Announcements

Troy Resources has teased out further high-grade gold hits from the latest diamond drill holes at its Smarts Underground gold deposit which sits snuggly between its active Smarts open pits at the Karouni gold project in Guyana, South America. The last batch of assays delivered some good widths including 20m at 3.68 g/t gold from 212m and 13m at 3.64 g/t gold from 177m downhole.

ASX-listed Chilean focused copper hopeful, Hot Chili has unearthed yet another spectacularly long copper mineralised drill hit at its giant Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery in Chile. Latest results from the company’s 40,000m follow-up drilling campaign at Cortadera were headlined by an eye-catching 813m intercept grading an average 0.4 per cent copper and 0.1 g/t gold from just 54m depth.

Coda Minerals has the bit between its teeth at its Emmie Bluff copper project, having completed a 17-hole diamond drilling program across the South Australian target. The drill program completes a significant milestone in the company’s advance towards declaring a maiden JORC resource in the coming months. It is now logging and sampling almost 8,000m of drill core while awaiting the results from the assay labs.

Sihayo Gold has unearthed an intriguing near-surface bonanza gold drill hit at its Hutabargot Julu epithermal gold-silver prospect in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The high-grade intersection was 9m at 8.36 g/t gold and 9.3 g/t silver from just 8m depth including 1.2m going a spectacular 48.4 g/t gold and 23.7 g/t silver, providing some cause for on-market excitement as the company’s share price more than doubled in intraday trade.

Si6 Metals’ Monument gold project in the world-class Laverton Tectonic Zone of WA is starting to look the goods. Initial results from recently completed drilling have returned significant gold, with a stand-out intercept of 6m grading 3.15 g/t gold from 95m depth leading the pack. Results from a further twenty-five holes remain pending with a resource update expected to follow.

Whilst ASX-listed Infinity Lithium is fleshing out a formal feasibility study for its vertically integrated, battery-grade lithium hydroxide project in Spain, Europe’s key power brokers have met for the fifth time under the guise of the European Battery Alliance to reaffirm the region’s investment commitment to sustainable local sourcing of raw materials used in the battery value chain.

Blackstone Minerals is looking to fast-track its development program in Vietnam, establishing separate business units to handle critical components of the evolving pre-feasibility study over the Ta Khoa nickel project. The company’s recent work program has focused on drilling out a wealth of nickel sulphide resources across the project, however Blackstone is now shifting the spotlight back onto a potential move into a production.

Terrain Minerals is getting set to resume gold drilling at its Smokebush project in WA. A successful campaign at the Monza prospect last year will be followed-up in the renewed campaign, with the Paradise City prospect, on newly acquired tenure, to also be drill tested. Last year Monza the delivered some solid numbers including 4 metres grading 4.46 grams per tonne gold.

Todd River Resources has kicked off an auger geochemical sampling program over a large section of the eastern trend of mafic and ultramafic rocks it considers prospective for intrusive-style nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation at its Berkshire Valley project in WA. The company says the auger drilling is aimed at detecting areas of coincident nickel-copper-PGE anomalies, similar to those identified along part of the nearby western trend.

ASX-listed gold hopeful, Zuleika Gold has weathered disruptions due to unseasonal heavy rain and punched out 115 aircore holes for a total drilling coverage of 6,779 metres at the Paradigm East and Browns Dam prospects at its Zuleika gold project in WA. The holes are part of a recently launched 30,000m-plus aircore and RC drilling blitz at the project near Kalgoorlie.

Wiluna Mining Corporation’s ongoing drilling campaign has delivered a massive 142 per cent increase in the contained gold within company’s mineable underground ore reserves. Development drilling has rapidly built the Wiluna’s underground inventory across the site, which now tips the scales at 4.33 million tonnes at 4.74 grams per tonne for over 660,000 ounces of gold.

ASX-listed high purity alumina developer, Altech Chemicals has succeeded in developing a ‘breakthrough’ alumina coating of silicon particles used in lithium-ion batteries. The company says the new process could lead to significantly improved energy density, battery life and a reduced first cycle lithium loss. Interestingly, mega battery and electric vehicle maker, Tesla, recently said its aim was to increase the content of silicon in its batteries.

Things are hotting up for WA gold producer, Wiluna Mining. The company has entered a five-year alliance with internationally renowned underground mining contractor, Byrnecut Australia to ramp-up gold production at the Wiluna project in WA. A three-year development plan to reach 250 thousand ounces per-annum is about to spring to life, with the construction of a flotation facility set to begin next month.

ASX-listed Troy Resources is back on track at the Karouni gold project in Guyana, South America. Improved efficiencies at the Smarts pit have brought production numbers back in line with expectations. Drilling results from the Smarts underground beneath the current pit and the Goldstar deposit a few kilometres away are anticipated for release next week as the company looks to increase the current mine-life.

ASX-listed aspiring WA iron ore producer, Strike Resources continues to make steady progress towards a final investment decision on its proposed Paulsens East iron ore mine development, approximately 140 kilometres west of Tom Price and 200 kilometres west of Paraburdoo in the Pilbara region. The Perth-based company says key project development approval applications and submissions were well advanced with Government agencies and local authorities.

Coda Minerals continues to put runs on the board in South Australia, with exploration at its Emmie Bluff copper discovery coming up trumps. Recent drilling has returned assays of 2.05m at 4.09 per cent copper equivalent from 408.95m and 3.49m at 2.22 per cent copper equivalent from 454.2m, with the deposit now extending along 3km of strike.

