Matt Birney

Dampier Gold looks set to launch into a second phase of a geochemical targeting program across its Credo Well joint venture north of Kalgoorlie in the Eastern Goldfields of WA. Drilling and sampling across the priority gold target has already defined more than 86,500 tonnes of potentially open pitable resources grading a very healthy 4.41 grams per tonne gold.

K2fly has wasted no time integrating with fellow software as a service provider, SATEVA, following the purchase of the mining software developer in late October. The company has hit the ground running, releasing a new software package named Model Manager to complement its own core offering, the RCubed mining resource and reserve reporting software.

ASX-listed manganese player, Element 25, is closing in on the scheduled production start-up of early next year at its Butcherbird manganese project in the Pilbara region as it continues to pick off key development milestones. The company has now locked in mining contractors, while key plant and equipment components are on their way to WA.

Ongoing drilling at Estrella Resources T5 Zone, near the old Carr Boyd nickel mine north of Kalgoorlie, is providing something of a renaissance in a region where a short-lived nickel-copper mine operated early in the 1970s nickel boom. The company’s project area takes in the mothballed Carr Boyd Rocks nickel mine, which shut decades ago and has seen little serious exploration since that time.

Classic Minerals has topped up the tank, banking $1.2 million on the back of a successful placement to professional and sophisticated investors, with the funds earmarked for its ongoing exploration and development across the Forrestania greenstone belt in WA. The company received an overwhelming response to the share issue that was three times oversubscribed, with Classic offering a wealth of developing gold projects and a potential near-term move to production.

ASX-listed Australian Bauxite’s 89 per cent-owned chemical refining subsidiary, Alcore, is gearing up to become the first domestic producer of aluminium fluoride. The company is looking to ramp up from a laboratory-scale to a commercial-scale production outfit and in the process diversify and increase the security of supply for Australasian smelters.

Ardiden Limited has pulled out its exploration tool-kit as it ramps up its field program at Pickle Lake in Ontario, Canada. The company is deploying a raft of innovative exploration techniques as it tracks down the hidden gold endowment within its tenure. The program has included the use of drone-based geophysical surveying, surface geochemistry and ongoing drilling over the high-grade Kasagiminnis gold deposit.

Blue Star Helium has continued to expand its project tenure at its Las Animas helium play in Colorado in the proven high-grade helium fairway adjacent to the historic Model Dome helium field, as the company prepares for a much-anticipated maiden drilling program. It has just secured leases for a further 6,720 acres to increase its overall lease holdings to 182,000 gross or 127,000 net acres.

ASX-listed gold hopeful, Great Southern Mining, has been swamped by investors who have piled into its $3.12 million capital raise. Funding from the oversubscribed share placement will go towards jump-starting an aggressive drilling campaign the company has mapped out for its Cox’s Find and Mon Ami gold projects near Laverton in WA.

Following up electromagnetic conductor results that lit up like a Christmas tree, ASX-listed Legend Mining has hit paydirt again after it rolled out an assortment of high-grade nickel intercepts at its Mawson project in the Fraser Range of WA. The geological feast included a strike of 14.45m at 2.63 per cent nickel and 2.09 per cent copper from 162.05m with ongoing drilling continuing to hit its mark.

Estrella Resources remains on the money, with drilling at its T5 nickel discovery north of Kalgoorlie in WA continuing to deliver a wealth of sulphide mineralisation. The recently auspicious nickel explorer has furnished punters with yet another broad nickel sulphide intercept from its accelerated drilling campaign, with drill hole CBDD033 offering up close to 26m of sulphidic core.

King River Resources has elected to shift its strategic focus to its own recently identified leaching and refining process, utilising readily available aluminium chemical feedstocks, in what it says is a lower risk and faster path toward High Purity Alumina production. King River’s recent lab testing has now confirmed the production of a high-purity precursor compound suitable for calcining into HPA.

Novo Resources is well on the way to pouring first gold in the March 2021 quarter from its rapidly developing Beatons Creek gold project adjacent to the town of Nullagine in WA’s East Pilbara. The company says the fast-tracked development of the Beatons Creek gold mine, including the refurbishment of the recently acquired Golden Eagle gold treatment plant, continues to progress on schedule and within budget.

ASX-listed Alterra Ltd will sell the third tranche of its legacy Dambadgee Springs agricultural land in the town of Dandaragan, north of Perth, significantly progressing its efforts to become a major agribusiness developer in Western Australia. The sale, once completed, will allow it to accelerate its flagship Carpenters avocado project in WA’s south-east.

ASX-listed Oakdale Resources has made the most of its time at the company’s Gibraltar halloysite-kaolin project on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula closing out a maiden aircore drilling program in under two weeks. The quick work made at the site was possible due to the near-surface nature of the mineralisation with resulting assays expected back within a month.

ASX-listed Podium Minerals has flipped the switch on an accelerated RC drilling campaign at its Parks Reef PGMs project in the Mid West region of WA as it looks to extend mineral resources across the entire 15km strike length within the company’s ground. While the drill rods start turning, the company is also nearing completion of a resource upgrade incorporating results from earlier RC drilling.

After lifting the lid on a monstrous resource upgrade at its 75 per cent-owned Icewine oil development project in Alaska, ASX-listed 88 Energy has completed a $10 million placement to a range of institutions and sophisticated investors. The Perth oiler can now conclude its pending farm-out deal to drill two prospects early next year on its Peregrine oil project ground on Alaska’s lucrative North Slope.

