Announcements

Vonex has added more than 1000 new registered PABX users in less than one month, double its typical growth rate of about 500 users per month. This takes its total registered user base to 27,000 as at 21 February 2019. The growth is due to in part to its new channel partner-focused sales software that significantly reduced average deployment time for a hosted PABX customer and the continued rollout of the NBN.

BlackEarth Minerals’ Maniry project in Madagascar now extends over 5km of strike, with the company locating wide, high grade graphite mineralisation over 52m grading 7.03% total graphitic carbon at its new Razafy SE prospect. The trench samples represent the true width of the mineralisation and may outline the potential for significant additional high-grade graphite resources to enhance the value of the project.

St George Mining has started a 37 hole RC drilling campaign that is aimed at discovering more nickel-copper sulphides at its Mt Alexander project near Leonora in WA. The program will initially target the new West End prospect to test for a continuation of the highly mineralised Cathedrals Belt towards the regionally important Ida Fault zone before moving on to test the new Fairbridge prospect.

Northern Minerals is ramping up rare earths output at its Browns Range pilot plant in the East Kimberley region of WA to steady state levels to assess the quality of the rare earth carbonate produced. Data collected from the production of 7.2 tonnes of rare earth carbonate to date has provided the company with a better understanding of its ability to produce rare earths at the required specification.

Great Southern Mining has stepped on the gas and will fast-track a program of infill and extensional drilling at its emerging Mon Ami gold project near Laverton in the north eastern Goldfields region of WA. The work aims to rapidly expand the current 59,000 ounce resource by drilling down-dip to the west, down-plunge to the north and along strike up to 1km south of the existing resource.

Lithium Australia has initiated the next stage of development for its LieNA spodumene processing technology after preliminary R&D showed that further work on the process was warranted. The process seeks to recover lithium from spodumene without the need for expensive, energy-hungry roasting by using a caustic solution to leach the lithium from spodumene and recover it as lithium phosphate.

Canadian conglomerate gold specialist Novo Resources has reported encouraging and consistent gold grades averaging 2.55g/t from a regional, bulk sampling program at its Beatons Creek gold project near Nullagine in WA. The current mineral resource sits at 8.38 million tonnes grading 2.47g/t gold for 667,000 ounces and will be updated this quarter using the bulk sampling results and a new 3D geological interpretation.

Caravel Minerals has confirmed a new geological model for the flagship Bindi deposit, located near Perth in WA, after drilling multiple new zones of copper sulphide mineralisation up to 202 metres wide grading 0.31% copper at its namesake project. The company will use the new data to update the mineral resource model and estimate for the Bindi deposit later this quarter.

Spectrum Metals has started spinning the drill bit at its new Penny West project in the Murchison mining district, one of the highest grade open pit gold mines ever worked in Western Australia. The 4500 metre maiden drill campaign is primarily aimed at defining and extending the mineralised envelope below the Penny West open pit. Final assay results are expected during April.

PharmAust has kicked-off its highly-anticipated Phase I clinical trials for its flagship anti-cancer drug Monepantel in dogs using the first batch of 2000 tablets manufactured to its new and better-tasting formulation. The initial component of the trial is designed to validate the performance of the drug in different dietary settings that dogs may encounter at home. First results are expected in the middle of March this year.

Artemis Resources has been granted the key Armada prospect tenement in the emerging Paterson Range copper-gold province in the eastern Pilbara region of WA that surrounds Greatland Gold’s spectacular new Havieron discovery on three sides. The company recently outlined multiple exploration targets on the tenement from a geophysical interpretation of a high-resolution, aeromagnetic survey.

Tyranna Resources has completed infill drilling at the mothballed Eureka gold project near Kalgoorlie and is in discussions with nearby processing mills for the sale of ore from potential mining at the project. The in-pit drilling campaign was aimed at confirming the continuity and grade of the mineralisation directly below the open pit floor to support the company’s plan to recommence open pit mining at the project.

Azumah Resources has confirmed the presence of a large mineralised system for the Bepkong East Lode of its flagship Wa gold project in Ghana after intersecting a 99.5 metre zone @ 2.16g/t gold from 316m down-hole that includes higher grade results of 10m @ 5.01g/t gold from 369m and 8.5m @ 5.82g/t gold from 406m. This provides further support for a potential future underground mining operation at Bepkong.

Connected IO is looking to tap into the growing internet of things market, where global spending could pass the USD$1 trillion mark by 2022 as businesses become aware of its potential to cut costs and provide improved data for decisions. Connected IO reported total cash receipts of AUD$560,000 in the second quarter of the 2019 financial year, up 26% over the previous quarter.

Nusantara Resources has kicked off a program of deep exploratory diamond drilling at the Puncak Selatan prospect, adjacent to its flagship Awak Mas gold resource on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. The work follows on from impressive surface trenching results and is aimed at expanding the optimised limits of the proposed Awak Mas open pit, potentially increasing the project’s mine life and economics.

PharmAust’s wholly-owned subsidiary Epichem will continue to provide its synthetic and medicinal chemistry expertise to leading research and development organisation Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, or “DNDi”, which extended its current contract for an 11th year. The contract extension is expected to generate up to $1.24 million in revenues for Epichem this year.

