Michael Philipps

Classic Minerals has officially begun wet commissioning of the processing plant at its Kat Gap gold project in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region, with first ore expected to be produced this month. Management says it will use part of its bulk sample ore to complete the commissioning phase before processing the balance through its gravity circuit.

Infinity Lithium says recent meetings with newly-elected regional political leaders have emphasised and reinforced the continued collaboration driving the advancement of its San José lithium project in Spain. The project, near the town of Cáceres in the Extremadura region, boasts one of Europe's leading JORC-compliant hard-rock lithium deposits, with an indicated and inferred resource base of 111 million tonnes at 0.61 per cent lithium oxide.

Quantum Graphite has achieved flake purity grades of 99.99 per cent graphitic carbon following thermal purification results from its final phase of testing on samples from its Uley 2 mine in South Australia. The flake was treated at 2850 degrees celsius in a testwork program conducted by Germany’s Institute of Nonferrous Metallurgy and Purest Materials (INEMET), ProTherm Systems and Sunlands Power.

Galan Lithium has kicked off pre-construction activities at its Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in Argentina after being granted its development permits by the local Mines Department Minister. The permit allows the company to start the commissioning of its new camp, begin removal of top-soil and enter preliminary testing activities for securing the ground quality.

Strickland Metals has entered into a binding agreement to sell its Millrose gold project to neighbouring global gold miner Northern Star Resources in a deal worth about $61 million. The deal has netted the company $41 million in cash and 1.5 million fully-paid ordinary Northern Star shares, with a $2 million cash deposit paid on the execution of the agreement.

Brightstar Resources has cracked the magical million-ounce milestone after upgrading the resource for its Cork Tree Well deposit to a total of 1.02 million gold ounces across its Laverton and Menzies projects. The independently-completed upgrade at the deposit saw Cork Tree Well increase by 20 per cent from 252,000 gold ounces up to 303,000 ounces of the precious yellow metal.

ASX-listed Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has highlighted a gold-mineralised corridor with a strike length of nearly 7km following reconnaissance fieldwork across its Zelica project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region. The company has recorded high-grade gold mineralisation in near-surface quartz veining, including results of up to 39.6 grams per tonne gold and 6.44g/t gold from rock chip samples at its West Nest prospect.

TSX-listed Novo Resources has secured the support of giant neighbour De Grey Mining as a cornerstone investor and potential joint venture (JV) partner in a deal worth up to $35 million at the Becher gold project in WA’s Pilbara region. De Grey could earn a 50 per cent interest in the project and adjacent tenements as part of the deal.

Terrain Minerals has added a Queensland operation to its raft of WA projects after lodging tenement applications for about 2500 square kilometres of highly-prospective ground near the Cracow gold mine. It says its extensive “Biloela” package includes at least two known historic copper mines, in addition to copper and gold targets first identified by mining giants Rio Tinto, Gold Fields and Newcrest Mining.

ASX-listed Aurumin has kicked off a diamond drill program at its Mt Palmer project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, where it will target lithium-bearing pegmatites with a focus on its Vickers Find South prospect. The target hosts confirmed pegmatites within a mafic-ultramafic sequence in a geological setting similar to that at the Mt Holland lithium deposit, which is about 65km to the south.

Brightstar Resources is primed to join the ranks of Western Australian gold producers, with mining set to begin in August at its Selkirk open-pit gold mine that holds 30,000 tonnes of ore going more than 6 grams per tonne gold. Brightstar picked up the operation that forms part of the Menzies gold project after completing its successful merger with Kingwest Resources last month.

Terrain Minerals has successfully wrapped up the first phase of drilling at its Smokebush project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, with 10 of the 11 holes drilled intersecting multiple zones of pegmatites. The reverse-circulation program prioritised seven of the 11 pegmatites identified, ranging from about 10m to 15m in width and 200m in length, before shifting undercover in about a 4km area.

Infinity Mining has highlighted rare earths at its Victor Bore project, with two samples from a recent reverse-circulation campaign returning results of more than 1000 parts per million TREO. Of 24 samples from a drill campaign in WA’s Central Goldfields, one returned a 1m hit at 1018ppm TREO from 20m, while a second recorded another 1m intercept at a solid 1582ppm TREO from 53m.

Toro Energy has confirmed massive nickel sulphide hits at the Dimma discovery that forms part of its greater Dusty nickel project after the return of assays previously identified by X-ray fluorescence analysis. One diamond drillhole intersected 4.31m of massive nickel sulphides at 1.16 per cent nickel and 0.29 per cent copper, in addition to 0.386 grams per tonne platinum and palladium from 243.33m.

Meeka Metals has tabled an independent maiden resource of 98 million tonnes grading 890 parts per million total rare earths oxide for 21,560 tonnes of neodymium-praseodymium metal at its Circle Valley project in Esperance. The new resource, based on 12,401m of large-diameter air-core drilling, is contained within an optimised pit shell and above a 430ppm TREO minus cerium oxide cutoff.

Emu NL has added a fourth rare earths discovery to its growing portfolio after rock-chip samples at its Merredin project complemented historic assay results of up to 1405 parts per million total rare earths oxide. The results backed up a review of the Geological Survey of Western Australia’s public hard-rock geochemical data that showed several assays with elevated rare earths values.

