Announcements

Horizon Minerals’ Boorara gold project east of Kalgoorlie is nearing its moment of truth as the aspiring developer aims to commence production on three ‘starter’ pits later this year. A major grade control drilling program has recently been completed that will underpin an updated suite of mine optimisations and designs at the project. The geological model to follow from the drilling will provide a significant amount of confidence and potential grade upside.

Lithium Australia, through one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, VSPC, has signed a potentially lucrative agreement with major Chinese chemical manufacturer, Beijing Saideli Technology, that will see the Perth based company progress the commercialisation of its battery cathode technology. The plan is to hit the downstream lithium-ion supply chain, collaborating on an international scale to commercialise VSPC’s cathode technology.

Ardiden Limited has more than doubled the size of its Canadian exploration play by sweeping up a swathe of new claims, forming a contiguous ground package over a very prospective greenstone belt that historically produced some three million ounces of gold. The claims, known as the New Patricia gold prospect, now gives the ASX-listed explorer a dominant ground position spanning over 90 kilometres across the Pickle Lake gold camp.

Alterra has appointed John McGlue to its advisory board as it gears up to enter the potentially lucrative agricultural sector with an initial focus on the avocado market. McGlue brings over 30 years of experience in corporate communications and financial markets to Alterra and he is the founder and Principal of corporate advisory firm, Castle Gates Australia. Alterra provides a co-investment model as a potential vehicle for farmers to diversify their conventional bank funding models.

Africa-focused lithium developer, AVZ Minerals appears on track to deliver its definitive feasibility study in the first few months of 2020 at its massive Manono lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Phase two metallurgical test work continues to deliver encouraging results in support of the ongoing DFS. Testing previously generated a spodumene concentrate that exceeds 6% lithium oxide and the company says that phase two met results are lining up well.

Metallurgist and mining executive, Marc Ducler, has taken the helm at Anglo Australian Resources whilst experienced mining lawman, Leigh Warnick, has been appointed Chairman. John Jones, Peter Stern and David Varcoe will remain on the board as part of a pre-Xmas peace deal that saw the warring parties place their batton’s back in their knapsacks and appoint the largely independent team of Ducler and Warnick to spearhead the company.

It’s raining gold for Rox Resources and Venus Metals at their Youanmi South project after the partners made a spectacular 14m drill intersection going an ounce to the tonne gold from just 1m deep. The new drill hit also included 5m grading 77.03g/t gold and 3m grading an exceptional 123.66g/t gold. Youanmi has been the gift that keeps on giving this year for multiple parties.

The Davyhurst gold project has gifted Ora Banda Mining a grab bag of impressive drill results for Xmas with the first being a stunning 19-metre intersection grading 24.5 grams per tonne gold from 63 metres downhole. The new intersection includes a 6.4-metre zone grading well over 2 ounces to the tonne at 71.6 g/t. Davyhurst looks well set to ride again under a reconstituted Ora Banda Mining.

Lithium Australia and partner, Envirostream Australia, look like getting into cashflow after shipping their first batch of recycled lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite that was extracted from old lithium-ion batteries that otherwise would have been sent to landfill. Lithium Australia know owns 84% of Envirostream and is aiming to get to 90 per cent in time.

Hammer Metals has ploughed in 123 first-pass aircore holes at its Bronzewing South gold project and the company appears to have hit on what looks to be something quite interesting. Hammer recently reported composited sample assays from across Target 1 and it has since split the samples down to one-metre intervals. Best numbers include 14 metres at 1.80 g/t gold from 12 metres including 3 metres at 5.57 g/t.

Troy Resources has re-stocked its financial armoury with a placement raising $4 million and an $11 million loan facility supporting the restart of operations at its Karouni gold mine that went onto care and maintenance in October after a fatality on site. Since then, exploration has outlined a new style of mineralisation near the Hicks 1 pit with an impressive 17m hit grading 5 ounces to the tonne gold.

A strategic drilling expenditure increase by Great Southern Mining at it’s under-explored Cox’s Find gold project in WA has paid off in spades with ounce plus hits regularly spinning up out of the depths this year pointing to a potential deep continuation of the lodes well below the old historical mine workings. The company has also been awarded $150,000 from the Western Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme.

Existing Middle Island Resources shareholders and renowned mining investor, Stephen Copulos, have corner-stoned a $2.35 million capital raise that will see the aspiring gold miner turbocharge its WA Sandstone project. The company will now look to substantially boost its mineral resources, which already houses a mothballed mill that could be prodded back into life if a solid mineral reserve can be eeked out.

Vonex is in the final stages of the development of its new technology that looks set to disrupt the internet-based telecommunications market. The company is looking to launch its new “Oper8tor” APP that will provide a singular platform for seamless communications between multiple different messaging, video, voice and conferencing online platforms. There are currently 3.26 billion users worldwide accessing over 100 different social media sites.

Mining heavyweight, Mineral Resources, is now lurking purposefully at 19.9% on the Norwest Energy share register after the JV partners upped their theoretical chances of hitting paydirt at the Perth Basin, Lockyer Deep-1 onshore gas prospect in the Perth Basin from 29% to 38%. Mineral Resources, which already has an 80% interest in Lockyer Deep-1, will need to launch a takeover bid to secure any more significant lines of Norwest stock.

AMA Group remains on track to produce some serious cash flows during the next couple of years on the back of its strategic acquisition strategy which includes its recent $440 million purchase of the Capital S.M.A.R.T panel repair business and ACM Parts. The company expects its three recent acquisitions, Smash Care, Diplocks and All Transport (trucks) to bolster its EBITDA line by $2.5m.

