Announcements

Geopacific Resources has revealed a 78% uplift in the estimated pre-tax net cash flows from its Woodlark gold project in PNG, based on gold prices at AUD$2,000 per ounce, compared with the base case scenario of AUD$1,650 per ounce used in last November’s DFS. The fully permitted and proposed low strip ratio open pit operation provides life of mine margins near AUD$1,000 per ounce, with payback in 1.4 years.

Coziron Resources has received further clues directing its gold exploration efforts at the Croydon Top Camp project in WA’s Pilbara region, after receiving a detailed report from a prospector who recovered 203 gold nuggets in the area. Information from this report has been integrated with other geological and geochemical data from Croydon and will be used to identify and prioritise targets for further field programs.

Kalia has restructured its board ahead of regional exploration programs seeking porphyry copper/gold mineralisation on Bougainville Island, with the addition of two resource industry veterans as its directors. Michael Johnston, who will be the company’s Director Corporate Development and Strategy, has extensive experience in PNG and the Asia Pacific and was Placer Dome’s GM of exploration in the early 2000s.

Buru Energy has spudded the Adoxa-1 conventional oil exploration well targeting the potential for multiple stacked reservoirs within the greater Yakka Munga regional structure in the Canning Basin, Western Australia. A success at Adoxa-1 will supplement and enhance the company’s existing reserves and production cashflow from the nearby Ungani Oilfield and potentially unlock several follow-up structures in the area.

Black Rock Mining has significantly improved the project economics of its Mahenge graphite mine in Tanzania, by ramping up the proposed production rate from 250,000 tonnes per annum to 340,000 tonnes per annum at the request of its offtake customers. The company will add a fourth processing module at the operation to increase production of the highly sought-after, world-class premium graphite flake product.

Anglo Australian Resources’ drilling program has intersected gold mineralisation at two prospects within its Koongie Park project near Halls Creek in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. One of the holes at the Bull Dog prospect returned a peak result of 1m @ 11.27g/t gold from 22m down-hole while a hole at the Nicolsons East prospect returned 3m @ 1g/t gold from 23m, including 1m @ 1.49g/t gold from 24m.

ASX-listed mineral sands producer, Image Resources, has increased its EBITDA forecast from previous guidance by $15m to between $55m to $65m due to its Boonanarring project just north of Perth performing above expectations in several key areas. Projected operating costs have been lowered by about $10m to between $75m and $85m, while revenue guidance has ticked up to between $130m and $145m.

Hot Chili has generated another large porphyry copper-gold exploration target called Cortadera North, located adjacent to its Cortadera project in central Chile. The target covers two square kilometres and is defined by a coincident geophysical induced polarisation chargeable anomaly and strong surface enrichment of the element molybdenum, which are fundamental deposit signatures of the nearby Cortadera ore system.

Strike Energy has flowed significant, high-pressure gas to surface from the Basal Wagina formation, a secondary target at its multi-target West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia. The company will now subdue the productive formation before drilling ahead to a depth of 4230m before running wireline logs over the entire second intermediate section to fully evaluate the potential of the Basal Wagina.

MGC Pharmaceuticals’ cannabinoid formulations have demonstrated effectiveness in fighting brain cancers in ground-breaking pre-clinical trials conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Biology and University Medical Centre Ljubljana in Slovenia. The formulations inhibited the viability of cancerous glioblastoma cells taken directly from a patient and caused a significant fraction of the cancer’s stem cells to die.

Follow-up rock chip sampling by Hammer Metals has delineated gold mineralisation over 1km of strike length at the El Questro prospect within its Malbon project in Queensland’s Mount Isa mining district. Rock chip sampling along strike from the previous 99.4 gram per tonne gold result at the prospect returned top grades of 49.9g/t gold, 8.27g/t gold, 7.24g/t gold and 6.64g/t gold.

Greenland Minerals has formally applied for a mining licence over its giant Kvanefjeld rare earth project with Greenland’s Mineral License and Safety Authority confirming that the application has been received. A public consultation period of up to 12 weeks will soon commence and give interested stakeholders the opportunity to provide feedback on the project.

Hawkstone Mining will generate a maiden resource estimate for its Big Sandy lithium clay project in the US later this quarter, as it winds up the comprehensive resource definition drilling campaign over the Northern Mineralised Zone at the large deposit. The latest drilling results have extended the ore system over a strike length of 850m, with mineralisation still open to the north, south and west.

Big River Gold has appointed Perth-based engineering consulting group, Wave International, to complete the definitive feasibility study for its Borborema gold project in north-eastern Brazil. The company has also appointed Brazil’s Grupo GE21 Mineral Consultants to review and update the mine schedule after it identified a higher-grade component at the surface within the Stage 1 pit design.

Adriatic Metals has generated a maiden mineral resource estimate for the high-grade Rupice base metal deposit in central Bosnia, delineating 9.4 million tonnes grading 5.1% zinc, 3.3% lead, 1.8g/t gold, 183g/t silver, 0.6% copper and 31% barite. The company also updated the nearby Veovača resource and will now use the new estimates and ongoing technical studies to underpin a scoping study for the Vareš project.