Adriatic Metals continues to successfully navigate penultimate regulatory approvals on the pathway to development of its flagship Vares silver-lead-zinc project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The company secured an urban planning permit that now paves the way for it to seek the final approvals needed to allow it to proceed with construction of the proposed Vares project, which has a forecast CAPEX of US$173 million.

ASX-listed tech company, InteliCare Holdings, has scored a trifecta of peak technology-body industry awards at Australia's longest running and most broadly scoped innovation recognition program, clinching the overall $10,000 prize in the process. The Perth-based company says winning multiple gongs reflects the tech industry’s recognition of its proprietary artificial intelligence online platform and its impact on the aged-care and disability-care sectors.

Impact Minerals has continued to build its portfolio of projects in Western Australia with its latest addition being an intriguing gold project to the east of the world-class St Ives gold mining centre near Kambalda. The Doonia project covers what appears to be a mafic intrusive with a similar geochemical and geophysical signature to the ground-breaking Hemi gold discovery in the Pilbara region.

ASX-listed PolarX has secured significantly improved terms on its option to acquire an 80 per cent interest in the Alaskan Caribou Dome copper deposit and a 90 per cent interest in the adjacent Senator property. The company has extended its option another three years to 6 June 2024 allowing future expenditure to the vendor to be spread across the next four years.

ASX-listed West Africa gold explorer, Mako Gold, has been buoyed by the latest bonanza gold drill hits at its majority-owned Napie gold project in Côte d’Ivoire and says the exciting Tchaga prospect has the makings of a significant gold discovery. The stand-out assay result was 2m at 92.95 g/t gold from 36m including 1m at 143.6 g/t or 4.6 ounces of gold to the tonne.

ASX-listed gold and base metals explorer, White Cliff Minerals, has the drill rods turning as it moves quickly to test its recently increased footprint around the historic Reedy South gold project, 40km north of Cue in WA’s Murchison goldfields. The 3,000m RC drilling campaign will target two historic gold prospects, namely Pegasus and King Cole.

Infinity Lithium continues to kick goals at its San Jose project in western Spain, with ongoing test work being developed as part of the company’s feasibility study, showing improved recoveries of lithium from the front-end of the proposed processing flowsheet. First-stage beneficiation shows a 10 per cent increase in lithium recovery, compared to the previous figures achieved as part of Infinity’s earlier pre-feasibility work.

ASX-listed gold explorer and aspiring developer, Middle Island Resources, has again increased the global gold resource base at its historic Sandstone project 12km south of Sandstone in WA’s East Murchison mineral field. The Perth-based company released initial mineral resource estimates for a further two out of five new satellite deposits, pushing up the total gold content for the entire project to more than 745,000 ounces.

Estrella Resources is ramping up exploration at its high-grade T5 nickel sulphide discovery in Western Australia, adding a second diamond rig to the metal hunt and upgrading infrastructure at the project. It is also expanding the scope of its work program having identified a bevy of new targets across this resurgent nickel-rich terrane.

ASX-listed White Cliff Minerals has entered into an agreement to sell its non-core Merolia gold project near Laverton in WA to London-listed explorer, Panther Metals, for about $274,000 in cash and shares. Divestment of Merolia will allow the Perth-based company to focus on its historic Reedy South project 40km north of Cue and its Midas copper-gold project in the Paterson Province, both in WA.

St George Mining is continuing a deep drilling program across its Mt Alexander nickel sulphide project in WA, with a recent diamond hole intersecting 30m of the fertile, basal ultramafic stratigraphy including 6m of disseminated sulphides. Encouragingly, the intensity of the sulphide intercept does not explain the booming anomaly now being targeted beneath the West End prospect suggesting the EM conductor has yet to be properly tested.

ASX-listed Kalgoorlie gold producer, Horizon Minerals, has poured first gold from the third and final instalment of toll milling ore that was mined from trial open pits at its flagship Boorara project, 10km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Gold production and revenues from the third round of toll processing are forecast at between 2,100 ounces and 2,600 ounces for between $5.3 million and $6.6 million, respectively.

Lithium Australia’s 90 per cent-owned subsidiary, Envirostream Australia has applied for permission from the Environmental Protection Agency Victoria to allow one of its Melbourne battery recycling premises to operate above 500 tonnes per annum as it targets future volume growth in end-of-life battery collection. Envirostream has operated below 500tpa of specified e-waste at its Victorian sites so was not previously required to hold an EPA license to operate.

Indiana Resources is preparing to dive into exploration at its Lake Labyrinth project in South Australia, with drilling expected to kick off later this month. The company has planned a program of reverse circulation drilling over the Minos prospect to follow up on historical high-grade intercepts, including 12m at 10.36 g/t gold, as it ramps up exploration aimed at delineating a maiden resource in 2021.

ASX-listed US helium player, Blue Star Helium, has upgraded the potential resources for two high-grade targets at its Las Animas helium project in Colorado ahead of a maiden drilling program. Perth-based Blue Star increased the combined prospective resources for the Enterprise and Galileo prospects by 16.5 per cent to 3.497 billion cubic feet of net recoverable helium in the 2U/P50 category.