Matt Birney

Deep Yellow is launching back into uranium exploration at its Nova joint venture in Namibia with 13 reverse circulation holes planned across its 4km long Barking Gecko prospect. The drill program is designed to confirm bedrock mineralisation similar in nature to the nearby tier one Rossing mine.

Troy Resources is serving up a feast of high-grade gold intercepts at Karouni in Guyana, with drilling over the developing Smarts underground deposit continuing to deliver strong results. The company’s latest two drill holes, designed to test the extremities of the deposit, have returned assays of close to 13 g/t gold, with wider intercepts including 4m at 7.08 g/t gold from 172m and 3m at 6.58 g/t gold from 111m.

Great Southern Mining has flicked the switch on a possible near-term development of its Mon Ami gold project near Laverton in WA. The company is weighing up the economics of exploiting the project’s maiden gold resource via an open-cut mining and toll treatment operation and has launched the various technical studies that set it on the development pathway to gold production.

Blackstone Minerals’ aggressive drilling campaign continues across its Ta Khoa nickel-PGE project in northern Vietnam. The company has launched into diamond drilling at Ban Khoa, 1.5km north of its Ban Phuc operation, as it chases down new sulphide targets lit up by its geophysical team. Drilling also continues at King Cobra and Ban Chang in the wake of the company’s recently tabled scoping study.

Dampier Gold is zeroing in on a rash of gold targets at Menzies with recent auger drilling uncovering extensive surface anomalism adjacent to the historic mining centre in WA. Wide spaced sampling in the southern tenement area has begun to outline an anomaly that extends over more than 8km of strike and has returned values of up to 70ppb gold.

King River Resources has successfully trialled its streamlined high-purity alumina processing route, utilising a readily available commercial aluminium feedstock to create an HPA precursor product. Metallurgical test work is currently underway on both this new precursor and the original precursor, manufactured from the company's Speewah ores, to create 4N HPA products at 99.99 per cent pure alumina.

Dampier Gold Managing Director, Annie Guo, has put her hand in her own pocket in support of the company’s ongoing legal dispute with fellow ASX-listed explorer, Vango Mining. Under the terms of an agreement between Ms Guo and Dampier Gold, Ms Guo’s private entity Auracle Group will make up to $1 million available to Dampier to pay for its legal costs.

ASX-listed West Africa bauxite player, Lindian Resources, has been given the all-clear from the Guinean Government to finalise the acquisition of a 75 per cent interest in the massive, undeveloped Lelouma bauxite project in Guinea. The Perth-based junior will assume the 75 per cent stake in Lelouma’s overarching ownership vehicle, Sarmin Bauxite, and take over operational control of the project.

Hot Chili has returned to its headline stealing best, tabling yet another cracker copper strike from its Cortadera deposit in Chile. This latest colossal interval tips the scales at 373m grading 0.4 per cent copper and 0.1 g/t gold from 648m down-hole and includes a higher-grade core of 130m at 0.5 per cent copper and 0.2 g/t gold.

ASX-listed explorer, Oakdale Resources, has kicked off a maiden aircore drilling program at its Gibraltar halloysite-kaolin project on SA’s Eyre Peninsula aimed at confirming the extent of the mineralisation that was detected by historic shallow drilling. The company plans to drill 50 holes totalling an estimated 2,500m over its target area 15km north of Andromeda Metals’ Mount Hope kaolin-halloysite project.

Kingwest Resources has rattled off another set of bonanza gold drill hits at its historic Menzies gold project in WA. The company seems to be streaking towards a possible upgrade of the project’s overall mineral resource spread across a string of satellite deposits. Latest notable RC intercepts included 2m at 37.71 g/t gold from 63m and 1m at 56.54 g/t from 56m.

ASX-listed Victory Mines is off to a flying start at its Coogee gold project in Western Australia, with initial drill results from its maiden program over the prospect returning a bevy of high-grade gold hits including an eye-catching 8m at 13.53 g/t from 92m and 2m at 13.82 g/t gold from 102m down-hole.

ASX-listed gold explorer, Great Southern Mining, is ready to fire up the RC drill rig again at its historic Cox’s Find gold project near Laverton in WA. The company is chasing extensions of the high-grade Cox’s Find gold deposit to the south of the old workings at depth where recent drill intersections point to the possible reorientation of the orebody geometry.

Lithium Australia has recorded positive plant uptake of micronutrients in controlled field tests for its spent alkaline battery waste fertiliser blends by Western Australia’s broadacre pastoralists. The company’s 90 per cent-owned subsidiary, Envirostream Australia is incorporating slow-release zinc and manganese into conventional mono-ammonium phosphate fertilisers used in WA’s Wheatbelt.

88 Energy has lifted the lid on a mind-blowing resource upgrade at its 75 per cent-owned Icewine oil development project in Alaska. At the same time as sifting through a pile of offers to select a preferred bidder for the farm-out of its nearby Peregrine oil project on the Alaskan North Slope. The Perth-based oiler is set to partner-up to drill one of Peregrine’s oil prospects, sitting south of the giant Willow oil field, operated by US oil major, ConocoPhillips.

ASX-listed high purity alumina hopeful, Altech Chemicals, has linked up with an international silicon powder supplier to collaborate on the development of a long-life silicon anode active material targeted for use in lithium-ion batteries. Spain-based Silicio FerroSolar, part of the global Ferroglobe group, produces high purity-grade silicon found in a growing list of applications and is developing tailor-made silicon powders for the anode of lithium-ion batteries.

