Announcements

Ongoing DFS works at Adriatic Metals’ Rupice and Veovaca deposits in Bosnia are accelerating and the company says results are anticipated for the third quarter this year. This week, the multi-metals developer tweaked its Rupice underground mine plan to squeeze out 26 per cent more silver in the first two years by attacking the high-grade core earlier in the plan.

Neometals has moved a step closer to production at its massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium deposit in WA after inking an MOU with leading Chinese titanium slag producer, Jiuxing Titanium Materials. The agreement contains the framework for a long-term offtake for either mixed or single metal titanium and vanadium concentrates, with the contract likely to put Barrambie on the fast-track to production.

Lithium Australia’s joint venture partner, Galan Lithium has completed a review of historical data that it says enhances the prospectivity of the JV’s Greenbushes South lithium project in WA. Greenbushes South lies less than 5km south of the giant Greenbushes lithium and tin mining and processing operation in the South West. The old data suggests a strong tin-tantalum anomaly over the existing Greenbushes deposit may extend south onto Lithium Australia and Galan’s ground.

Whilst Impact Minerals continues its tour-de-force in NSW where it is drilling both porphyry copper-gold and intrusive nickel-PGE targets across the resurgent mining state, the company is now keen to up the ante once again in its own backyard as it sizes up a swag of WA nickel, copper and gold targets. They include the Beau and Arkun projects along strike from the famed Julimar nickel-PGE discovery.

Hot Chili is on a roll now at its colossal Cortadera copper-gold discovery in Chile where the company says a resource upgrade is looming after it hit a 185m intersection going 0.5 per cent copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold from 568m down-hole at the project. Another 550m long intersection that Hot Chili says is shows copper-gold mineralisation but has yet to be assayed.

ASX-listed aspiring US helium developer, Blue Star Helium has elevated Executive Director and Geoscientist, Trent Spry to the company’s corner office. Mr Spry, who has been appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Star, has more than 25 years of experience in the oil, gas and helium sectors and is regarded as a leading authority on helium within the niche helium market.

Impact Minerals’ maiden drilling program over its Little Broken Hill Gabbro nickel and platinum group element project has validated the company’s conceptual modelling, with three first-pass nickel-PGE targets confirmed in the north of the 6-kilometre-long mafic intrusion. Exploration shows the PGE mineralisation increasing in both thickness and grade with depth, with better results including 51 metres at 0.3 grams per tonne 3PGE from 140m.

First ore has been successfully run through ASX-listed Element 25’s new processing plant at its developing Butcherbird manganese mining and beneficiation operation in WA as part of its current commissioning program. Commissioning activities have been “progressing well”, according to the company, and a saleable manganese concentrate has now been produced.

In what is becoming a definite trend for graphite developers now, ASX-listed Comet Resources is looking for downstream commercial opportunities for its Springdale graphite deposit near Ravensthorpe in WA. The company says it is aiming to create a graphitic product for use in anodes in the flourishing lithium-ion battery market and its recent test work on ore from Springdale showed excellent recoveries and purity levels.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia’s wholly owned subsidiary, VSPC has pinned its commercialisation hopes on India as the preferred jurisdiction for the proposed development of its lithium ferro phosphate cathode powder production facility. Perth-based Lithium Australia has just tabled an impressive pre-feasibility study that it says points to robust project economics for the manufacture of advanced LFP cathode powders using VSPC’s proprietary processing technology.

Si6 Metals has wrapped up another bundle of solid gold hits from drilling at two key prospects at its Monument gold project in WA. Notable intersections from the recent drilling at the Korong prospect included 5m going 2.56 g/t gold from 124m and 5m at 2.03 g/t from 60m, while Waihi chimed in with 4m at 5.89 g/t from 62m and 3m at 2.45 g/t from 113m.

Legend Mining looks to be tugging on the tail of a tiger in WA’s coveted Fraser Range with drilling continuing to expand the footprint of its exciting Mawson nickel sulphide discovery. An innovative blend of geophysics and deep diamond core drilling has outlined three new nickel targets, which extend over more than 3 kilometres of strike.

ASX-listed Buru Energy is set to kick off a multi-well drilling campaign across its JV ground in Western Australia’s oil-rich Canning Basin around mid-June this year after tying up a suitable drill rig with the grunt to drill both the deep exploration target at its Rafael oil prospect and go horizontally in a new Ungani oil field production well.

Horizon Minerals has returned an impressive initial batch of high-grade gold hits from a reverse circulation and diamond drilling campaign at the joint-ventured Penny’s Find underground gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. Better assays include 0.85 metres grading an average 23.56 grams per tonne gold from 216.75m, 1.67m going 17.91 g/t from 178.91m and 1.85m at 13.95 g/t from 251m.

XRF scans of diamond core recovered from deep beneath the earth at St George Mining’s Mt Alexander nickel-copper sulphide project in WA’s Goldfields have turned up some scintillating nickel-copper sulphides with one drill hole delivering 10.96m of continuous nickel-copper sulphides from 333.6m downhole with XRF readings as high as 7.34 per cent nickel and 2.94 per cent copper between 342.1m and 343.4m.

The rods continue to spin for Oar Resources at the Gibraltar halloysite-kaolin discovery in SA with assay results now eagerly awaited from drilling to the north of the original discovery that netted high-grade halloysite with grades of up to 20 per cent in grade. Infill drilling has now commenced and regional exploration is set to follow and the granting of the Crown tenement in WA is also imminent.

