Matt Birney

Gold explorer Barton Gold has successfully raked in $15 million in a “significantly oversubscribed” IPO as it prepares to list its shares on the Australian Securities Exchange later this month. The company says the capital raise will now be closing on Monday, four days ahead of the prospectus deadline.

Aspiring Balkans polymetallic project developer, Adriatic Metals has locked in another of the key regulatory approvals for its significant new Vares silver-zinc-lead project in Bosnia and Herzegovina that puts it on the verge of a mining permit all-clear. The company says it has just been granted an urban planning permit for the cornerstone Rupice underground deposit from the country’s Federal Ministry of Spatial Planning.

Toronto-listed Novo Resources will step up its gold exploration activities in WA’s Pilbara region and Victoria over the balance of 2021 after recently completing a C$26.4 million equity raising and pouring first gold from its flagship Pilbara project earlier this year. The company has laid out a $12m exploration budget to expand work at Malmsbury in Victoria and on its huge 14,000sq.km Pilbara landholding.

Neometals will focus on lithium recycling and new technologies after divesting its option on 30 per cent of the spodumene offtake from the Mt Marion lithium project in WA for $30 million. The windfall bolsters the company’s balance sheet ahead of some significant core project investment decisions over the next year or so.

Impact Minerals appears to be on target at its Broken Hill PGE project in New South Wales, with diamond drilling intersecting disseminated and vein sulphide mineralisation over significant widths in the basal units of the Little Broken Hill Gabbro and Red Hill chonolith. The deeper drilling campaign appears to have confirmed results of earlier exploration and hints at the significant PGE endowment of the region.

Classic Minerals has retained Australian mid-tier miner IGO Limited as an exploration joint venture partner at its Fraser Range nickel-copper prospect in WA. It will pocket a $500,000 payment from IGO for 51 per cent of the prospect and the senior partner has committed a further $1m for ongoing exploration. The deal leaves Classic to focus on becoming a gold producer at Forrestania.

Lithium Australia has taken an important step towards becoming a key player in lithium ferro phosphate battery, or “LFP” supply chains, securing an Australian patent for its innovative SiLeach technology. SiLeach is used to recover lithium from micas and clays to produce lithium phosphate, a vital ingredient in LFP batteries that will power Tesla 3 electric vehicles.

ASX-listed NSW precious and base metals explorer, Godolphin Resources has appointed experienced geologist, Jeneta Owens as its new Managing Director. The Orange-based company’s decision comes after former Chief Executive Officer, David Greenwood recently returned to WA for family reasons in the wake of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Owens was previously an exploration manager and exploration team leader at the Northparkes copper gold mine, adjacent to Godolphin’s assets.

ASX-listed Indonesia gold explorer, Sihayo Gold has returned further encouraging gold hits from an ongoing diamond drilling program at its Sihayo gold project in North Sumatra. Better assays from the latest hole at the brownfields Sihayo-2 prospect include 8.4m at an average grade of 2.56 g/t gold from 47m and 9.8m at 1.77 g/t from 77m.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources’ plant construction at its Warrawoona mining and processing operation about 25km south-east of Marble Bar in the East Pilbara region is well advanced as it draws down the first tranche of funds from a Macquarie Bank $110 million debt facility. The company says its new mine remains on budget and on course to pour first gold in the June quarter next year.

Altech Chemicals has stepped up efforts to expand the use of high purity alumina, or “HPA” in the burgeoning lithium-ion battery market, filing a patent for its anode-coating technology with IP Australia. Demonstration of better battery performance through the use of an alumina-based battery anode coating could open up another lucrative new market for HPA from Altech’s under-development US$280 million plant at Johor in Malaysia.

Surefire Resources has continued to build on its exciting late 2020 gold discovery at the Yidby Road prospect with a further set of thick intersections from a follow-up RC drilling program at its Yidby gold project in WA. The pick of the latest assays from Yidby Road was a 26m intercept going at 2.02 g/t gold from 126m including 2m at 10.05 g/t from 141m.

Estrella Resources says it has maintained a 100 per cent strike rate with drilling into a broad zone of sulphide-rich mineralisation at its Carr Boyd T5 nickel-copper discovery north of Kalgoorlie with a new 6.75m-thick massive nickel-copper sulphide zone hit. The intersection occurred at the base of a previously drilled 32.7m nickel-copper-iron mineralised sulphide zone.

ASX-listed biotechnology company, PharmAust has secured Monash Health Human Research Ethics Committee approval for a Phase I clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of its monepantel product in combating motor neuron disease. Twelve trial participants will be tested in the fourth quarter this year. The trial has about A$880,000 of funding from charitable organisation, FightMND Australia.

Recently announced bonanza silver and some impressive gold assays from a massive rock chip sampling program has prompted PolarX to expand its tenement holdings in Nevada’s Humboldt Range. The company says it has secured extensions of known mineralised gold-silver veins and newly discovered mineralised breccias in 358.7 hectares of additional ground.

Middle Island Resources is set to restart targeting and drilling at its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison region in a bid to add ounces and fine tune the economics of its recently delivered project feasibility study. The company is aiming to unearth at least 25,000 ounces of new resources on its own ground or from a nearby third-party source.

