Matt Birney

Kairos Minerals has started its exploration field season in WA's Pilbara region on two fronts, following up extensive surface gold anomalies previously identified at the Croydon project and investigating the gold and lithium potential of its Kangan project. At Croydon, work is underway to investigate a prospective conglomerate horizon along strike from recent gold nugget discoveries and anomalous results from geochemical sampling.

TNG Ltd has engaged Australian contractor McMahon Services to progress the program of work for the non-process infrastructure requirements of its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. McMahon will advance the infrastructure planning developed by TNG, develop the tendering documents and implement the strategy and delivery framework for the infrastructure works packages.

Hot Chili has outlined thick zones of porphyry-related copper and gold mineralisation during its maiden RC drilling campaign at the large Cortadera deposit located in central Chile. Results included 122m @ 0.6% copper and 0.3g/t gold directly from the surface, including a high-grade intercept of 20m @ 1.2% copper and 0.5g/t gold from 40m down-hole, related to a wide supergene enriched zone of copper.

Lithium Australia is seeking to become a leading lithium-ion battery supplier through an alliance with DLG Battery – one of China's ten largest battery manufacturers. The two companies will form a joint venture to manufacture lithium-ion packs and modules in Australia, produce batteries using their technologies for both local and global markets and offer battery-recycling solutions.

TNG Ltd has been granted Vietnamese patents for its proprietary TIVAN technology for the extraction and recovery of high-purity vanadium, complementing its existing patents in Australia, Russia, Canada and the US. The patents provide further protection for the hydrometallurgical process as it progresses its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory.

Black Rock has executed two further Chinese offtake agreements at mutually agreed grades, volumes and prices for the premium graphite flake concentrate products sourced and processed from its impressive Mahenge project in Tanzania. With the pricing framework now in place for four of its five offtake partners, the company is now focussed on delivering an optimised Definitive Feasibility Study for the project.

Hammer Metals' rock chip sampling at the Malbon region near Mount Isa in northwest Queensland has returned intriguing grades of up to 12.9 grams per tonne gold and 15.8% copper and identified the new Speculation, Pioneer Prince and Alice-Kings trends. The company said that outcrop in the area is sparse and further mapping and sampling would be required to understand the extent and structural controls of mineralisation.

Strike Energy is on track to spud its highly anticipated West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, which will target up to 1.16 trillion cubic feet of gas and 7.2 million barrels of oil, later this month. The company recently uncovered further evidence that West Erregulla is similar to Japanese company Mitsui's nearby Waitsia gas field - one of Australia's largest onshore gas fields.

Blackstone Minerals is set to acquire a 90% interest in the advanced Ta Khoa nickel project in northern Vietnam from AMR Nickel Limited over a 12-month period costing AUD$1.6m in cash and scrip. The project includes an existing 450,000 tonne per annum concentrator and is located in a prospective, underexplored district that contains numerous massive and disseminated sulphide occurrences with nickel, copper, cobalt and PGEs.

Altech Chemicals has reached another milestone on its journey towards becoming a significant high purity alumina, producer with the raising of the first steel column at its plant site in Johor, Malaysia. The plant in the Tanjung Industrial complex will produce up to 4,500 tonnes of HPA from very pure kaolin clays sourced from the company's shallow open pit mine near Meckering in WA.

Massive UK investment fund, M & G Investments, who has a whopping £286b under management, has stumped up $6.3m to cornerstone Perth small cap, Troy Resources' latest capital raise. Troy will use the money to develop a resource at its exciting, high grade, near mine exploration play in South America known as Ohio Creek, that looks set to turbocharge the economics of its operating Karouni gold mine.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has made the first shipment of its medical cannabis-derived formulation for the relief of seizures associated with severe epilepsy into the UK. The company's UK distribution partners Grow Biotech and IPS have already received initial prescriptions for the drug. This early interest is encouraging if the company's prediction that the UK medical cannabis market will grow to €8.8bn by 2028.

Adriatic Metals has intersected very encouraging, thick intersections of base and precious metals mineralisation from drilling in its new Concession area at the northern end of the exciting Rupice prospect in Bosnia. The new results include 30m @ 9.7% zinc, 5.2% lead, 265g/t silver, 4.6g/t gold, 0.4% copper and 43% barite from 246m down-hole that will be incorporated into a mineral resource estimate for Rupice later this year.

Artemis Resources has estimated an indicated resource of 152,000t @ 0.63% nickel and 0.47% copper for contained resources of 965t of nickel and 713t of copper at its Ruth Well project in WA's West Pilbara region. In line with its new gold focus, the company will undertake a heritage survey over the Monarch and Conqueror targets in the current quarter. Both targets are within trucking distance of its Radio Hill processing plant.

PharmAust can now assess dosing strategies for the upcoming Phase II clinical trials for its anti-cancer drug Monepantel in dogs after receiving further positive results from the ongoing Phase I trial. Serum levels of both Monepantel and its major metabolite, monepantel sulfone, exceeded the predicted anti-cancer activity target values in dogs administered just one tablet per day.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with UK medical cannabis leaders Grow Biotech and IPS, who have an extensive network of 5500 pharmacies across the country. The distributors will ensure that MGC's products are registered with the all relevant authorities and manage the process of importing the products, through to delivering them to patients at home or selected pharmacies.

