Announcements

Lithium Australia plans to commence drilling to evaluate the potential and geometry of lithium pegmatites at the prospective Youanmi project near Sandstone in the Murchison region of WA, before the end of this month. The company will also carry out work on the higher-grade sections of a defined vanadium resource, which it believes to be amenable to direct leaching to produce vanadium sulphate.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources may be sitting on a high-grade gold deposit at their Currans Find JV gold project near Youanmi, WA, after re-sampling of recent holes turned up a spectacular intersection of 1m @ 72.67g/t gold from 39m within a wider zone of 3m @ 27.5g/t gold. This is significantly higher than the initial assays, which returned 6m @ 9.82g/t gold from 36m.

Volt Resources has secured USD$1 million in working capital from European investor Mr Lars Bader to help finalise the USD$40 million note issue on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. The notes will underpin the Stage 1 development of the company's Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania that has an ore reserve of 127 million tonnes grading 4.4% TGC, most of which is in the Super Jumbo, Jumbo and Large flake categories.

Sovereign Metals has outlined encouraging preliminary metallurgical test work results for its Wofiira rutile prospect in Malawi, East Africa, generating a potentially premium high-quality product, with low impurities, from conventional mineral sands processing. The concentrated ore product contained 96% titanium dioxide at a recovered grade of 1.1% rutile and is on par with many of the world’s leading rutile producers.

AVZ Minerals will control 65% of the Manono lithium-tin project in the south-eastern region of the DRC after paying USD$5.5m to private company Dathomir Mining Resources SARL for an additional 5% stake in the tier-1 deposit. The monies are payable to Dathomir within three years and the agreement will generate an additional NPV of USD$130m for the company based on recent scoping study results.

Neometals’ synthetic zeolite product generated from lithium hydroxide production waste, has held its own against similar industry-leading products from a reference Japanese manufacturer. The company will now proceed with a pilot plant test of its proprietary process in the September quarter of 2019, which will in turn feed into a class 3 engineering study and feasibility study.

Venus Metals has this week pocketed $2.55m and a swag of shares in fellow ASX-listed company Rox Resources after the companies established a 50/50 joint venture agreement for the prospective Youanmi gold mine leases in WA. Several other JV agreements have now also commenced, which focus more on near-mine and regional exploration activities in the underexplored Youanmi greenstone belt.

ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals continues to spread its wings, signing an agreement with Germany’s Mexacare for the distribution of the company’s medical cannabis products to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Germany’s medical cannabis market alone was worth €133 million in 2018 and is estimated to grow to €7.7 billion by 2028, making it a key emerging market for MGC.

Strike Energy continues to gradually increase gas flow at its Jaws-1 super-deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia, as more coal transitions from water to gas production. Pumps have been set to maintain a pressure of 250psi to allow the desorption front to gradually spread outwards into the rest of the reservoir as more coal transitions from water to gas production.

Lithium Australia has identified lithium and tantalum mineralised pegmatite dykes over a 5km strike in shallow historical tourmaline and tin mine workings at the Dudley prospect of its Kangaroo Island project in South Australia. Rock chip sampling returned assays of up to 0.43% lithium oxide, 770 ppm tantalum, 460 ppm niobium and 1600 ppm rubidium despite the strong weathering of outcrops.

Calidus Resources has generated encouraging infill drilling results that confirm the grade continuity of its Klondyke ore system at the Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara region of WA ahead of next month’s PFS. The company has also completed a surface trench sampling program over the Klondyke resource to establish the grade and thickness of gold mineralisation and support future mining operations.

Neometals Ltd has signed a binding memorandum of understanding with India’s third-largest power trading and diversified renewable energy company, Manikaran Power, to develop the first lithium refinery in the country. The joint initiative comes as India moves to build up a domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity and promote the use of more electric vehicles.

Hot Chili has delineated a thick, high-grade zone of copper-gold mineralisation at its Cuerpo 3 porphyry copper deposit in central Chile, that returned 188m @ 0.9% copper and 0.4g/t gold from 516m down-hole within a wider 622m intercept. The company said the intercept was comparable to results from SolGold’s Cascabel porphyry copper-gold discovery in Ecuador, which holds 5.2 million tonnes of copper and 12.3 million ounces of gold.

Strike Energy is continuing to drill its West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, WA, towards the secondary and primary gas targets after intersecting some hydrocarbon shows in the tertiary oil target. While the shows in the Cattamarra oil target were deemed insufficient to warrant the running of wireline logging, the company said that the results supported its geological model and would help with future activities.

ASX-listed medical cannabis player, MGC Pharmaceuticals has extended its reach to Brazil after signing a three-year exclusive distribution agreement with ONIX Empreendimentos e Participações. Brazil is a key emerging market with specialist market insight provider, Prohibition Partners, estimating that the Brazilian and Latin American medical cannabis sector could be worth up to USD$8.5 billion by 2028.

Telco disruptor Vonex has opened up a new avenue to grow its brand awareness and revenue through a partnership with business to business loyalty program, Qantas Business Rewards. This partnership will provide exposure for the company’s offering to QBR’s 250,000 small and medium enterprise members, who will be able to earn Qantas Points on Vonex products and services from August this year.