ASX-listed aspiring gold developer, Kingwest Resources has kicked off another round of reverse circulation drilling targeting depth extensions to a triumvirate of key near-surface satellite deposits that form part of its flagship Menzies gold project in WA. The company will look to delve deeper at the project’s Lady Shenton, Lady Harriet and Yunndaga systems to test for gold mineralisation beneath the current indicated and inferred resources for each.

ASX-listed Buru Energy has moved to within a whisker of commencing the Currajong 1 exploration oil well in the Canning Basin of WA. A second well, Rafael 1, is set to follow as the company targets 97 million barrels of conventional oil from the two wells. A seismic program aiming to generate additional prospects for future drilling is also on the cards for June.

ASX-listed junior explorer, Okapi Resources expects to start a maiden drilling program at its Enmore gold project about 30km south-east of Armidale in NSW’s New England Fold Belt this week after securing a drill rig. The Perth-based company plans to drill an initial eight-to-10 reverse circulation holes totalling about 1,000m at the project’s key Sunnyside and Bora prospects.

Following successful field trials last year ASX-listed Lithium Australia, through its 90 per cent owned recycling division, Envirostream Australia, has launched into an expanded trial program to test the use of recycled alkaline battery material as fertiliser micronutrient across sites in Western Australia and South Australia. Two products are being evaluated for use in manganese-deficient soils across the four WA sites and one in SA.

ASX-listed Blackstone Minerals says results from resource extension drilling at its high-priority King Snake sulphide nickel-copper-PGE target at the Ta Khoa multi-metal project in north Vietnam have continued to enlarge its footprint ahead of down-hole geophysics that will help guide infill drilling. Latest assays include a solid 2.62m at 1.54 per cent nickel, 2.01 per cent copper plus 5.16g/t PGE and cobalt.

ASX-listed explorer, Kairos Minerals has launched a significant follow-up reverse circulation drilling campaign at its Mt York gold project about 100km south of Port Hedland in WA’s Pilbara region. The Perth-based company has two rigs going gangbusters at the project’s three main deposits and an array of nearby targets where it plans to complete an initial 150 drill holes for about 20,000m.

New zones of massive to semi-massive nickel-copper sulphides have been picked up in two recently drilled holes at Legend Mining’s Mawson nickel-copper-cobalt prospect in Western Australia’s Fraser Range. The intercepts 200m north and west of previous drilling continue to expand “the 3D footprint of the mineralised intrusive” at the key Rockford project area, according to Legend.

ASX-listed Si6 Metals is set to shift its gold exploration activities at the Monument project in WA’s Laverton gold district into higher gear via commencement of a 125-hole air-core drilling campaign. A scheduled mineral resource update for its Korong and Waihi prospects is also just around the corner. Si6 says new gold anomalies have been defined at Monument and drill-target generation work is set to intensify.

Lithium Australia says it will maintain exposure to a triumvirate of quality exploration projects via a joint venture with Charger Metals, which plans to list on the ASX in July on the back of a $6 million IPO set to open this week. The lithium battery player will also emerge as the major shareholder in the new company post-capital raise.

Fresh from an interim updated mineral resource estimate for its Mt Stirling gold project about 40km north-west of Leonora in WA, Torian Resources continues to rack up multiple shallow, high-grade gold hits that are set to further expand the Mt Stirling deposit. The Perth-based junior explorer says it has only “scratched the surface” at the project, with a wealth of high-priority targets to be followed up.

ASX-bound Barton Gold is set to close the door early on its initial public offering after receiving more than enough subscriptions to fill the $15 million capital raising. The company says the offer gained strong support from both Australian and overseas institutional investors and got a very warm response from the Australian retail sector.

WA gold producer, Ora Banda Mining has returned a clutch of high-grade drill results from the Golden Eagle underground mine, one of a series of satellite gold deposits lined up to feed the company’s Davyhurst gold processing plant about 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie. Stand-out diamond drill intersections were 19m at 5.4 g/t gold including 11.1m at 8.9 g/t, and 5.8m at 15 g/t.

WA focused explorer, Emu NL has identified two new high-grade gold shoots at the Gnows Nest gold project, together with a new gold zone at the adjoining Monte Cristo prospect from recent drilling near Yalgoo in the Murchison. Drilling to follow-up a suite of eye-catching results including 3m going 42.17 grams per tonne gold is now on the cards.

ASX-listed Okapi Resources has snapped up a tenement containing the historical Maggie Hays Hill gold workings and abutting its Mount Day project in the Lake Johnston greenstone belt in WA. The new ground takes in an interpreted structural target and coincident gold in soil anomaly together with the old workings, which have yielded historical rock chip values up to 10.7 grams per tonne gold.

ASX-listed Buru Energy has moved tantalisingly close to drilling for oil in the immense Canning Basin in the Kimberley region of WA. Mobilisation of the rig for drilling of the Currajong 1 well has now commenced, with a second well, Rafael 1, to follow. Buru is targeting more than 97 million barrels of conventional oil from the two wells.

Blackstone Minerals has served up high recovery rates from hydrometallurgical testwork on platinum group elements from its Ta Khao project in Vietnam. The stellar returns going 94 per cent palladium, 80 per cent platinum and 81 per cent rhodium appear to boost the company’s plans to achieve by-product credits and reduce costs of supplying nickel-cobalt-manganese to lithium-ion battery markets.