Buru Energy has spudded its highly anticipated Ungani-6 horizontal production well that is aimed at increasing the ASX-listed company's oil production in the vastly underexplored Canning Basin in WA's north. It will be completed to intersect the target Ungani Dolomite reservoir before the rig moves on to drill the Ungani-7 production well. A coiled tubing unit will then be mobilised to drill the horizontal sections of both wells.

Hawkstone Mining has generated more wide, high-grade mineralisation in separate ore horizons from diamond drilling at the Northern Mineralised Zone of its Big Sandy lithium clay project in Arizona, US. Better results included 26m @ 2,205 ppm lithium from 15m down-hole and 21m @ 2,203 ppm lithium from 10m down-hole from the Upper Zone, within two separate vertical drill holes.

Vonex's decision to retain an iron ore royalty is poised to pay off after it received the first notification of royalties from the Koolyanobbing iron ore project. Koolyanobbing project owner Mineral Resources plans to ramp up production from 6Mtpa to 8Mtpa by the first quarter of the 2020 financial year and has started a program to extend its mine life.

MGC Pharmaceuticals is expanding its distribution network through agreements with Australian medicinal cannabis distribution and logistics specialists, Health House International and Cannvalate. The non-exclusive agreements cover MGC's IMP products and expand the network of clinics and pharmacies from which Special Access Scheme applications for these products may be derived.

King River Resources will recommence field exploration programs at its Mt Remarkable gold project near Kununurra, WA, later this month, to build on the success of last year's discovery of high-grade mineralisation centred on the Trudi Main Zone. The company has also been granted a new exploration licence that surrounds the main prospect area and contains structural geological targets similar to those defined at Trudi.

Ultracharge is selling its electrolyte salt intellectual property that can increase the lifespan and performance of lithium-ion batteries in both high and low temperatures to Singapore-based company SES Holdings for USD$700,000. This will provide the company with short-term funding whilst reducing its intellectual property maintenance and research and development costs.

Black Rock has appointed two experienced executives to support the development and potential construction of its impressive Mahenge graphite project in Tanzania later this year. Ian Murray has joined as a Non-Executive Director and will assist in establishing financing of the project, while Jeffrey Dawkins will work with the Board to institute business platforms to support project development and future mining operations.

Infinity Lithium is sticking with the mantra of “buy local” with the signing of an MoU with Spanish industrial group Ercros for the future supply of reagents required to produce lithium chemicals at its San Jose project in Spain. Ercros' existing network of caustic soda tanks makes it ideally suited to help meet Infinity's goal of controlling its carbon footprint throughout the entire lithium chemical production process.

Nusantara Resources is forging closer ties with strategic partner Indika Energy to hasten the development of its Awak Mas gold project in Indonesia and has appointed Greg Foulis as its Executive Chairman. The company will also build a development team in Indonesia with the technical capabilities to move the project forward whilst continuing to engage with potential banks to provide project financing.

Hawkstone Mining has appointed the former Chief Technical Officer to Lithium Americas Corp, Dr David Deak, as its technical advisor to oversee development of the Big Sandy lithium clay project in Arizona, US. Dr Deak previously led the team that delivered the PFS for the Thacker Pass lithium clay project in Nevada, which will generate 3.135 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent over a 46-year mine life.

BlackEarth Minerals has engaged AustMin to provide consultancy services relating to offtake, funding, development and general collaboration in China for its flagship Maniry graphite project in Madagascar. AustMin founder Eileen Hao has provided consultancy services to graphite companies such as Syrah Resources and has also been instrumental in securing offtake agreements for several other Australian companies.

Northern Minerals has kicked off a program of drilling at the high-grade, heavy rare earth Dazzler and Iceman prospects, located south of its Browns Range mining and pilot processing operations near Halls Creek, WA. The short campaign will target infill and extensional positions at both prospects, which will potentially upgrade the existing Dazzler resource and facilitate the estimation of a maiden mineral resource for Iceman.

3D printing specialist Aurora Labs is closing in on the commercialisation of its revolutionary MCP 3D printing technology with the completion of its RMP1 Beta Printer. This pre-production machine can print parts with 10 times the volume of the earlier Alpha 2 test machine and will be almost identical to the company's final production line machines, which are expected to become available later this year.

Base metal results from Legend Mining's infill aircore drilling program at its Crean and Worsley prospects in the Fraser Range of WA have given the company encouragement that it is zeroing in on larger mineralised systems in the district. At Crean, anomalous nickel-copper assays point to a possible magmatic intrusive ore system like the revered Nova deposit, whilst Worsley shows geology and assays consistent with a VMS system.

Vonex continues to build its core business with the telco now counting more than 28,000 registered PABX telephony customers on its ledger, up from 27,500 users in March. This growth is due to a targeted nationwide marketing program and constructive engagement with its channel partners. The company has also posted a 20% year-on-year increase in new customer orders for the March quarter.

Novo Resources has kicked off its field exploration programs for the Egina and Karratha gold projects in the West Pilbara, WA. The company is planning to complete bulk sampling programs on defined and targeted gold-bearing gravel terraces in the Egina district, whilst regional exploration activities are underway at Karratha to evaluate conglomerate-hosted gold mineralisation between the Comet Well and the Purdy's Reward projects.