Announcements

WA-focused gold and lithium explorer Aruma Resources is firing up the drill rigs in the second half of 2021 with maiden drilling programs planned for prime locales in the Pilbara and south of Norseman. The work includes keenly anticipated follow-up drilling at the emerging Saltwater gold project, south-east of Paraburdoo.

South Australia-focused explorer Indiana Resources has launched into a 3,600m aircore drilling campaign in the prospective Gawler Craton. The drilling is along strike from the company’s Minos prospect where the company previously reported multiple stellar drill hits including 38m going 6.54 grams per tonne gold. Assay results from more recent drilling at Minos are due soon and diamond drilling is also on the cards.

A review of historical drilling at its Ngalia Basin project in the Northern Territory has served up shallow uranium, vanadium and strontium mineralised zones for Eclipse Metals. Intercepts including 0.5m going 960 parts per million uranium and 570 ppm strontium from just 1m depth and a zone stretching over 11km of strike caught the eye. Seven untested radiometric target areas were also delineated.

Adriatic Metals has secured an exploration permit for additional mineral concession areas at its developing Vares silver-zinc-lead project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The dual ASX and London-listed company was awarded the concession areas covering 32 square kilometres last year and has already completed an initial heliborne magnetics and radiometric geophysical survey across the new ground-holdings.

Emu NL is currently building a substantial copper target in WA’s emerging South West Mineral Field, with recent surface sampling at its Viper project outlining copper mineralisation along nearly four kilometres of strike. Sampling extended both east and west of the high-grade Netty copper mine and also returned anomalous levels of nickel and cobalt, pointing to a deeper sulphidic target.

WA-focused explorer St George Mining has launched into a 10,000m drilling blitz targeting new copper and gold discoveries along 35km of prospective stratigraphy at the Paterson project in the state’s north. The maiden reverse circulation program is aimed at emulating recent discoveries in the region that include Rio Tinto’s Winu project hosting some 503Mt in resources going 0.45 per cent copper-equivalent.

ASX-listed CZR Resources is set to tip $7 million into its treasury via a well-supported two-tranche capital raise, with the bulk of the funds earmarked for feasibility studies on its 85 per cent-owned Robe Mesa iron ore project in WA’s Pilbara region. The company will issue 608.69 million new shares to sophisticated and institutional investors including major shareholder, Creasy Group.

ASX-listed junior explorer, Okapi Resources has kicked off a maiden round of drilling at its Enmore gold project about 30km south-east of Armidale in NSW’s New England Fold Belt region. The company says the first-pass drill program, consisting of up to 10 reverse circulation holes for at least 1,000m, will probe priority targets at its two key brownfields prospects.

88 Energy has moved to 100 per cent ownership of the Peregrine oil project in Alaska, USA, by acquiring the half share of its partner, Alaska Peregrine Development Company. 88 Energy now has a clear run to continue exploration in the oil rich Nanushuk formation where it is targeting more than one billion barrels of oil in gross mean prospective resources.

Active junior explorer, Native Mineral Resources has added some exciting greenfields copper, gold and nickel search targets to its WA and Queensland copper-gold portfolio after a successful bid for ground in the WA Nullarbor region. The company is aiming to get on the ground and commence fieldwork as soon as the tenements are granted.

WA explorer, Estrella Resources says a further intersection of massive nickel-copper-iron sulphides from drilling in the T5 discovery area near the old Carr Boyd nickel mine north of Kalgoorlie has added to confidence in its geological modelling ahead of market reporting of assays. An incoming funding boost will put Estrella in a position to up the tempo again at its cornerstone project.

Gold explorer Barton Gold has successfully raked in $15 million in a “significantly oversubscribed” IPO as it prepares to list its shares on the Australian Securities Exchange later this month. The company says the capital raise will now be closing on Monday, four days ahead of the prospectus deadline.

Aspiring Balkans polymetallic project developer, Adriatic Metals has locked in another of the key regulatory approvals for its significant new Vares silver-zinc-lead project in Bosnia and Herzegovina that puts it on the verge of a mining permit all-clear. The company says it has just been granted an urban planning permit for the cornerstone Rupice underground deposit from the country’s Federal Ministry of Spatial Planning.

Toronto-listed Novo Resources will step up its gold exploration activities in WA’s Pilbara region and Victoria over the balance of 2021 after recently completing a C$26.4 million equity raising and pouring first gold from its flagship Pilbara project earlier this year. The company has laid out a $12m exploration budget to expand work at Malmsbury in Victoria and on its huge 14,000sq.km Pilbara landholding.

Neometals will focus on lithium recycling and new technologies after divesting its option on 30 per cent of the spodumene offtake from the Mt Marion lithium project in WA for $30 million. The windfall bolsters the company’s balance sheet ahead of some significant core project investment decisions over the next year or so.

Impact Minerals appears to be on target at its Broken Hill PGE project in New South Wales, with diamond drilling intersecting disseminated and vein sulphide mineralisation over significant widths in the basal units of the Little Broken Hill Gabbro and Red Hill chonolith. The deeper drilling campaign appears to have confirmed results of earlier exploration and hints at the significant PGE endowment of the region.