Lindian Resources says it has made significant progress on the optimum design for its processing plant at the company’s Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, while the mine design and planning are being scoped. The stage-one plant is based on processing an initial throughput of 220,000 tonnes of material per annum to produce a monazite concentrate before expanding to 440,000 tonnes a year.

ASX-listed Aurumin has kicked off the first of two phases of development works for its Mt Dimer gold project, where it is planning shallow open pits at its high-grade Lightning and Golden Slipper deposits. Mt Dimer sits about 120km north-east of Southern Cross, at a site where historical high-grade production delivered more than 125,000 gold ounces, including production of 600,000 tonnes at 6.4g/t gold.

Auric Mining is a step closer to a maiden gold pour from its Jeffreys Find project near Norseman, with the first 30,000 tonnes of gold ore set for processing once transported to Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie. The company says mining at the site has been ongoing for four weeks and it has triple road trains secured to haul the first ore to Coolgardie.

Xanadu Mines expects to deliver an updated JORC resource for its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia before the end of the year, following the discovery of new high-grade zones during infill drilling. The company has completed about half of its massive 30,000m diamond drill campaign as it targets resource extensions at its Stockwork Hill and White Hill deposits.

Infinity Mining has expanded its foothold in WA’s East Pilbara by nearly 100 square kilometres after acquiring three new tenements to bring its total holding in the region to more than 780sq km. The sites were bought from TasEx Geological Services and include ground considered prospective for volcanic-hosted massive sulphides and shear-hosted gold deposits right next door to Infinity’s Tambourah South lithium project.

Terrain Minerals has unleashed the drill rigs at its Smokebush project in WA’s Mid West region as it tests for lithium in pegmatites at the operation with an 11-hole reverse-circulation campaign over 900m. The company has prioritised seven of the 11 pegmatites identified, which range from about 10m to 15m in width and 200m in length, before shifting undercover in about a 4km area.

Everest Metals is on a mission to add copper to its Revere gold project near Meekatharra, with a diamond drill campaign kicking off just 50km south-east of Sandfire Resources’ DeGrussa copper-gold project. The 1000m program has been designed to test for volcanic-hosted massive sulphides that have been modelled to occur at depth and will include three deep diamond holes sunk to about 350m.

The hits keep coming for American West Metals, with the latest results from drilling at its Storm copper project in Canada showing assays including a 1.5m section at a whopping 7.1 per cent copper from 82.3m. The impressive hit was contained within a 9.1m intercept grading 2.5 per cent copper from 79.3m that was pulled from a wider 67.1m section reading 1.1 per cent copper from just 54.9m.

Brightstar Resources has kicked off a scoping study on the combined assets at its Menzies and Laverton gold projects in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, with mining set to begin at the former as soon as next quarter. The company is moving towards becoming WA’s next gold producer after completing its successful merger with Kingwest Resources last month.

ASX-listed Reach Resources has recorded impressive results from surface samples at its Wabli Creek project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, including 14.3 per cent niobium oxide and 6.7 per cent tantalum oxide. The company says the type of mineralisation at the site is rare and presents a unique exploration opportunity. It’s share price doubled on the back of the news.

A positive meeting with the United States Food and Drug Administration has boosted Radiopharm Theranostics' approval prospects for an investigational new drug clinical trial for its brain cancer treatment. The company’s F18-Pivalate is a novel radiotracer that combines a molecule and a radioisotope for the detection, characterisation and monitoring of brain metastases and glioblastoma – an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Aruma Resources has unearthed a new “Rose” prospect, not far from its Thistle target, following a reverse-circulation drill campaign at its Salmon Gums gold project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region. The Rose target was highlighted on the back of positive results that include 1m at 2.3 grams per tonne gold from 27m. The new discovery sits between the company’s Thistle and Iris prospects.

ASX-listed Emu NL has confirmed “outstanding” rare earths at its Graceland project near Lake Grace after its maiden drill campaign at the site returned results of up to 960 parts per million TREO. It completed an eight-hole RC drill campaign at the operation in January, with highlights showing a 32m intercept at 716.75ppm TREO from 32m, including 4m grading an impressive 960.66ppm TREO from 32m.

TSX-listed Novo Resources hopes its latest AC drilling results, which show a likeness to early work at De Grey Mining’s ’s lucrative Hemi gold operation, will prove a significant step for the company in the Pilbara. Drill highlights include a 3m hit at 5.23 grams per tonne gold from just 9m and another 3m intercept going 2.93g/t gold, also from 9m.

Estrella Resources has identified a slew of fresh targets at its Carr Boyd nickel project near Kalgoorlie following a review of data from its partnership with the CSIRO and results from a recent seismic survey. The company says it has highlighted 30 targets, including 15 with known nickel-copper-platinum group element intersections and another 15 hosting the right geology, but which are yet to be tested.

Xanadu Mines has begun an aggressive 18,000m discovery exploration drilling campaign at its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia, with results set to be incorporated into an ongoing prefeasibility study. The program includes two additional diamond drill rigs, with one set to cover 8000m of deep exploration targeting high-grade and large-scale mineralisation at depth. A further 6000m is planned, depending on results.