Announcements

Perth-based gold-miner Wiluna Mining is frantically ticking boxes as it gains momentum on the downhill run towards commissioning its 750,000 tonne-per-annum flotation plant as part of its major production ramp-up plan at its namesake project in WA. The company expects the plant to be in operation in December and is targeting increased production to 120,000 ounces per annum by the end of the 2022 financial year.

ASX-listed Quantum Graphite says the first two holes of an eight-hole diamond drilling campaign along the ‘Eastern Conductor’ near its Uley 2 resource on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia appear to have successfully intercepted multiple graphitic zones. Uley 2 already takes in a hefty 6.3 million tonne resource going 11.1 per cent total graphitic content.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources has taken two crucial steps in its journey towards becoming Australia’s next gold producer completing installation of the mill at its Warrawoona project in WAs Pilbara region and signing a mining services agreement with Macmahon Holdings. Construction is now more than 60 per cent complete with the company on track to pour first gold in the June quarter next year.

Market punters pushed Metal Hawk’s share price through the roof after maiden reverse circulation drilling at the company’s Berehaven nickel project near Kalgoorlie hit massive sulphide nickel mineralisation. Metal Hawk’s share price touched 76c in intraday trading after it announced a two-metre intersection of massive and semi-massive nickel sulphide mineralisation from 144m. The company’s previous day’s closing share price was 18.5c.

ASX-listed Barton Gold is continuing its aggressive exploration approach at its 100 per cent owned Tarcoola and Tunkillia gold projects in the South Australia’s revered Gawler Craton. With the South Australian government contributing up to $300,000 courtesy of its “Accelerated Discovery” initiative, the company has commenced a high-resolution gravity survey designed to refine its new regional structural model and optimise future drill targeting.

Multi-mineral exploration company, Okapi Resources has snapped up a 100 per cent interest in the historical Sunnyside uranium mine in Utah, USA, after staking mining claims that cover 960 acres adjacent to Okapi’s existing Rattler uranium project. The Sunnyside uranium mine comprises several small past-producing pits where uranium and vanadium were both mined in the early 1900’s at high grades. The project has seen no modern exploration since.

Nickel exploration company, St George Mining says maiden regional drilling at two 100 per cent owned prospects near its exciting Mt Alexander nickel sulphide discovery in Western Australia’s north-eastern Goldfields has intercepted broad intervals of host rocks prospective for nickel sulphide mineralisation. The company believes its Mt Alexander tenure has potential to develop into a major multi-deposit nickel camp.

Minerals technology group Neometals’ joint venture partner Critical Metals has struck a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Swedish company H2 Green Steel that may open the door to a possible second vanadium recovery project for the partners. The collaboration with H2 Green Steel complements the existing agreement between Neometals and Critical Metals in relation to their proposed vanadium recovery plant in Finland.

ASX-listed Northern Minerals has progressed its potentially game changing ore sorting initiative with the successful testing of the sorter system at its Browns Range rare earths pilot operation in the north of WA. The company is now producing sorted material and converting this to a 30 percent total rare earth oxide concentrate. Processing of the ore sorted material has resulted in remarkably better recoveries.

Perth-based Wiluna Mining has wrapped up a mammoth 175km of drilling over the past 18 months to support a resource and reserve upgrade integral for its stage 2 sulphide development feasibility study. Latest drilling results from the East Lode and Happy Jack lodes continue to impress with intercepts grading up to 53.4 g/t gold confirming Wiluna as a high-grade mineralised system.

Bardoc Gold’s hopes of increasing the forecast mine life of its namesake multi-deposit gold project near Kalgoorlie in WA have been buoyed by recent encouraging extensional and infill drilling results. Best numbers from the latest diamond drill hits from gold-bearing lodes in the key Zoroastrian deposit area are 4.5m grading 3.53 g/t gold from 102m, 1m at 11.7 g/t from 466m and 6m at 2.44 g/t from 460m.

Kingwest Resources has produced an exceptional set of first pass drill results that appear to show a significant gold discovery lurking under the mineralised cover at Lake Goongarrie north of Kalgoorlie. Twelve holes intersected significant gold values across a 500 metre extent of the first drill line within Target A10 of the newly named Sir Laurence prospect under the lake at Goongarrie.

The first leach-test results from Abx Group’s rare earth elements mineralisation at its Tasmanian bauxite project have confirmed the rare earths can be leached by cold water, with enhanced reaction times and recoveries if ammonium sulphate is added to the mix. Importantly, the heavy rare earth elements are enriched in the precipitate and deleterious elements are depleted and only very low radioactive elements remain in the concentrate.

ASX-listed Terrain Minerals looks set to get the rods spinning again at its Smokebush project in Western Australia’s Murchison goldfield. A 3,600-metre reverse circulation drill program is slated to follow up recent “exciting” new gold zones. An additional 3,000 metres of air core drilling is also earmarked to test promising regional coincident gold-arsenic anomalies.

ASX-listed junior gold explorer Superior Resources has passed the hat around for $1.26 million to fund exploration at its fast-moving Steam Engine gold project and Bottletree copper deposit in Queensland. New drilling for 2,300 metres of diamond core is imminent on the Bottletree deposit whilst Steam Engine probably represents Superior’s best pathway to early production.

Hot Chili’s exploration success continues with more high-grade copper-gold intercepts across the northern flank of its Cortadera deposit in Chile. The new intercepts have effectively increased the width of the main porphyry, Cuerpo 3, by approximately 100m, demonstrating a strong continuity of high-grade mineralisation.