Venus Metals has struck wide, continuous intercepts of gold mineralisation at its Bell Chambers project near Sandstone, WA, which confirmed historical assay results and the geological interpretation for the current 17,000-ounce resource. Better results included 27m @ 2.72g/t from 27m down-hole and 64m @ 1.7g/t gold from 10m down-hole in separate drill holes.

Altech Chemicals is well on the pathway towards producing high purity alumina in Malaysia with erection of the workshop steel frame and placement of its roof structure now nearing completion. In addition, construction of the retaining wall is now about 75% completed whilst work has started on the first of four on-site detention storm water tanks that will store all site storm water.

Classic Minerals has recommenced drilling at its emerging Kat Gap gold project near Southern Cross, WA, where a series of exploratory programs last year unearthed shallow, high-grade gold mineralisation at a prospective rock contact. The short campaign will target strike and up-dip extensions of the defined mineralisation, which produced results up to 10m @ 30.78g/t gold from 28m down-hole and 8m @ 19.05g/t gold from 32m down-hole.

Classic Minerals has completed an earn-in and JV agreement worth up to $4.55m to divest its Fraser Range nickel-copper project in WA to base metals miner Independence Group. Classic will now concentrate its exploration at the emerging Kat Gap gold project located south of Southern Cross, WA, where recent drilling returned impressive results up to 8m @ 19.1g/t gold from 32m down-hole.

Venus Metals has contracted Murdoch University Associate Professor Aleks Nikoloski to carry out a metallurgical research study into vanadium, iron and titanium recoveries from its Youanmi project near Sandstone, WA. The research is co-funded by the Australian Government and test combined pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical process to recover all three metals from Youanmi oxide ores.

Infinity Lithium’s San José project in Spain could benefit from the EU’s recent recognition that access to raw materials has become essential for ensuring the supply of lithium chemicals for its automotive industry. The European Commission has identified 10 potential mining projects that could allow the EU to produce 30% of the world’s lithium by 2030 and flagged that more investment in this sector is likely.

Alterra has strengthened its board as it continues to build agricultural business opportunities with the appointment of experienced corporate accountant John Palermo as a non-executive director. His background in corporate transaction execution, strategic business management and business structuring is expected to assist Alterra with its strategy of building capacity and pursuing its growth plans.

AVZ Minerals has formed a strategic relationship with Chinese cobalt manufacturer Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt to advance the DFS for its giant Manono lithium-tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Besides lending AVZ its experience in the DRC and mainland China, Huayou will also prove the company with advice and assistance in other areas such as project financing and offtake financing.

JV partners Venus Metals and Rox Resources have discovered high-grade intersections from their maiden drilling program at the Currans Find JV gold project, located near Youanmi, WA. At Currans Find North, spectacular new intercepts of potentially shoot-controlled and shallow quartz veining included 6m @ 9.82g/t gold from 36m down-hole and 4m @ 5.72g/t gold from 60m down-hole in separate drill holes.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has received a 50% increase in medical cannabis product orders from Australian distributors Health House International and Cannvalate due to both repeat and new prescriptions. The company also expects to conclude the Phase II clinical trial for its CogniCann medical cannabis treatment for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients about 12 months ahead of schedule thanks to the high level of interest.

Australian telco Vonex continues to build momentum for its core PABX telephony business with more than 29,000 registered users now on its books, a 24% increase over the last 12 months due to its marketing campaign and constructive engagement with its channel partners. The company also expects to deliver a 25% year-on-year growth in the June 2019 quarter, up from the 20% growth rate it reported last quarter.

St George Mining has delineated further high-grade nickel mineralisation at the Investigators prospect of its Mt Alexander project located near Leonora, WA. Best results included 10m @ 2.47% nickel, 1.06% copper, 0.07% cobalt and 2.52g/t PGEs from 142m down-hole. Regional exploratory drilling at the Sultans prospect also confirmed the continuity of nickel mineralisation from historical drilling.

AVZ Minerals has initiated a DFS for its Manono lithium project in the DRC after a scoping study outlined that a 5Mtpa operation could generate a whopping pre-tax NPV of USD$2.63b at an IRR of 64%. Manono boasts one of the world’s greatest lithium resources at 400 million tonnes grading 1.65% lithium oxide and 715ppm tin, most likely placing it in the top three lithium deposits around the globe.

Hot Chili has delineated a potential fourth porphyry centre at its large Cortadera copper-gold discovery in central Chile, after securing further historical drill hole and geophysical data for the project area. This technical dataset has revealed a substantial, alteration-related outline some 4km long by 3km wide, which has all the markings of a potentially world-class gold-rich, porphyry copper system.

Infinity Lithium remains on track to complete the pre-feasibility study for its San José project in Spain during July 2019 with test work demonstrating good lithium leachability and the lithium-bearing solution now undergoing further testing. The company is also working on a revised mining schedule and the potential to recapture a significant amount of water contained in tails for processing.

Vonex has reached the final stages of development for its game-changing Oper8tor aggregated communications app that connects multiple communication platforms such as Skype and Whatsapp in real time. The company plans to carry out third-party application unit testing and load testing from the week starting 17 June to ensure that the app performs as expected at scale before announcing a formal launch date.