Image Resources has wrapped up its second full quarter as an operational mining company with a bang, thanks to the excellent operational performance of its high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project, 80km north of Perth. Operating costs were about $22 million, or just 78% of its budgeted figure, while unit margins were 131% higher than forecast at $294 per dry metric tonne

Northern Minerals is preparing to ramp-up ore sorting, product separation and exploration initiatives for its Browns Range heavy rare earth project, near Halls Creek in the East Kimberley region of WA. The move to progress the project comes after the company received commitments for a $30 million placement priced at 6.2 cents per share split into three roughly equal tranches, the first of which is due to be received on 23 July.

Coziron Resources has received $685,000 in funding from its directors and largest shareholder, Yandal Investments and will shortly undertake a placement to underpin a substantial mineral resource definition program at its intriguing Ashburton magnetite iron project in the west Pilbara, WA. Previous drilling returned thick, consistent intersections of magnetite iron mineralisation with simple metallurgical beneficiation test work yielding premium 67% iron ore products.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have kicked off an RC drilling campaign targeting down-plunge and along-strike extensions of high-grade gold mineralisation intersected in previous drilling at their Youanmi gold projects in WA. Drilling at the Currans Find North prospect has returned a metre result of 72.67g/t gold from 39m down-hole, within a wider zone of 3m @ 27.5g/t gold.

Sovereign Metals has revealed that accessing a newly upgraded rail network corridor to a deep-water port in Nacala, Mozambique could significantly lower capital costs for developing its rutile and graphite projects in Malawi to the west. Access to the port could provide a low-cost transport and export solution, with estimated charges below USD$66 per tonne from the mine-gate to the port.

Ironbark Zinc is considering the potential for a high-grade development with a targeted 1Mtpa production rate and lower capital cost for its giant Citronen zinc project in Greenland. The starter project would target most of the shallow Beach Zone of the Citronen resource that is also in the measured resource category, while allowing for an expansion to the original feasibility study output of 3.3Mtpa.

St George Mining is expanding exploration to identify further nickel-copper mineralisation and increase the resource potential of existing discoveries at its Mt Alexander base metals project near Leonora, WA. With firm commitments in place for a $3 million placement, the company plans to kick off this exploration program with the diamond drilling of 42 new electromagnetic conductors later this month.

Great Southern Mining is expanding its reach in northern Queensland with two applications for exploration permits that cover much of the prospective ground surrounding the high-grade Dianne copper mine. The permits cover 360 square kilometres in a known gold-copper district and provide the company with an area to carry out detailed exploration to identify similar high-grade copper deposits for follow up drill programs.

Altech Chemicals could sell up to 49% of its high purity alumina, or “HPA”, project for USD$100 million to Frankfurt Stock Exchange-listed company, Youbisheng Green Paper, following strong expressions of interest from European investors. The company will pay about €2.7 million in cash and shares to acquire a 29% interest in Youbisheng, which will then seek to raise up to €70 million in new equity to fund the acquisition.

The Madagascan Government has offered to fast-track development of BlackEarth Minerals’ flagship Maniry graphite project, after a positive meeting with the country’s Minister of Mine and Strategic Resources. A German specialist industrial mineral testing outfit has also begun a program for evaluating the company’s ore concentrates for battery testing, while a Chinese institute has independently confirmed the premium quality of the project’s ores.

Vonex’s core cloud-based PABX telephony business continues to go from strength to strength with the ASX-listed telco now counting a milestone 30,000 registered active users on its books, a 25% increase in the last 12 months. The company also recorded new customer sales value of more than $1.3 million in the June 2019 quarter, which represents a 44% increase from the previous quarter.

Lithium Australia has continued to intersect wide pegmatite intervals with lithium mineralisation from its first pass reverse circulation drilling program at the Youanmi project near Sandstone in WA’s Murchison region. Lepidolite mineralisation has been intersected in most holes drilled to date in the program, which will be used to assess the resource potential and geometry of the pegmatites.

Calidus Resources’ PFS for its flagship Warrawoona gold project located near Marble Bar, WA, will churn out $61m per annum in free, pre-tax cashflows over an initial mine life of six years. Based on an AUD$1,800 per ounce gold price and production of about 100,000 ounces per year through a conventional 2Mtpa plant, the project has an estimated pre-tax NPV of $151m and an IRR of 40%, with payback in two years.

Rox Resources has hit the ground running at its Mt Fisher gold project near Wiluna, WA, with encouraging new assay results returned from drilling at the Dam, Dirks and Damsel South prospects. The company believes that the potential for uncovering large gold zones at the project is high despite deep weathering that obscures the basement rocks and geological structures, which has resulted in sparse drilling below the oxidised profile.

Image Resources has received the green light to drill a 1.3 km section of the highly prospective 5.6km northern extension area, or “NEA”, within its high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project, 80km north of Perth, WA. Drilling and assessment of mineralisation in the NEA is aimed at verifying the presence of economic mineralisation to increase the project’s mine life.

Indonesia focussed gold developer, Nusantara Resources, has increased its confidence in the potential for a grade uplift to be realised once its Awak Mas gold project on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, is in production. Trenches dug across an exploration bench have demonstrated additional high-grade structures that were not captured by ore reserve drilling and related block models.

Spectrum Metals’ Phase II drilling campaign at the Penny West project near Youanmi, WA, has returned additional, deep high-grade gold intersections at the Penny North discovery, extending the mineralisation down-plunge. New drill intercepts included 5m @ 24.4g/t gold from 241m down-hole, 6m @ 14.8g/t gold from 268m down-hole and another hole that recorded 11m @ 3.9g/t from 221m down-hole and 3m @ 15.4g/t gold from 239m down-hole.