Matt Birney

Gold developer Calidus Resources is delivering on its environmental initiatives after executing an agreement with Zenith Pacific to install a solar farm and battery storage system to help power its flagship Warrawoona gold project in WA's Pilbara. The 4MW solar farm is the cornerstone of the company's carbon reduction plan at Warrawoona where Calidus is expected to churn out up to 105,000 ounces of gold annually.

Metal Hawk Limited has launched back into RC drilling at its Berehaven nickel project, 20 kilometres southeast of Kalgoorlie. Drilling has commenced at its Commodore South prospect located approximately 500m southwest of a discovery hole that intersected a one metre section going a whopping 5.89 per cent nickel last year. The company also hit 3.4m going 2.32 per cent nickel from 203.8m at the same prospect late last year.

Alumina technologist and rare earths explorer ABx Group has chosen the CEO of its subsidiary, Alcore, to run the ASX-listed parent. The move comes after long time ABx leader Ian Levy said he was stepping down from the 1st of February. Dr Mark Cooksey previously held the position of CEO of Alcore, an ABx company that has been developing an aluminium fluoride refinery in NSW.

Goldfields focused Ora Banda Mining increased gold production in the last quarter after producing 17,192 ounces of gold, the company's best quarterly performance since the re-start of its Davyhurst operation in WA. 18,806 ounces of gold were sold for the quarter at an average price of $2,472 per ounce resulting in the operation turning cashflow positive for November and December.

WA-based Technology Metals Australia has extended an agreed Memoranda of Understanding with Japan's LE System, a leading vanadium battery company. The agreement will see the duo launch a feasibility study into the development of Australia's first fully integrated vanadium electrolyte plant, a material used in industrial scale electric batteries. The proposed plant will aim to utilise vanadium from the company's Murchison Technology Metals project near Meekatharra.

Aruma Resources has racked up an intriguingly wide, shallow, albeit low grade gold intercept during first pass greenfields drilling at its Salmon Gums gold project approximately 200km south of Kalgoorlie in WA. The new target gave up 38 metres at 0.12 g/t gold from 23m downhole in a sparsely explored area just 30 kilometres along strike and in the same stratigraphy as Pantoro Limited's high grade Scotia gold project.

ASX-listed copper developer Hot Chili has entered into negotiations for a port access and services deal at the Chilean port of Huasco. The company said it has begun the process of securing the final critical item of infrastructure for the development of its massive Costa Fuego copper project, one of the world's largest copper discoveries.

BMG Resources is wasting little time following up on some prior spectacular gold hits at its Abercromby project near Wiluna with a dual exploration play at the site now in full swing. The program will see the explorer recommence diamond drilling at its high-grade Capital prospect and probe a series of nearby structural targets using an aircore rig.

ASX-listed Venus Metals and joint venture partner Rox Resources have tabled a whopping 1.34 million ounce resource upgrade taking their total Youanmi gold resource in WA to the magical 3m ounce mark. The resource upgrade equates to a significant 156 per cent increase following a seven month period of intensive infill and extensional diamond drilling for approximately 35,000 metres at the Youanmi Deeps deposit.

ASX-listed Altech Chemicals is pressing ahead with its development of a high-purity alumina coating plant for lithium batteries in the German state of Saxony after its 75 per cent owned subsidiary, Altech Industries Germany, exercised an option to purchase a 14-hectare industrial site. The company says its newly acquired ground is an ideal location for the 10,000 tonne per annum HPA plant.

Godolphin Resources is punching 700m of diamond drilling into its 100 per cent owned Gundagai South gold project in NSW where it is targeting sheeted quartz veins and porphyry dykes at its Surprise Hill North and Big Ben prospects. The company is restarting operations at the Gundagai North and Gundagai South projects after unseasonable adverse weather events across NSW called a halt to exploration in late 2021.

Nickel explorer Estrella Resources has decided to sell its nickel rights over its Spargoville project located approximately 25km west of Kambalda in WA. After receiving several unsolicited offers the company has engaged Geolithic Geological Services to handle the sale process and it is now planning to concentrate its exploration efforts on the company's flagship Carr Boyd nickel project.

Torian Resources has clocked up a string of shallow gold intercepts adding to a burgeoning arsenal of strikes at its flagship Mt Stirling project, some 40 kilometres north-west of Leonora in WA. The latest set of results include a 24 metre intersection grading 2.02 grams per tonne gold from 10m downhole with an internal 3m section going 7.09 g/t gold from 17m.

WA-based explorer St George Mining has announced new high-grade targets at its flagship Mt Alexander project after a seismic survey turned up large intrusion structures prospective for nickel sulphide. The company says the area has the potential to host significant volumes of mineralisation and has taken no time to fire up the rig with drilling already underway on the first of five fresh targets.

ASX-listed explorer Strickland Metals has intersected a flurry of gold hits at its Dusk til Dawn prospect in WA that extends mineralisation down-dip following a series of successful strikes at the same prospect late last year. A remodelling of the current 108,900 gold ounce resource is now underway at the prospect where the company believes it will add substantial gold ounces to the resource base.

Surefire Resources could be gearing up for a busy year after drilling at the Yidby Road gold project scooped up a legion of wide gold hits. The best results included a 13 metre intersection running 1.33 grams per tonne gold from 234m including a 2m section grading 3.88 g/t gold from the same depth. The project lies adjacent to the over one million-ounce Minjar gold project in WA.

ASX-listed Image Resources has wrapped up most of the acreage in its deal to bolt a sought-after package of tenements into its Mid West WA minerals sands business. The deal adds further expansion opportunities to the company's development plans for its Atlas and Bidaminna deposits. Under the agreement, Image is paying $24 million out of cash reserves to add more than 230 per cent to its total mineral resources.

American West Metals has launched a maiden drilling campaign at its West Desert zinc-copper-indium deposit in Utah, USA. The program is aimed at expanding the known historic mineralisation by drill testing the continuity of a suite of high-grade zinc and copper hot spots. The company says the results will be fed into a mineral resource estimate and used to assess the potential of an open pit mining operation.

Superior Resources has chipped significant gold from historic prospective outcrops at Windmill East and Origin, 210 kilometres west of Townsville in central Queensland with grades as high as 65.92 grams per tonne gold. The company says the results from its first entry into the old Pancontinental prospects are a sign it could be on to a mineralised system significantly larger than previously thought.

Shares in Kalgoorlie gold explorer Zuleika Gold more than doubled in intraday trading after wily WA “prospector” Mark Creasy produced a $3m cheque to back the company's gold exploration efforts near Kalgoorlie. Zuleika shares touched 4.7c after closing at 2c the day before when the market learned that the man with the Midas touch saw something he liked at Zuleika.

ASX-Listed kaolin and gold explorer Kula Gold has restarted drilling at its 100 per cent owned Boomerang Kaolin prospect to finish a previously planned 62-hole program before adding a further 18 RC drillholes. Logging to date has displayed an average kaolin vertical thickness of 29 metres with an average depth of 5.7m below surface. The gold potential is also being tested in the bedrock beneath.

Blackstone Minerals has made a lightning bolt strategic investment in laterite nickel by rolling A$2.75m into NICO Resources' IPO to gain a 15.11 per cent interest in the battery minerals hopeful that last year picked up Metals X' massive Central Musgrave Project that spans both WA and South Australia. With a serious nickel metal endowment of some 1.95m tonnes, Blackstone says it is likely one of the largest undeveloped nickel resources globally.

Budding gold developer Calidus Resources is joining forces with Haoma Mining under the guise of new company, Pirra Lithium to unlock the lithium potential of more than 1,000 square kilometres of prime Pilbara real estate. The Pilbara Craton is shaping up to be one of the world's major lithium and tantalum provinces housing the behemoth Wodgina and Pilgangoora lithium projects alongside Global Lithium's evolving Archer deposit.

Manganese producer Element 25 Limited has tabled a solid set of financials following a recent scoping study for the construction and operation of its planned high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate plant. The financial metrics also showed a solid 20-year life for its Butcherbird manganese project in WA that is highly leveraged towards the emerging electric vehicle industry.

Alaska-focused oil explorer 88 Energy has tipped a February spud date for its Merlin-2 well in the American state of Alaska, after announcing it has commissioned a rig, is building a snow road and is close to regulatory approval for the 8000-foot follow-up to 2021's Merlin-1 oil discovery.

Great Southern Mining has hit high grade gold at the Southern end of its Amy Clarke prospect in WA. Drilling intersections correlate with gold in soil anomalies and set the scene for a renewed hunt for grade at the Southern end of the prospect. The company says the fact that the high grade intersections were in bedrock suggests the source of the gold may be close by.

DiscovEx Resources and JV partner Carnaby Resources are continuing to spin the money wheel at their remarkable Greater Duchess copper discovery in Queensland that has already led to a tripling of Discovex' share price and a nine fold increase for Canaby. The JV partners recently unveiled another slew of strong results from half a dozen holes drilled across the Lady Fanny and Burke & Wills prospects.

Askari Metals has snapped up over 1700 square kilometres of potentially prospective lithium ground in Western Australia‘s Pilbara region. The company has lodged a series of exploration licence applications that will see it step up its hunt for coveted battery metals such as lithium in an area known for housing some of the world's largest lithium deposits.

ASX-listed explorer White Cliff Minerals has kicked off its first pass drilling program at the company's Cracker Jack prospect, which is part of its Reedy South gold project in the lucrative Meekatharra-Cue goldfields of WA. The work is part of a 74 hole, 4,440 metre shallow RC drilling campaign across both the Cracker Jack and McCaskill Hill prospects.

Congolese focused battery metals explorer, AVZ Minerals, is now a dual listed company after its shares commenced trading on the United States OTCQX financial market. The company says the listing will help it capitalise on growing US interest in its majority-owned Manono lithium and tin project. OTCQX is the world's largest market for over-the-counter securities.

Junior gold explorer, Torian Resources looks set to add rare-earth metals to its arsenal with the discovery of a significant yttrium anomaly at its Mt Stirling project in WA's Eastern Goldfields. A broad one kilometre anomaly has been uncovered at the project with peak values up to 521 parts per million of yttrium. The critically listed rare earth metal is used in renewable technologies including electric vehicles.

Copper developer Hot Chili continues to pump out some stellar drill results from its Cortadera copper-gold porphyry deposit in Chile as the company expands the shallow resources at its Cuerpo 1 and Cuerpo 2 deposits. Recent assay results include a massive 156 metre hit grading 0.4 per cent copper equivalent from surface that corresponds to 0.4 per cent copper and 0.1 grams per tonne gold.