Lithium Australia has mapped three swarms of outcropping lithium-rich pegmatites over a total strike length of 2.5km and widths to 50 metres at its Youanmi project near Sandstone in the Murchison region of WA. The company will use recently acquired high-resolution geophysical surveys of the region, along with its recent geological mapping program, to delineate lithium drilling targets at the broader Youanmi project.

Image Resources has completed the ramp-up of its Boonanarring project just north of Perth to full production in just two months, well in advance of the planned six month ramp-up schedule in the bankable feasibility study. The company has also shipped a full complement of about 20,000 tonnes of heavy mineral sands this month and expects to achieve positive project cash flow before the end of the current quarter.

Caravel Minerals has reported high recoveries of copper averaging 96.1% at coarse grind sizes from a metallurgical test program carried out on diamond core ore composites at its namesake project in the Wheatbelt of WA. The results eclipse the 92% recovery used in the 2016 scoping study and will now feed into the company’s updated scoping study report, which is due for release next month.

Kalia Limited has delineated a new exploration target at its Teosiri prospect on Bougainville Island in PNG, with rock chip sampling turning up assays of 2.76 g/t gold, 4.9g/t silver, 0.32% copper, 1.22% lead and 2.4% zinc. The company is also finalising an independent geophysical analysis report from a detailed airborne survey completed last year, which will guide future exploration programs across its Toro JV tenements.

88 Energy has spudded its highly anticipated Winx-1 exploration well in Alaska’s famed “North Slope” oil province that targets a gross, best estimate, prospective resource of about 400 million barrels of oil across multiple stacked objectives, including the Nanushuk Formation, which is the primary target of the well. Winx-1 is adjacent to Oil Search’s Horseshoe discovery that hosts between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of oil.

Aurora Labs has announced that its multi-level Rapid Manufacturing Technology is able to 3D print about 113kg of metal parts per day, an impressive 55 times faster than the general market speed. The company has flagged the potential to further increase its print speeds too by using two sub-units in its Alpha machine, which could almost double the speed capacity of the single unit configuration.

Lithium Australia will carry out a preliminary study into the production of lithium-ion battery components using lithium micas sourced from its wholly-owned Sadisdorf project in Germany. This will involve the extraction of lithium phosphate utilising the company’s proprietary SiLeach process. Cassiterite mineralisation will also be processed into a saleable tin concentrate to add more value for the project.

Great Southern’s rock chip samples taken from weathered and oxidised gossanous outcrop at the SW-1 prospect of its emerging Edinburgh Park project in northern Queensland has returned high grade results of up to 10.6g/t gold, 315g/t silver and 1.95% copper. Further mapping and sampling programs are being carried out to better define the polymetallic prospect.

Vonex is making solid progress towards commercialisation of its ground-breaking Oper8tor communications App with the company poised to make a “white label” version available to businesses next month. The company also plans to make the iOS and Android versions of the Oper8tor Conference app available for download in Australia in March, ahead of a commercial launch in Europe by July.

Caravel Minerals has reported a global mineral resource of 366 million tonnes grading 0.35% copper for its namesake project near Perth in WA, which is a 46% increase in just under three years. The new resources will underpin a new scoping study for the project, which will incorporate all recent technical work to assist in updating capital and operating costs to potentially develop the project.

Tyranna Resources has identified a number of cobalt and base metal targets that indicate the potential for a much larger mineralised system around the historic Whale mine at its Goodsprings project near Las Vegas, Nevada. Some areas have coincident geochemical responses and are considered to be high priority targets. The company plans to carry out a drilling campaign later this year.

Neometals has commissioned Stage 1 of its lithium-ion battery recycling pilot plant in Canada, with SGS Canada being awarded the contracts to construct and operate the plant at the company’s fully accredited Lakefield facility. The battery shredding plant has prepared about 2 tonnes of used battery materials for the Stage 2 hydrometallurgical processing and refining phase to deliver high-purity battery materials into the market.

Calima Energy has wrapped up drilling of the second horizontal well at its Canadian Montney oil and gas play and is now preparing to complete both wells for the key production testing in early March. The rate at which the wells will be tested has been optimised to maximise the recovery of condensate and other natural gas liquids whilst providing the best estimate of the condensate yield once they are placed on long term production.

BlackEarth Minerals’ Maniry project in Madagascar has received a serious shot in the arm, with the company uncovering exceptionally wide, high grade graphite mineralisation over 56m grading 9.89% total graphitic carbon at its new Razafy NW prospect. The trench samples represent the true width of the mineralisation and may outline the potential for significant additional high-grade graphite resources to enhance the value of the project.

Great Southern Mining has discovered an intriguing gold/silver mineralised breccia pipe at its Rocky Ponds prospect, located near Townsville in northern Queensland. Rock chip samples up to 0.38g/t gold and 6.9g/t silver were returned from the hydrothermal intrusion. The company is now fast-tracking approvals and consents for RC and diamond drill testing at the prospect.

Artemis Resources has reported encouraging recoveries of gold, copper and cobalt from test work on ore composites from its Carlow Castle project located near Karratha in WA, proving the amenability of the ores to conventional processing. Gold recoveries were 98-99% using gravity and cyanide leaching techniques, whilst 77-85% of the total copper content and 73-79% of the cobalt metal was recovered into high grade concentrates by flotation.