Announcements

Blackstone Minerals has nailed a plethora of new nickel sulphide exploration targets from its maiden geophysical survey program at the emerging Ta Khoa project, west of Hanoi, in northern Vietnam. The induced polarisation survey showed a strong correlation with existing positions of nickel mineralisation at the flagship Ban Phuc prospect and outlined new targets at the Ban Khoa and King Snake prospects nearby.

TNG Limited has flagged the potential to reduce mining costs and costs associated with waste haulage of tailings at its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron mine in the Northern Territory. The company said this could be achieved by focussing on two higher grade vanadium pits during the first 10 years of operation, which will lower ore mining and processing rates without affecting production.

Australian telco disruptor, Vonex, has officially launched its partnership with Australia’s largest business to business loyalty program, Qantas Business Rewards. The partnership allows businesses of any size in the QBR program to earn reward points for their expenditure on the company’s products and has the potential to grow its brand awareness, recognition and sales growth.

Clutching an armoury of excellent previous gold drilling results, Classic Minerals is now well and truly blooded and up for the hunt at Kat Gap near Southern Cross. The ASX minnow has kicked off a new drilling campaign aimed at testing down-dip projections of high-grade mineralisation it previously intersected with drilling to focus on the 400 metres of strike to a depth of about 100m, double the average depth of previous holes.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have recommenced reverse circulation drilling to follow up on high-grade hits of more than two ounces to the tonne gold at the Currans Find North prospect, near Youanmi in Western Australia. The current drill program will explore the down-plunge and along-strike extensions of the high-grade gold mineralisation that was intersected in previous drilling.

Hammer Metals is gearing up to kick off its maiden drill program at the Bronzewing South gold project in Western Australia over several targets that are located immediately south and along strike of Echo Resources’ 4 million ounce Bronzewing mine. A recent survey over these targets identified conductive zones that are in most cases spatially associated with areas of higher gold accumulation anomalies in historical drilling.

Buru Energy has identified the potential for an 11 metre oil pay zone in the Upper Anderson section after completing wireline operations at its Adoxa-1 conventional oil exploration well on shore in the Canning Basin, Western Australia. The company will now case the well before mobilising the NGD 405 rig to drill the nearby Ungani-7H production well at the Ungani oil field before returning to Adoza-1.

AVZ Minerals has improved on initial metallurgical test work at its giant Manono project in Africa with the production of a lithium concentrate grading 6.6% with recoveries of 70.4% from ores crushed to a finer size than in previous tests. The company has also updated President Tshisekedi Tshilombo from the Democratic Republic of Congo and senior government officials on the progress being made at the project.

ClearVue Technologies, has secured a significant foothold in the US for its solar glass “PV technology” after signing a collaboration agreement with sustainable infrastructure specialist AquaGen Infrastructure Systems. Under the agreement, AquaGen will integrate ClearVue’s energy generating windows into all of its planned sustainable village developments, some of which are already at an advanced planning stage.

Altech Chemicals is proceeding with its German equity strategy to sell up to a 49% stake in its high purity alumina, or “HPA” project for USD$100 million to Frankfurt Stock Exchange-listed company, Youbisheng Green Paper. Altech is also acquiring a 29% stake in Youbisheng, which will change its name to Altech Advanced Materials and seek to raise up to €70 million in new equity to fund the acquisition.

TSX-listed conglomerate gold explorer, Novo Resources, has unearthed an Aladdin’s cave of gold nuggets in a single pathfinder trench at its exciting Egina gold project, near Port Hedland in WA’s Pilbara region. 162 gold nuggets weighing 324 grams were plucked from the trench in the first pass with most of them recovered from a swale in the underlying basement rock near the northern end.

St George Mining has intersected nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation that extends known zones of high-grade mineralisation at the Investigators prospect within its Mt Alexander base metals play near Leonora in WA. The drilling includes a top intersection of 15.1m of sulphide mineralisation from 172.2m down-hole in an area where there has been very limited drilling to date.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has added another notch to its belt with 100 patients that have been prescribed or are being processed to receive prescriptions of its medical cannabis-based pharmaceutical products in Australia. The company has also extended its local reach after Tetra Health, who assists medical professionals and patients to obtain safe access to medicinal cannabis products, added MGC’s products to their product range.

Lithium Australia has hit another milestone on its road towards recycling lithium-ion batteries with the successful production of lithium phosphate from mixed metal dust derived from waste battery electrodes. The company is currently in the process of using this lithium phosphate to produce lithium-ferro-phosphate cathode powder that will then be used to manufacture coin cells for testing.

BlackEarth Minerals’ ongoing test work has confirmed that spherical graphite produced using concentrates from its flagship Maniry project in Madagascar, meets specifications required by lithium-ion anode manufacturers. Additionally, the test work by German testing outfit, Dorfner ANZAPLAN, has achieved production yields of up to 52%, well above the industry average of around 40%.

