Michael Busbridge

Metallurgical test work by Lindian Resources at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi has nailed very high extraction rates and produced a monazite feed grading 54 per cent TREO. Notably, the product includes very favourable magnet rare earths (Nd and Pr) characteristics containing ultra-low uranium – thorium contents using standard simple and scalable low complexity flowsheets.

Terrain Minerals has kicked off a major RC drilling assault across its high priority Lightning and Wildflower gold and silver targets in Western Australia's Murchison gold province. The company says it will drill deeper and along strike of existing stand-out intercepts, potentially leading to a maiden resource at Lightning, slated for mid-next year. Terrain has also identified multiple gold targets extending over 800 metres at its Wildflower project associated with coincident structures highlighted by geophysics.

Estrella Resources says it is on track to unearth a monster 500m tonne limestone resource at its Werumatamata project in Timor Leste after drilling logged large sheets of valuable mineralisation up to 87m thick. The company says the average width logged within the limestone blanket at the project is 55m and it also encountered an unexpected bonus in the form of calcite intersected beneath the target zone, potentially hinting at significant additional tonnes than first thought.

Red Metal Ltd says it has made a major breakthrough in metallurgical testing of its rare earths ore from the company's Sybella project in Queensland that will result in less impurities and higher grades. The company has managed to replace the standard two-stage impurity removal process with a simple Ion exchange process that will lower costs and increase purities.

Siren Gold has unearthed several old workings and taken samples of outcrops in a first pass field program at its Queen Charlotte antimony and gold project in NZ along strike from historical antimony mines. The company has identified a mineralised strike potential of 8kms within a 12km long shear zone in New Zealand's south island. Hangingwall and footwall reefs offer a parallel doubling of potential.