Troy Resources appears to have steadied its gold production to “normal levels” at the Karouni gold mine in Guyana, South America. The news comes after setbacks last year revolving around the coronavirus pandemic, higher-than-average rainfall and a shortage of mechanical supplies. The Perth-based company managed to eke out 7,333 ounces of production in the recently completed March quarter compared with 4,195 ounces for the preceding quarter.

ASX-listed explorer, PolarX is getting down to business at its newly acquired Humboldt Range gold-silver project in a multi-million-ounce mining region of Nevada. In-field drill-targeting has commenced at the Fourth of July and Black Canyon landholdings where off the chart samples going as high as 3,384 grams per tonne gold and 2,837 grams per tonne silver were previously recorded.

Things are starting to get interesting for Impact Minerals in its copper-gold porphyry hunt in NSW. An ongoing drilling campaign at the Apsley prospect has identified characteristics similar to Alkane Resources’ revered Boda discovery that hit a 1,167m mineralised drill intersection grading 0.55 g/t gold and 0.25 per cent copper. First assays out of Apsley are anticipated in three weeks.

ASX-listed Australian Bauxite’s 87 per cent-owned chemical refining subsidiary, Alcore may be on the cusp of turning aluminium smelter waste into treasure after producing aluminium fluoride samples from waste known as “dross” in recent test work. The Sydney-based company says the ability to recycle the waste by-product has the potential to significantly improve the base-line economics of producing aluminium fluoride in Australia.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has spied evidence of oil in multiple reservoir sandstone samples recovered downhole after logging multiple potential pay zones from its Merlin-1 test well drilled on Alaska’s oil-rich Arctic North Slope. The downhole samples recovered from Merlin-1 show strong evidence of being saturated with oil as the crude oil in the sandstone exhibits fluorescence under ultraviolet light.

Coda Minerals has completed its earn in over the Elizabeth Creek JV in SA after spending over $8.6 million on exploration since the farm-in agreement with Torrens Mining was consummated in 2017. Coda now speaks for 70 per cent of the rapidly developing copper project where it is eyeing an extensive new resource at the Emmie Bluff discovery.

Todd River Resources has kicked off a highly anticipated round of drilling at its Berkshire Valley nickel-PGE find in WA. Aircore drilling has now commenced in earnest at the central project area where Todd River is targeting a series of geophysical anomalies that also exhibit a pronounced nickel, copper and platinum group element anomalism at surface. The anomalism extends along an impressive 5 kilometres of strike.

Sihayo Gold says it has strengthened its case to unearth a “bulk tonnage” gold deposit in Indonesia after its air core scout drilling campaign hit consistent lower grade gold in Sihayo’s attempts to open up a second major project area about 6km south-east of its existing 1.5m ounce gold resource at the Sihayo Starter Pit project. The company also says the Indonesian government has signed off on its DFS for the Sihayo Starter Pit project.

Aspiring Central African lithium developer, AVZ Minerals’ resource drill out has reeled off a further batch of stunning broad pegmatite drill hits from beneath the Roche Dure open-pit floor at its Manono hard-rock lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The company says it has now kicked off an update of the existing mineral resource estimate for the massive Roche Dure deposit.

Torian Resources’ drilling campaign continues to impress with another clutch of encouraging gold hits at its Mt Stirling project in WA. The company says it expects to complete an interim mineral resource update for the project’s Mt Stirling deposit by month’s end. The existing inferred resource estimate for the deposit stands at 727,021 tonnes of ore going 1.45 g/t gold for 33,893 ounces of contained gold.

Buru Energy has completed its first oil lifting for the calendar year with 70,000 barrels of crude oil from its Ungani oil field in WA’s top end leaving the port of Wyndham and netting the debt-free company approximately A$2.5m. Buru said Ungani continues to produce oil in line with predictions despite some disruptions to operations due to seasonal rains in WA’s top end.

Neometals has reported encouraging results from preliminary metallurgical test work done on mineralisation from the Armstrong deposit at its Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project near Kambalda in WA that points to “commercial grade” nickel concentrate. The test work returned a 48.8 per cent recovery for nickel, an enhanced nickel grade of 12.8 per cent, a 55.4 per cent recovery for palladium and a resultant palladium grade of 20.4 g/t.

ASX-listed nickel explorer, Estrella Resources has recently completed an “experimental” seismic survey over the major basal contact at its Carr Boyd nickel project about 80km north-north-east of Kalgoorlie. The Perth-based company described the survey as a necessary de-risking tool it says will increase the success rate of deeper drilling targeting the basal contact for nickel sulphides.

Things are starting to get spicy for Hot Chili in its copper hunt in South America. Already boasting a 724 million tonne resource grading 0.48 per cent copper equivalent across its Costa Fuego suite of tenements in Chile, the company has defined what appears to be a second large porphyry copper system at the newly acquired Santiago Z tenure.

After two successful years of mining, the zircon-rich Boonanarring deposit in the North Perth Basin, mineral sands miner Image Resources has an eye to the future as it looks to bring the 9.5 million tonne Atlas project into production. A mining lease for Atlas has now been granted with transition to the project predicted for the December quarter next year.

ASX-listed clinical-stage oncology company, PharmAust has pocketed $755,594 after the ATO accepted its application for a Research and Development rebate in recognition of the innovations under development by the company’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Epichem and Pitney Pharmaceuticals. PharmAust said it plans to plough the cash straight back into ongoing clinical trials of its therapeutics on humans and animals.