Announcements

Eclipse Metals is off and racing at the Mary Valley manganese project in Queensland as it gears up for diamond drilling later in the month. The company’s geophysical survey team on the ground in the area of the historical mine has commenced a detailed ground magnetic survey across the Amamoor workings in the south of its tenure.

Heavy rare earth explorer and developer Northern Minerals is gearing up to hunt for Dazzler lookalikes having set aside $5 million for exploration and development drilling at the company’s Browns Range project in the Kimberley. Drill rigs are expected onsite in October and results will feed into an updated feasibility study. The resulting document could well be the precursor to Northern Minerals emerging as the first supplier of heavy rare earths outside China.

Lithium Australia could be near to closing another loop in the battery economy, producing a slow release micronutrient fertiliser from recycling alkaline batteries. The fertiliser is tailor-made for broad-acre farming in WA and early indications suggest the crops have responded well to the treatment.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia has just received formal accreditation for its three-phase lithium battery-based solar energy storage devices from the Clean Energy Council. The devices will be marketed by Soluna Australia, which is 50 per cent owned by Lithium Australia and 50 per cent owned by manufacturer DLG Energy (Shanghai) Co. Soluna’s three-phase 15K Pack HV will now be added to the CEC’s Battery Assurance Program guide.

ASX-listed gold explorer, Anglo Australian Resources, has bought out a couple of legacy third-party royalties that had been hanging over its historic Mandilla gold project 20km south-east of Kambalda in WA. The Perth-based company has now cleared the decks for a potential mine development as it advances towards a maiden resource estimate for Mandilla in the December quarter.

Element 25 continues to pick off mine development milestones as the company fast-tracks its way towards first manganese concentrate production at its incredibly low proposed CAPEX Butcherbird operation in the Pilbara. The company has set itself a rapid project development schedule, which it says is tracking on time and on budget, with first manganese concentrate production expected in the first quarter of calendar 2021.

Legend Mining looks to be zeroing in on the ‘sweet spot’ at the Mawson nickel discovery in WA’s Fraser Range. Downhole electromagnetics has lit up a strong conductor adjacent to existing drilling and mineralisation with the target interpreted to potentially represent the elusive undiscovered primary nickel sulphide lode which ongoing drilling is hoping to reveal.

St George Mining’s deep drilling program at Mt Alexander in WA has fattened up its Investigators target with the latest intersection in drill hole MAD181 hitting 48.7m of the nickel-copper sulphide-bearing mafic-ultramafic host rock unit below 503m downhole. The hole also hit a second 6m interval of mineralised ultramafics from 282.6m downhole.

Eclipse Metals has launched into its maiden exploration program at the smoking hot Devil’s Elbow uranium prospect in the Northern Territory. First pass exploration included the field checking of key targets with radioactivity levels all but confirming the presence of the lucrative but controversial energy metal. The company has now begun planning for a first pass drilling program for the 2021 dry season.

Comet Resources has spiced up its portfolio with the acquisition of the high-grade Santa Teresa gold project in Mexico. Drilling at Santa Teresa has already returned a bevy of eye-catching gold hits including 3.9m at 39 g/t gold and 1m at a whopping 958.4 g/t gold. The company is updating the resource over the project with exploration expected to kick-off in the coming months.

Middle Island Resources looks to have a new near-surface gold resource in the making at its historic Sandstone gold project in WA following more high-grade drill hits from the Plum Pudding satellite deposit. Notable latest RC drill intersections included 7m at 24.1 g/t gold from 36m, 7m at 19.0 g/t from 36m, 12m at 7.22 g/t from 40m, 3m at 24.7 g/t from surface and 3m at 10.0 g/t from 30m.

Lithium Australia is set to claim ‘first mover’ status after Envirostream signed two additional suppliers to provide spent EV battery packs for recycling through the company’s innovative facility in Melbourne. These new contracts complete the company’s supply chain with Envirostream claiming ‘first mover’ status in Australia and set to expand the business through the Asia-Pacific region.

ASX-listed gold explorer Kairos Minerals has ratcheted up its multi-prospect exploration blitz across its flagship Pilbara gold project hub in WA. The company has now kicked off a follow-up RC drilling program totalling 5,000m, with the large greenfields Fuego prospect within the Croydon tenements first in its sights followed by the historic Mt York deposit.

Podium Minerals has continued its winning streak as it races towards proving up Australia’s first economic PGM deposit at the Parks Reef project in WA. Ongoing drilling has extended the footprint of the company’s discovery to nearly 7km of strike with results returned including intercepts of 19m at 2.11 g/t platinum group metals. The company is presently modelling its latest drill results for inclusion in an updated resource scheduled for release in October 2020.

Aspiring gold developer Barton Gold has started the ball rolling on evaluating its unexploited 558,000-ounce Tunkillia gold project in the Gawler Craton region in South Australia. The company is looking to formulate a future development plan beyond an early production pathway at its historic Tarcoola gold mine.

Aruma Resources innovative approach to exploration is already paying dividends at its Melrose project on the southern margin of the Pilbara, with the explorer racing to peg two new tenements after identifying new zones of gold mineralisation in the region. The company’s project surrounds Northern Star’s revered Paulsen’s gold mine, with Aruma hoping to unearth a similar company-making deposit.

PharmAust’s cancer fighting drugs continue to inhibit COVID-19 in its testing of the effects of the drugs on cultured cells infected by the virus. Preliminary results from lab studies undertaken for PharmAust by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne show the virus can be suppressed by up to about 95 per cent following treatment with the company’s monepantel and monepantel sulfone products.

Fuelled by rising commodity prices, Horizon Minerals’ high-grade Nimbus silver-zinc project near Kalgoorlie is back in play, with all options on the table, according to the company, and a few sniffs from interested third parties having already been received. Horizon, which this month launched a massive 70,000m drilling campaign at its adjacent flagship Boorara gold project, has kicked off a strategic review of Nimbus designed to maximise value from the historic mine.

ASX-listed gold developer, Calidus Resources, has cleared the critical final ministerial environmental approval hurdle for its planned $116 million Warrawoona mine 20km south-east of Marble Bar in WA’s East Pilbara region. The company is now progressing debt financing negotiations and says it has plenty of interest from debt providers as it looks to short-list potential lenders next month ahead of the project’s definitive feasibility study being tabled.

The Australian Taxation Office has thrown Northern Minerals a $10 million cash lifeline and wiped out a further $9 million in potential debt after settling a protracted research and development grant dispute that has played havoc with the company’s finances. The dispute related to which aspects of Northern Minerals’ Kimberley-based, heavy rare earths pilot plant were technically considered R&D.

Cobre Limited has pulled off something of a coup, securing 8,100 square kilometres of ground over the emerging Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana. Cobre joins a star-studded cast of explorers and developers now hunting in this rich copper jurisdiction, with neighbours including Sandfire Resources and Cupric Canyon Capital, both of whom are currently developing nearby mining operations - exploration over the new project is already underway.

All eyes will be on Gawler Craton-focused aspiring gold developer, Barton Gold, next month as the results from its 5,328m phase one drill program around and below the old Perseverance open pit at its Tarcoola project in South Australia start to roll in. The program involved 37 RC holes that targeted along strike and depth extensions of the pit.

Impact Minerals has jumped back into drilling at its high-profile Broken Hill nickel-platinum group element project in New South Wales. The current program of RC drilling will follow up on previous high-grade palladium drill results and geochemical surveying across the project area, with work set to focus on the company’s Platinum Springs and Little Broken Hill Gabbro prospects in addition to the stunning Red Hill discovery.

ASX-listed explorer, Venus Metals, has successfully farmed out the Curara Well project in WA to AIC Mines but maintains a minority interest in the highly prospective joint venture ground that lies in the vicinity of existing successful gold and copper-gold mines. Venus now holds a 20 per cent free carried interest in Curara Well, about 170km north-east of Meekatharra.

ASX-listed manganese hopeful, Element 25, has hopped aboard the fast train to production, committing to the purchase of long-lead-time plant and equipment items for its proposed low CAPEX Butcherbird manganese project in the Pilbara. The company is on a rapid-fire project development schedule, which it says is advancing on time and budget.

Blackstone has charmed yet another nickel discovery out of the jungle in Vietnam, with geophysics lighting up the Viper Discovery Zone, just 200 metres east of the current exploration focus, the Ban Chang prospect. The company’s exploration and development program over the Ta Khoa nickel-copper project continues to gain pace with both a maiden resource and scoping study on the horizon.

Deep Yellow has teamed up with engineering heavy-weight Ausenco to oversee the latter half of the company’s Pre-Feasibility Study in Namibia. Ausenco will work closely with the company providing specialist process design, engineering, equipment lists and capital estimates as the company fast-tracks the development of its Tumas uranium deposits.

Aruma Resources has built on its already enviable ground position at its Saltwater gold project on the southern margin of WA’s emerging Pilbara goldfield. The company has added three new exploration licences to the project with its tenure now covering over 65km of highly prospective and under-explored stratigraphy. Exploration is expected to kick off in the coming weeks with drilling planned for later in 2020.

ASX-listed aspiring WA gold developer, Middle Island Resources, is on the verge of receiving government approvals for multiple exploration licences that collectively make up its big greenfields Barkly copper-gold play in the Northern Territory’s newly identified East Tennant mineral province. The NT Government has given the nod to the company’s applications for licences spanning a whopping 3,253sqkm and they can now be granted at Middle Island’s option.

Ardiden has cleared the way for drilling to commence at its 110,000-ounce Kasagiminnis gold deposit in Canada. The company has now received a permit to undertake exploration, completed its consultation with the first nation groups and engaged a drilling contractor to kick off its exploration program over the under-explored gold deposit during the current summer season.

If there are any major gold deposits left lurking within cooee of Kalgoorlie, Horizon Minerals will most likely find them after it announced this week it is about to launch a massive, 70,000m drill campaign on an axis around Kalgoorlie that will leave no stone unturned. It will cost $7 million and feed into Horizon’s much anticipated definitive feasibility study.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia’s proprietary processing technologies continue to demonstrate that metal dust from old lithium batteries, discarded low-grade spodumene and mine waste can be converted into lithium ferro phosphates for the manufacture of high-performance lithium-ion battery cathodes.