Impact Minerals has cranked up the drill rig in NSW South Wales with the company poised to pepper its massive porphyry copper-gold target at Apsley in the Lachlan Fold Belt. Recent exploration has defined a massive 4 square kilometre copper-gold surface anomaly, with subsequent geophysical surveys confirming the prospectivity of a sub-surface porphyry and lighting up the emerging target.

ASX-listed aspiring iron ore miner, CZR Resources has set in motion preparations for a definitive feasibility study on the proposed development of its 85 per cent-owned Robe Mesa iron ore project 150km south-west of Karratha in WA’s Pilbara. The company has kicked off a raft of studies and surveys designed to facilitate the pillar processes required to obtain environmental and mining approvals for the project development.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has the drill bit spinning at its Merlin-1 exploration test site as the Alaskan oil hopeful looks to cash in on recent spectacular success by other oil explorers in the neighbourhood around its ground. 88 Energy spudded the Merlin-1 test well yesterday with 14 days of drilling now needed to reach the target reservoir in the oil-rich Nanushuk formation.

Blackstone Minerals looks to be defining a pair of new, massive sulphide deposits in northern Vietnam, with drilling at both its King Snake and Ban Chang nickel discoveries hitting good numbers. First-pass drill programs over the prospect areas have thrown up a grab bag of solid nickel-copper hits that the company will look to build into its growing resource inventory over the coming months.

Surefire Resources has kicked off a major follow-up drilling campaign at its exciting Yidby Road discovery in WA. The latest RC program comprising up to 40 holes for around 6,000m comes after the company unveiled a clutch of spectacular, thick intersections from its maiden round of drilling. One stand-out prior drill hit was a whopping 56m intersection at 1.97 g/t from 44m including 4m at 14.47 g/t.

Eclipse Metals has unveiled data modelling which shows a wealth of cryolite and fluorite mineralisation just below the pit floor at its Ivittuut project in Greenland. Data mining points to a blanket of mineral-rich ore that lies 20 metres below the historic open pit, with old drill intercepts showing up to 10.7 metres of mineralisation at an eye-catching 55 per cent cryolite and 22.1 per cent fluorite from only 29.54m down-hole.

Lithium Australia subsidiary, VSPC has secured an Australian patent in support of its proprietary process for producing phosphate-based battery cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries that it says can be achieved at a considerably reduced cost. VSPC has simplified its processing technology for the manufacturing of lithium metal phosphate battery cathode powders over the past two years, paving the way for the use of a wider range of raw materials as feedstock.

TNT Mines is gearing up for a major drilling program aimed at probing a couple of walk-up drill targets at its brownfields Warriedar gold project 50km north-west of the historic high-grade Paynes Find gold mine in WA. Warriedar takes in the old, high-grade Reids Ridge gold mine, where the Perth-based company plans to sink 40 holes for an aggregate drilling coverage of 5,000 metres.

Wiluna Mining’s development strategy across its multi-million-ounce gold operation in WA is continuing to pay dividends, with drilling at Golden Age producing a bag of high-grade intercepts, running as high as 47 grams per tonne gold, whilst the nearby discoveries at Starlight and Essex begin to take shape.

Legend Mining has stepped up its hunt for nickel at the Rockford Project in WA’s Fraser Range. An aggressive 10,000m diamond drilling campaign marks the start of the 2021 field season with one rig already feeling the dirt at Legend’s Mawson prospect in the revered Fraser Range. A second rig is due next week as the company begins to smash out the metres at Mawson.

ASX-listed Impact Minerals has racked up a bunch of fresh platinum group--copper-nickel drill hits across its shallow prospects which make up its aptly named Platinum Springs project, not far from the Broken Hill township in western NSW. Drilling at Plat Central returned one wide intercept of 32m at 0.7 g/t 3PGE from just 3m below surface, including 3m at a healthy 5.4 g/t PGE, below 76m.

ASX-listed gold and base metals explorer, Middle Island Resources is planning to demerge its Barkly copper-gold project in the NT with the aim of creating a separately listed entity on the ASX. The move, designed to unlock greater value in its wholly owned subsidiary that houses the 4,411sqkm of Barkly tenement holdings in the East Tennant mineral district, remains subject to shareholder approval.

Horizon Minerals has nailed its first drill hole at the Windanya project 45km north of Kalgoorlie. A discovery hole hit a head-turning 2 metres grading 26.68 g/t gold from just 35m at the project, setting it up as an immediate exploration priority for Horizon. Windanya sits within the Bardoc Tectonic Zone where over 100 tonnes of gold from a range of deposits have been mined.

ASX-listed Canada gold explorer, Ardiden has the drill rods spinning again in northwest Ontario, chasing the untested easterly strike of its Kasagiminnis gold deposit as it looks to build on the existing 110,000 ounces at 4.3 g/t gold already inferred. Ardiden’s latest suite of drill holes are vectoring in on an untested section of around 1.5km in strike length.

ASX-listed AVZ Minerals has nailed down a second offtake contract with a major Chinese lithium outfit – its second in less than three months. The aspiring central African lithium developer has struck a binding agreement with new offtake partner, Shenzhen Chengxin Lithium Group for the supply of spodumene concentrate from AVZ’s mammoth Manono lithium-tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Whilst it mulls over some positive nickel-copper assays from recent shallow metallurgical test holes at its Stricklands prospect, St George Mining has two sets of drill rods spinning simultaneously at its flagship high-grade Mt Alexander project in WA’s north-eastern Goldfields. Both rigs are vectoring in on strong EM conductors that are amongst the deepest tested along the western extension of the Cathedrals Belt prospect.