Announcements

Norwest Energy has A$3M cash in the bank to help it lock in a rig for the highly anticipated Lockyer Deep-1 exploration well that is only 15kms north of Strike Resources’ huge West Erregulla gas discovery. Norwest said it was working with the operator, Mineral Resources to secure a rig contract after locking in site access with the local landowner east of Dongara in WA.

Perth listed oil company, 88 Energy, has made an off-market, all-scrip offer for fellow ASX-listed Alaskan oil chaser, XCD Energy, with a view to expanding its gross lease foot print on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope by forty per cent. The offer is subject to a formal bidders statement and 90 per cent acceptances from both XCD Energy shareholders and listed option holders.

Calidus Resources is pulling out all stops to get its Warrawoona gold project into production in the Pilbara after it signed a deal to co-fund an airport upgrade at Marble Bar this week in partnership with the Shire of East Pilbara. The upgrade will enable Calidus to seamlessly deliver its workforce in and out of Warrawoona when it gets going.

Ora Banda Mining’s spread of gold deposits across its Davyhurst project, including an impressive 24 separate resources, will soon receive yet another shot in the arm courtesy of a successful drilling program at the rapidly developing Sand King project. Standout numbers at Sand King include 5 metres grading 13.7 grams per tonne gold from 79m, 4.5m at 10.4g/t from 73m and 6.6m grading 6.1g/t from 5.2m.

ASX-listed Coziron Resources has field plans well underway in preparation for a drill campaign to commence on the first phase of diamond holes at its Top Camp prospect in WA’s Pilbara region. Three holes are planned to follow up the company’s maiden discovery at Top Camp that included 8 metres grading 10.2 grams per tonne gold. Coziron will use the data to understand the mineralisation and plan further drilling.

ClearVue Technologies has signed a Letter of Intent with Beijing Jinmao Green Building Technology Co. Ltd, owned by a subsidiary of China’s Sinochem Group Co, Ltd, to market and distribute its smart solar window glass panels in mainland China. The two companies will complete a trial construction project first by deploying ClearVue’s energy generating window panels ahead of negotiating a formal, possibly exclusive, distribution arrangement.

Ramelius Resources’ friendly takeover bid for ASX-listed Spectrum Metals is gathering momentum with Ramelius’ relevant interest in Spectrum now hitting 77.48%. Ramelius has extended its offer to remaining shareholders until the 29th of May whilst at the same time declaring the offer to be fixed and final. Ramelius also said that Spectrum shareholders who choose not to sell may be disadvantaged by a lack of liquidity.

Impact Minerals has added Apsley and Spicers Creek to its inventory of Boda copper-gold porphyry look-alike prospects near Dubbo in NSW. The new targets are contained within Image’s Commonwealth project that lies south of Alkane’s revered Boda and Kaiser porphyry copper-gold discovery in the Lachlan Fold Belt. The company has received assays from its recent reconnaissance rock chip sampling and the results confirm copper-gold mineralisation.

After navigating a plethora of Bosnian statutory approval labyrinths, Adriatic Metals is nearing the end of the maze after receiving a coveted and positive “record of decision”, or “RoD” from the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism for its Veovaca Environmental Permit which is one of the key approvals required for an Exploitation Permit to be finally issued. The company said the RoD is final and cannot be challenged, which means that the Exploitation Permit theoretically should be forthcoming soon.

A refining breakthrough by King River Resources’ has converted the aluminium oxide from its Central Vanadium deposit into a high value 99.99% high purity alumina, or “4N HPA” product. The company’s decision to refocus on the aluminium content of the deposit has simplified its processing flowsheet ahead of the completion of its prefeasibility study that is looking to generate early cash flows from the Speewah project in the East Kimberly.

Hammer Metals has doubled the strike length of its North Orelia gold target with the latest drill results identifying significant areas of shallow gold mineralisation. Recent intercepts from air core holes at the Orelia Target 1 include 4m grading 3.88 grams per tonne gold from 24m, 8m at 1.93g/t gold from 36m, which includes 4m at 2.5g/t from 40m and 7m grading 0.9g/t.