Image Resources has added another dimension to its zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands mine in WA after it significantly boosted the heavy minerals grade at the project, capping off an uber-successful year for the Perth miner. Recent work has seen the grade jump from 7.2% to 8.9% and the company also increased both the project’s zircon content from 22.7% to 27.5% and its in-situ zircon grade from 1.6% to 2.4%.

Canning Basin focussed hydrocarbon producer and explorer, Buru Energy, has a number of balls in the air for next year as it seeks to develop its range of gas and liquid hydrocarbon plays in the Canning Basin. Buru is sitting on 5.5 million acres of development and exploration permits and it is already turning out 1,400 barrels of oil per day at its flagship Ungani oilfield near Broome.

Horizon Minerals and mega gold miner, Northern Star Resources, have put the final ink on an agreement for a straight swap of mining and exploration tenements, which will strengthen Horizon’s gold project holdings near Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie in the WA Goldfields region. Horizon will secure three gold projects near Coolgardie and four projects near Kalgoorlie, including Golden Ridge which has produced over 253,000 ounces of gold.

Solar window glass innovator, ClearVue Technologies, has broadened its presence in China after securing an original equipment manufacturing agreement with China’s Jiangsu YY Windows and Curtain Wall System Company. Under the terms of the agreement, YY Windows will be able to manufacture and sell ClearVue’s solar-powered insulated glass units either under its own name or through licensed distributors.

Novo Resources is rapidly getting the full picture of its nuggety conglomerate Pilbara gold deposit after tabling some positive results that will assist the TSX-listed company to squeeze every last skerrick of gold from the ground. The company has identified new areas of gold-bearing terraces at the South Egina and Paradise targets and it is rapidly gaining an understanding of the nuggety gold distribution in the conglomerate-hosted ores.

Big River Gold is on the verge of establishing a highly profitable, decade-long gold mining operation in north eastern Brazil that looks set to pay for itself within just two and a half years. A definitive feasibility study for the Borborema project shows the Perth company sitting on a stand-alone gold mine that will yield at least 729,000 gold ounces over an initial 10.2-year mine life.

ASX listed medical cannabis player, MGC Pharmaceuticals, will receive the first bulk shipment of its “CogniCann” product that will see the start of its phase IIb clinical trials to treat dementia and Alzheimer’s patients kick off. CogniCann is a GMP certified, pharmaceutical grade, medicinal cannabis product specifically developed for the treatment of dementia symptoms to improve specific cognitive functions.

Classic Minerals has just given one of its deposit resources at the Forrestania gold project a boost of nearly 40%, courtesy of a systematic drilling program that consistently hit the sweet spots. The updated resource for Lady Magdalene now stands at 5.92 million tonnes grading 1.32 grams per tonne gold for 251,350 ounces – taking the project’s total resource up to 270,100 ounces of gold.

Hot Chili is on fire at its Cortadera project in Chile, finishing off the year in style with a suite of impressive copper and gold hits for the second time in as many weeks. The Cupero 2 prospect has again delivered, with an 80m drill hit going 0.8% copper, 0.3g/t gold and 3.8g/t silver, right from surface. This includes 26m @ 1.7% copper and 0.7g/t gold from 54 metres depth.

Lindian’s Gaoual bauxite project in Guinea will soon be peppered with drill holes courtesy of an auger drill program that will target the Bouba and Mamaya prospects that are thought to be the more lucrative, conglomerate hosted deposits. Surface samples from Gaoual recently returned an impressive 53.57% alumina and a two-pronged drilling program is now being planned to assess the overall grade, thickness and scale of the deposit.

Listed mining software company K2fly has been racking and stacking a solid slew of major mining companies into its client base, inking yet another long-term contract, this one with serious mining player, Westgold. Westgold’s new contract with K2fly holds an initial total contract value of over $580,000 with the two companies also looking to collaborate on future working enhancements to the existing software system.

Blackstone Minerals’ drilling program in Vietnam has continued to churn out some impressive nickel and platinum group metal results from its Ta Khoa nickel project, located west of Hanoi in northern Vietnam, with a surprising new discovery at King Cobra. Assays are still pending for this new nickel discovery whilst broad intercepts at the Ban Phuc disseminated sulphide zone continue to entice with 106m @ 0.45% nickel.

As another old goldfield prepares to rise like a phoenix from the ashes, Terrain Minerals has hatched a plan to capture its value as the company elects to proceed with a farm-in agreement with a private vendor for the Smokebush gold project, an exploration play located about 65 kilometres west of Paynes Find in WA. Newly discovered historical numbers include 2 metres grading 11.3 grams per tonne gold from 70 metres downhole.

As Calidus Resources rolls on towards the end of a successful field season at its Warrawoona gold project in the East Pilbara of WA, a suite of exciting assays have come in that may provide a boost to its 1.25 million ounce resource. Drilling up to 200m below the base of the proposed open cut mine hit 1m @ 55.2g/t gold and 1.11m @ 31.2g/t gold – giving the company a hint that an underground operation just might fly.

Green energy innovator, ClearVue Technologies, has consolidated its position in the global sustainable energy sector after securing a lucrative supply agreement with Treasure Engineering Limited in Hong Kong, The deal, which will significantly boost ClearVue’s hopes of full commercialisation of its unique solar window glass technology, will see Treasure Engineering exclusively distribute its product in Hong Kong and Macau.

Neometals is embarking on a collaborative research and development project with the Queensland University of Technology to build a synthetic “zeolite” manufacturing plant that will take waste produced from the lithium refining process and turn it into a potentially lucrative material. The R&D project will be co-funded to the tune of $2.57 million courtesy of the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre.