Age deposit and adjacent Lennon Zone are both looking likely to supplement the company’s free milling ore pipeline, with the newly identified material set to improve cash flow for the coming 15 months and assist the company in funding its transition to stage two sulphide ore production.

ASX-listed mining “software-as-a-service” provider, K2fly, has continued to expand its mining software offerings by partnering with Wesfarmers-owned Decipher, to create an integrated monitoring and governance platform for tailings storage facilities. The partnership provides an elegant solution to effectively manage mineral waste – a hot topic concerning industry, regulators and environmentalists.

ASX-listed gold explorer, Great Southern Mining, has launched a new drilling campaign at its 100% owned Mon Ami gold project near Laverton in WA to follow up on previous high-grade RC drill hits. The positive results from its 2018 program culminated in a maiden resource estimate of 1.1 million tonnes of ore averaging 1.7 grams per tonne for a contained 59,000 ounces.