Classic Minerals has retained Australian mid-tier miner IGO Limited as an exploration joint venture partner at its Fraser Range nickel-copper prospect in WA. It will pocket a $500,000 payment from IGO for 51 per cent of the prospect and the senior partner has committed a further $1m for ongoing exploration. The deal leaves Classic to focus on becoming a gold producer at Forrestania.

Lithium Australia has taken an important step towards becoming a key player in lithium ferro phosphate battery, or “LFP” supply chains, securing an Australian patent for its innovative SiLeach technology. SiLeach is used to recover lithium from micas and clays to produce lithium phosphate, a vital ingredient in LFP batteries that will power Tesla 3 electric vehicles.

ASX-listed NSW precious and base metals explorer, Godolphin Resources has appointed experienced geologist, Jeneta Owens as its new Managing Director. The Orange-based company’s decision comes after former Chief Executive Officer, David Greenwood recently returned to WA for family reasons in the wake of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Owens was previously an exploration manager and exploration team leader at the Northparkes copper gold mine, adjacent to Godolphin’s assets.

ASX-listed Indonesia gold explorer, Sihayo Gold has returned further encouraging gold hits from an ongoing diamond drilling program at its Sihayo gold project in North Sumatra. Better assays from the latest hole at the brownfields Sihayo-2 prospect include 8.4m at an average grade of 2.56 g/t gold from 47m and 9.8m at 1.77 g/t from 77m.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources’ plant construction at its Warrawoona mining and processing operation about 25km south-east of Marble Bar in the East Pilbara region is well advanced as it draws down the first tranche of funds from a Macquarie Bank $110 million debt facility. The company says its new mine remains on budget and on course to pour first gold in the June quarter next year.

Altech Chemicals has stepped up efforts to expand the use of high purity alumina, or “HPA” in the burgeoning lithium-ion battery market, filing a patent for its anode-coating technology with IP Australia. Demonstration of better battery performance through the use of an alumina-based battery anode coating could open up another lucrative new market for HPA from Altech’s under-development US$280 million plant at Johor in Malaysia.

Surefire Resources has continued to build on its exciting late 2020 gold discovery at the Yidby Road prospect with a further set of thick intersections from a follow-up RC drilling program at its Yidby gold project in WA. The pick of the latest assays from Yidby Road was a 26m intercept going at 2.02 g/t gold from 126m including 2m at 10.05 g/t from 141m.

Estrella Resources says it has maintained a 100 per cent strike rate with drilling into a broad zone of sulphide-rich mineralisation at its Carr Boyd T5 nickel-copper discovery north of Kalgoorlie with a new 6.75m-thick massive nickel-copper sulphide zone hit. The intersection occurred at the base of a previously drilled 32.7m nickel-copper-iron mineralised sulphide zone.

ASX-listed biotechnology company, PharmAust has secured Monash Health Human Research Ethics Committee approval for a Phase I clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of its monepantel product in combating motor neuron disease. Twelve trial participants will be tested in the fourth quarter this year. The trial has about A$880,000 of funding from charitable organisation, FightMND Australia.

Recently announced bonanza silver and some impressive gold assays from a massive rock chip sampling program has prompted PolarX to expand its tenement holdings in Nevada’s Humboldt Range. The company says it has secured extensions of known mineralised gold-silver veins and newly discovered mineralised breccias in 358.7 hectares of additional ground.

Middle Island Resources is set to restart targeting and drilling at its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison region in a bid to add ounces and fine tune the economics of its recently delivered project feasibility study. The company is aiming to unearth at least 25,000 ounces of new resources on its own ground or from a nearby third-party source.

ASX-listed aspiring gold developer, Kingwest Resources has kicked off another round of reverse circulation drilling targeting depth extensions to a triumvirate of key near-surface satellite deposits that form part of its flagship Menzies gold project in WA. The company will look to delve deeper at the project’s Lady Shenton, Lady Harriet and Yunndaga systems to test for gold mineralisation beneath the current indicated and inferred resources for each.

ASX-listed Buru Energy has moved to within a whisker of commencing the Currajong 1 exploration oil well in the Canning Basin of WA. A second well, Rafael 1, is set to follow as the company targets 97 million barrels of conventional oil from the two wells. A seismic program aiming to generate additional prospects for future drilling is also on the cards for June.

ASX-listed junior explorer, Okapi Resources expects to start a maiden drilling program at its Enmore gold project about 30km south-east of Armidale in NSW’s New England Fold Belt this week after securing a drill rig. The Perth-based company plans to drill an initial eight-to-10 reverse circulation holes totalling about 1,000m at the project’s key Sunnyside and Bora prospects.

Following successful field trials last year ASX-listed Lithium Australia, through its 90 per cent owned recycling division, Envirostream Australia, has launched into an expanded trial program to test the use of recycled alkaline battery material as fertiliser micronutrient across sites in Western Australia and South Australia. Two products are being evaluated for use in manganese-deficient soils across the four WA sites and one in SA.

ASX-listed Blackstone Minerals says results from resource extension drilling at its high-priority King Snake sulphide nickel-copper-PGE target at the Ta Khoa multi-metal project in north Vietnam have continued to enlarge its footprint ahead of down-hole geophysics that will help guide infill drilling. Latest assays include a solid 2.62m at 1.54 per cent nickel, 2.01 per cent copper plus 5.16g/t PGE and cobalt.