Legend Mining is hot on the tail of an emerging nickel-copper-cobalt discovery at its Mawson prospect in the revered Fraser Range in WA, with assay results all-but-confirming the presence of economic metal grades within the visual extravaganza of massive sulphides seen in the company’s first diamond hole of the year. The widest zone came back at 12 metres grading 2.76% nickel, 1.36% copper and 0.14% cobalt from 234 metres down hole.

Great Southern Mining has identified an impressive eight new target areas at its northern Goldfields Cox’s Find project courtesy of a 100 metre by 50 metre grid of shallow RAB holes drilled across most of the company’s ground holding. The drilling has identified multiple gold anomalous zones, some with concentrations exceeding one gram per tonne. A program of 1,150m for 350 holes has given Great Southern a solid base of new targets to drive the next phase of its exploration program.

St George Mining’s new geophysical program has experienced some early success after it identified some exciting conductive features at depth along the Cathedrals Belt that are in positions that look geologically interesting for nickel-copper mineralisation. Amongst the most compelling targets from the new survey is a deep conductive feature lying directly underneath St George’s Investigators prospect where the Perth based ASX-listed company has been enjoying ongoing exploration success.

The WA Government’s little-known website, www.iThink.wa.gov.au, is actively encouraging members of the public and businesses to put forward innovative ideas and services that can support and inform the State’s response to COVID19 isolation. The submission that received the highest number of votes to-date is from the private, but soon to be ASX-listed, healthcare technology company, InteliCare, that has an artificial intelligence-powered, in-home monitoring system to help the sick and elderly.

AVZ Minerals has delivered a dazzling DFS for its Manono lithium-tin project in the Democratic Republic of Congo that dwarfs pretty much every lithium project in WA. A DFS tabled this week on the project shows the project pumping out a stunning AUD$600m a year in EBITDA for at least the next 20 years based on today’s USD conversion. The company is now in advanced discussions with international debt providers.

ASX-Listed Middle Island Resources has defined a shallow new gold deposit at the McIntyre prospect, which is just one of fourteen targets within its wholly owned Sandstone gold project, located in central WA. New, consistent shallow drill intercepts from the current RC drill program include 24m grading 1.66 grams per tonne, 23m at 1.40g/t, 11m at 1.39g/t and 18m going 1.35g/t gold have delivered a second deposit in a week.

ASX-listed gold explorer, Ardiden Limited has secured land access rights to continue exploration for extensions to its 110,000-ounce gold resource at the Kasagiminnis gold project after executing a binding MOU with the Mishkeegogamang First Nation of Ontario group in Canada. The Kasagiminnis resource of 790,000 tonnes at an impressive 4.3 grams per tonne gold covers only 600m of the prospective 5.6km strike length of the project.

After another solid field campaign, Classic Minerals has produced a maiden resource at its Kat Gap project near Southern Cross in WA of almost 93,000 ounces grading nearly three grams per tonne gold. The new resource has now laid a solid foundation for the company to go ahead and apply for a mining lease across the deposit and run some initial numbers around getting into early production.

ASX-listed ‘software-as-a-service’ provider, K2fly, said the annual recurrent revenue stream from its software contracts has now surpassed A$2.0M after it signed on yet more customers for its “RCubed” mineral resource governance software. The company said the total contract value for its multi-year contracts, mostly with global mega-mining clients, now tops A$6M after Belgium-based Sibelco signed on for a 3-year term and Kinross Gold Corporation inked a 5-year deal.

ASX-listed oil explorer, 88 Energy, has interpreted oil in a formation above the primary target zone’s confirmed condensate gas find at its “Charlie-1” oil appraisal well on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope. Detailed analysis of the wireline logs obtained when the well finished drilling have identified an extra 19.5m of additional oil pay zone in the Seabee Formation where live oil shows were recorded while drilling.

ASX-listed PharmAust Limited will shortly commence laboratory testing of the effects of its anti-cancer drug, Monepantel on the Coronavirus after entering into an agreement with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Victoria. The study will be overseen by the Institute’s award-winning, chronic infections researcher, Professor Marc Pellegrini, with feedback expected as early as May this year.

Novo Resources has unearthed an impressive total of three new broad areas of gold-bearing alluvial gravel swales, or shallow channels, at its flagship Egina conglomerate gold project in the Pilbara. The Paradise area, which is host to two of the newly discovered gold-bearing areas, is about 14 kilometres north-northeast of Novo’s Egina mining lease. Another new discovery, known as Clarke, is just 10 kilometres northwest of Egina.

After an aggressive exploration campaign across its Menzies and Goongarrie projects in WA, Kingwest Resources has tabled a scoping study for just one of its prospects, Goongarrie Lady, where it is hoping to pull out $10.3m in 10 months before tax and financing from one open pit. The company is planning to initially mine 149,000 tonnes at an impressive 3.12 g/t for 14,000 ounces of recovered gold.

Neometals has lifted the nickel resource at its Armstrong deposit 90km south of Kalgoorlie, by an impressive 60% following a substantial RC drilling program that was designed to infill the old resource and test the extents of interpreted high-grade nickel shoots. Armstrong forms part of the Mt Edwards project where an expanding resource base, across 11 deposits, is bolstering the company’s position as an aspiring nickel developer.

Tyranna Resources has its sights firmly set on a plan to advance its Dragon and Knight nickel projects that lie about 30 to 40 kilometres east of St George Mining’s Mt Alexander nickel project in the Goldfields of WA. The ASX-listed company has put together a grab bag of interesting looking nickel targets and is now planning to embark on a maiden exploration program in the region.

Horizon Minerals has taken a conservative approach to the current state of play in the market and is putting as much cash as possible into bringing its flagship Boorara gold project east of Kalgoorlie, into production. To maintain its balance sheet, the company’s Board and Executive team have agreed to sacrifice 25% of their salaries to support the company’s vision. Management said it is still aiming to break ground at Boorara in the June quarter of this year.

Blackstone Minerals has exercised its option to acquire a 90 per cent interest in the Ta Khoa nickel project in northern Vietnam from AMR Nickel Limited for AUD$1M Blackstone shares based on its 30-day VWAP. The Perth-based explorer picked up a binding option to acquire the project back in May 2019. The project includes the mothballed Ban Phuc underground nickel mine and 450,000 tonne per annum nickel concentrator built to Australian standards.

Great Southern Mining has remained steadfastly confident of finding something big at its Queensland multi-metals exploration play. The challenges of holding a vast swathe of remote, yet very prospective ground have not prevented the company from fast-tracking the exploration pathway to discovery with a new hyperspectral survey providing an insight into the mineral composition of the underlying rocks. The survey has identified five high priority gold targets and ten secondary gold targets at the Edinburgh Park project.

Middle Island Resources has tabled an impressive five-fold increase to the global mineral resource at its Sandstone gold play in Western Australia, adding half a million ounces to the Two Mile Hill Deeps deposit. This brings the total resource at the project to nearly 624,000 ounces. With the rods still turning on site and a goal of ploughing 17,000 metres of drilling into the project, it is unclear as to just where this resource will finally end up.

Managing Editor of Bulls N Bears, Matt Birney, writes that history can provide guidance when it comes to just how long it takes the ASX to recover from global health related pandemics. From peak to trough and peak again, the ASX is remarkably consistent after a pandemic and the numbers will shock you. So just what does this mean for this Coronavirus inspired market crash?

Venus Metals has lodged two interesting looking tenement applications on the south-western shore of Lake Ballard to be known as the Henderson gold-nickel project, located 50 kilometres northwest of Menzies in WA. The tenements fall within the Mt Ida greenstone belt, which is host to some significant projects including Mt Ida and Davyhurst, where gold’s renewed interest is breathing new life into those projects.