ASX-listed 3D metal printing group Aurora Labs has entered a pivotal point in its well flagged technology development pathway strategy as it prepares to take the next step towards commercialisation of its 3D printing technology. The Perth-based company says it is now on the verge of reaching the final technical milestone of the technology development pathway that signals commercial readiness of its suite of products.

Nickel exploration company, Estrella Resources has dished out numerous sulphide intercepts at its exciting T5 discovery near the historical Carr Boyd Rocks nickel mine north of Kalgoorlie in WA, where a discovery hole returned 13.9m at 1.07 per cent nickel late last year. The company is now set to launch a 7,500m drilling blitz that will look to grow the mineralised zone and test 3.5km of strike to the north.

Venus Metals and joint venture partner, Rox Resources continue to deliver the goods at their Youanmi gold project in the Murchison district of WA with latest drilling at the Link prospect striking more gold, including a bumper 7.25m intercept going 15.02 g/t gold. The duo is looking to uncover more ounces to add to the already impressive 1.66-million-ounce resource at the project.

Blackstone Minerals has continued to encounter massive nickel sulphide mineralisation at its Ban Chang prospect at the Ta Khoa project in northern Vietnam about 160km west of the country’s capital city of Hanoi as it heads towards a maiden resource estimate for the key deposit. The company says recent infill diamond drilling at Ban Chang intersected 5.35m of massive sulphide nickel in one hole within a broader 11.4m interval.

Toronto-listed conglomerate gold producer, Novo Resources is set to splash out a further A$2.5 million on near-mine exploration drilling as it looks to source more feed for its Golden Eagle processing facility at its Nullagine gold project in the Pilbara region of WA. The company has identified more than 20 drill targets within trucking distance of Golden Eagle that will be targeted by 25,000m of drilling by year’s end.

Budding gold producer Calidus Resources has been buoyed by visible gold seen in drill core from a quartet of recent diamond holes aimed at verifying its high-grade Blue Spec satellite underground gold resource in WA’s prolific Pilbara goldfield. The company is working towards finalising an updated mineral resource estimate for Blue Spec as part of its continuing definitive feasibility study on mining and processing ore from the deposit.

Strickland Metals is hammering through a multitude of exploration programs with two rigs on site now at its flagship Yandal project. Promising zinc-lead assay results from a completed soil and rock chip sampling program at Iroquois, near Rumble Resource’s famed zinc-lead discovery in the Earaheedy Basin, are also providing cause for pause. Additionally, Strickland has been undertaking a thorough review of the exploration potential around its Millrose mineral resource.

Si6 Metals has secured an aircore rig for a forthcoming drilling program at its Monument gold project about 40km west of Laverton in WA as it looks to build on its existing 150,000-ounce-plus resource position in the prolific Laverton gold district in the North-Eastern Goldfields. The company says it expects to kick off the 125-hole regional program totalling about 5,000m by the end of this month.

Aspiring Indonesian gold producer Sihayo Gold has been making solid progress on the ground at its developing Sihayo “starter” gold project in North Sumatra which is getting tantalisingly close to being “shovel ready”. An optimisation study on the proposed mine is also advancing towards tabling in the next quarter and the company says upgrades to an access road and an existing camp are now largely completed.

King River Resources says it is re-evaluating its DFS strategy that is currently considering large-scale production of high purity alumina at a manufacturing plant in Kwinana in WA. The company will now also look to leverage its proprietary processing technology to consider an initially smaller scale operation only producing high value aluminium precursor compounds used in lithium-ion batteries in order to slash the capital and operating costs of the venture.

ASX-listed, Venture Minerals’ tin search at its Mount Lindsay tenure in Tasmania is heating up with exploration drilling intercepting a 16m interval of sulphide rich magnetite skarn that is prospective for hosting tin mineralisation. The company is targeting extensions of the Renison Mine Sequence that contains one of the largest and highest-grade tin mines in the world some 12 kilometres along strike, the Renison Bell tin mine.

ASX-listed heavy rare earths player Northern Minerals has its sights trained on a new set of prospects at its flagship Browns Range project in WA’s East Kimberley region. The trio of targets were highlighted by preliminary field portable X-ray fluorescence hits the company says point to broad geochemical anomalies that it intends following up with more drilling shortly.

Mineral exploration company, Okapi Resources’ share price soared by more than 50 per cent in intra-day trading after unveiling a monster 174m gold intercept going 1.83 g/t gold from surface at its Enmore gold project in northern NSW. The company says that grade appears to be increasing at depth with the hole terminating with a 1m interval at 15.15 g/t gold from 172m.

ASX-listed gold developer Horizon Minerals has released a new mineral resource estimate for its Crake project about 25 kilometres west of its proposed Boorara gold mine near Kalgoorlie. A series of stellar drill results have now moved 95 per cent of the resource into the coveted indicated category and metallurgical test work is also scrubbing up well at up to 98.9 per cent recoveries from the oxides.

Kingwest Resources has boosted its underground resource at its Yunndaga deposit within the Menzies gold project 6km south of Menzies. Importantly, the new estimate represents Kingwest’s first “high grade” resource estimate for Yunndaga and the company says the deposit may now be amenable to underground mining. New estimates are based on 13 new RC drill holes focused on eking out some high grade dirt at the Yunndaga underground deposit.

Manufacturer and distributor of consumer goods, Pental Limited is set to bolt on at least $24 million in existing revenues and plenty of blue-sky revenue opportunities after moving to acquire e-commerce business, Hampers With Bite. Pental will add the burgeoning gift hamper business to its lucrative and growing stable of big-name brands that it distributes including Huggie, White King, Jiffy, Velvet, Softly and Duracell, to name just a few.