Infinity Lithium has landed a recruitment coup helping advance the company another crucial step in its path towards production by appointing prominent local businessman and former Spanish politician, Mr Cayetano Polo as the company’s Head of Institutional Relations in Spain. Mr Polo has a strong background in regional and local government in the Extremadura region, which hosts the company’s developing lithium operation.

Horizon Minerals has returned a clutch of encouraging near-surface drill hits from one of a key quartet of satellite deposits underpinning its developing Boorara gold project 10km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Notable results from the latest drilling comprising 29 RC holes totalling 899m to a depth of 65m were 3m going 6.63 grams per tonne gold from 10m, 5m at 4.79 g/t from 4m, and 6m at 2.73 g/t from surface.

Mako Gold has taken significant strides towards delivering a maiden mineral resource estimate for its joint-ventured flagship Napie gold project in Cote d’Ivoire in the first half of next year following yet another clutch of encouraging high-grade and broad gold drill hits at the Tchaga prospect. One of the more notable assays was 10.26m grading 4.76 g/t gold from 76.5m including 1m at 32.49 g/t or more than one ounce to the tonne.

Legend Mining continues to deliver wide intercepts of nickel sulphide mineralisation at its Mawson discovery in WA’s venerated Fraser Range. Assaying of the massive sulphide intercept from drill hole RKDD023 returned an imposing 24.7m at 1.35 per cent nickel and 0.77 per cent copper. The results seemingly confirm the company’s visual estimates from the logging of the drill core as exploration continues across the prospect area.

White Cliff Minerals is poised to almost double its footprint around the historic Reedy South gold project in WA’s Murchison goldfields, picking up the adjacent Cracker Jack gold project in the process. Cracker Jack adjoins the company’s existing Reedy South tenements and has been the subject of historical drilling. It has also applied for a nearby exploration licence that, if granted, will expand the overall Reedy South project area to 272sqkm.

TSX-V-listed aspiring Pilbara gold producer, Novo Resources, has unearthed a new gold-bearing conglomerate reef discovery at its developing Beatons Creek gold project adjacent to Nullagine in the East Pilbara following a mapping and surface rock chip sampling program. The Vancouver-based company says the Skyfall prospect is situated about 2km south-west of the existing 900,000-ounce Beatons Creek conglomerate-hosted gold resource.

Barton Gold is planning a rapid return to drilling at Tarcoola in South Australia with recent exploration delivering a bounty of high-grade intercepts begging to be followed up. The company’s ongoing drilling program has begun to delineate the western extensions of the Perseverance orebody, whilst drilling below the open pit has been returning intervals grading at more than an ounce per tonne gold.

ASX-listed Canada-focused gold explorer, Ardiden, has sniffed out encouraging high-grade gold hits from a diamond drill program designed to probe deeper into the Kasagiminnis deposit at its Pickle Lake gold project in north-west Ontario. According to the Perth-based company, drilling results continue to demonstrate extensions to gold mineralisation and gold grades strengthening at depth.

ASX-listed Australian Bauxite has taken a significant step towards the eventual shipping of “metallurgical-grade” bauxite having lodged a mining lease application for its Sunrise bauxite project 115km south-west of the Port of Bundaberg in Queensland. The application covers the proposed $15 million development of Sunrise that incorporates the high-quality gibbsite-rich trihydrate Binjour bauxite deposit.

Wiluna Mining Corporation has posted a bumper resource upgrade with the company’s ongoing drilling campaign having now defined a colossal global resource of more than 8 million ounces of gold. This wealth of mineralisation extends over the entire Wiluna field, from the Matilda deposits in the south through to Galaxy in the north and also hosts a higher-grade core of mineralisation that tips the scales at an impressive 4.24 million ounces, averaging 4.89 g/t gold.

Terrain Minerals has the ball rolling again with a rig on the ground drilling at its Wild-viper project in Western Australia. The company has locked in plans for more than 2,500m of aircore at the gold project, which is designed to follow up on results from its August 2020 drilling program and to test several new zones of mineralisation.

Oakdale Resources has revealed some tantalising results from its maiden drill program in Nevada with the first diamond drill hole at its Lambarson Canyon gold project intersecting primary epithermal gold mineralisation below 243.54m down-hole.

Barton Gold has upped the ante in South Australia as it charges towards a listing on the ASX, this week appointing both brokers and advisors to oversee its Initial Public Offering. The company is also moving its gold focused exploration program across the Gawler Craton into high gear, working across its three project areas in SA and expanding its resource inventory as it tightens up development plans for 2021.

King River Resources is vectoring in on high-grade gold prospects in the Northern Territory after uncovering buried ironstone host bodies in two drill holes on its ground. The holding, east of Tennant Creek, has produced anomalous assay results pointing to iron oxide-copper-gold indicators. The discoveries are coincident with gravity and magnetic anomalies which typically signal copper-gold-rich mineralisation in the region.

Great Southern Mining is eyeing an RC drilling program next year over newly-applied-for tenements near Laverton in WA immediately adjacent to its Cox’s Find gold project. It says the 47.5sqkm tenement package covers more than 12km of “highly prospective” identifiable mineralised trends hosting both the Garden Well and Rosemont gold deposits currently owned and operated by gold producer Regis Resources.

Estrella Resources looks to have hit paydirt at the T5 nickel discovery near Carr Boyd Rocks in WA posting an assay intercept of 2.5m at an eye-catching 3.66 per cent nickel. This strike confirms the presence of high-grade nickel at the prospect and clears the way for an extended program across the emerging discovery north of Kalgoorlie.