Surefire Resources is finalising a drilling program to test anomalous zones of gold mineralisation previously identified within greenstones at its Victory Bore project located near Sandstone in Western Australia’s Mid-West region. Previous drilling in the 1990s defined a gold-in-soil anomaly about 4.4 kilometres long and up to 750 metres wide with a top intersection of 8m @ 10.2g/t gold from just 20m down-hole.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have commenced a 5,000m aircore drill program at their Venus JV near the topical Penny West gold mine in the Youanmi region. The companies are targeting a prominent magnetic low identified by an airborne survey which includes the historical Penny West gold mine, the historical Magenta and Columbia prospects and Spectrum Metals’ recent Penny North discovery.

Strike Energy has inked a fourfold increase in the net reservoir within the secondary objective Wagina sandstone to 10.2 metres with porosities of up to 14% at its multi-target West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia. The company said this compares favourably to the nearby producing Beharra Springs fields, which flowed up to 38 million cubic feet of gas per day from a 10.4 metre net gas reservoir in the Wagina sandstone.

Northern Minerals has signed an offtake agreement with German raw material distributor thyssenkrupp Materials Trading for the purchase of all heavy rare earth carbonate produced from its Browns Range pilot plant project near Halls Creek, WA. The offtake agreement will commence immediately, with all current stockpiled product and future production included in the agreement.

Black Rock Mining’s Mahenge project in Tanzania has successfully produced spherical graphite that exceeds industry standards for battery anode materials with yields of up to 53% and purity of 99.98% TGC during a large-scale trial in a commercial environment. The results are higher than Chinese industrial benchmark yields of between 35% and 45% and purity of 99.5% TGC and replicate results achieved during laboratory testing.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has received the green light to start construction of its large scale, GMP compliant medical cannabis production facility in Malta that will increase its existing production capacity after signing a long-term lease agreement for the 6,000 square metre site. The site works for the facility will commence immediately and the company plans to start construction of the multi-storey building during the current quarter.

Buru Energy has observed hydrocarbon shows after intersecting the secondary target Anderson Formation at its Adoxa-1 conventional oil exploration well in the Canning Basin, Western Australia. The significance of these individual sand bodies with hydrocarbon shows in cuttings samples will be evaluated with wireline logs once the well is completed to its total planned depth of 2,200m.

Sovereign Metals’ new Wofiira rutile prospect in Malawi just got interesting, with analyses of the titanium-rich ore concentrate showing the products are likely suitable for all major markets, including the chloride pigment, titanium metal and welding flux sectors. Metallurgical studies show that the ores have a favourable particle grain size distribution, comparable to other leading natural rutile products in the market.

MGC Pharmaceuticals and Chinese e-commerce marketplace YuShop Global have kicked off a full marketing and sales campaign for MGC’s cannabis-based nutraceuticals following a successful eight-week test campaign. Under the distribution agreement between the two companies, YuShop will sell MGC’s nutraceutical products to consumers via its online platform and network of retail channel partners, which include 1,500 luxury spas.

Geopacific Resources is free to advance the financing stage for the construction of its Woodlark gold project in PNG, after concluding its independent due diligence technical work programs and reporting, which showed no “fatal flaws” to its development. The review was commissioned by a group of potential lenders for the project, who have signed non-binding term sheets to finance operational start-up.

Infinity Lithium has hit a milestone with the successful production of lithium hydroxide using recycled reagents, a feat that the company said proves the viability of its processing flowsheet for the San José project in Spain. The company now expects to finalise the capital and operating costs within the next week, which will lead to the completion and release of the project’s pre-feasibility study.

Coziron Resources is gearing up to start a 12,500m infill and extensional drilling campaign at its exciting Ashburton magnetite iron project in the west Pilbara, WA, after receiving firm commitments for a $3 million placement. The program is aimed at facilitating the development of a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate extending over about 1.5 kilometres of strike.

PolarX has delineated large chargeable anomalies using data from a recent geophysical survey and commenced diamond drilling at the Saturn porphyry copper-gold target within its Alaska Range project in the US. The company said that the data returned from Saturn is consistent with porphyry copper exploration models worldwide and shows potential prospectivity for disseminated sulphides and a quartz-veined stockwork ore system.

Blackstone Minerals’ targeting appears spot on with its maiden drilling program at the Ta Khoa nickel project in northern Vietnam intersecting substantial disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation. The first three holes at the Ban Phuc prospect returned wide intervals including 45.5m @ 1.2% nickel from 56.5m down-hole, 17.8m @ 1% nickel from 106.6m and 22m @ 0.8% nickel from 138m respectively.

Hot Chili has commenced a second phase of diamond drilling aimed at expanding the prospective, higher-grade zone of the Cuerpo 3 porphyry copper-gold ore system within its Cortadera project in central Chile. The company said results from the first phase had exceeded expectations and re-shaped its view of the potential size and grade of the Cortadera discovery.

Anglo Australian Resources is set to ramp up exploration of its Mandilla gold project south of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, after securing commitments for a $1.4 million share placement priced at 6.5 cents. Proceeds from the placement will also be used for further infill drilling and ongoing feasibility study work for the company’s flagship Feysville gold project also near Kalgoorlie.

88 Energy and partner Burgundy Xploration have signed an exclusivity agreement with the preferred bidder for the farmout of the conventional rights for their project known as “Project Icewine” in Alaska’s North Slope oil province. The bidder will pay USD$500,000 for initial agreed costs relating to the 2020 drilling program to secure exclusivity over the rights to 31 August 2019.