Announcements

Middle Island Resources has completed its maiden drilling program for iron oxide-copper-gold, or "IOCG”-style mineralisation at the company’s copper gold project in the NT’s Barkly region, east of Tennant Creek. After intersecting IOCG-style alteration in its first 808m diamond drill hole at the start of the month, the explorer has chewed through another 2217m in search of a large-scale and lucrative IOCG deposit.

ASX-listed explorer 88 Energy has announced a maiden resource estimate of 1.03 billion barrels located on the central North Slope of Alaska. The Icewine East project is spread over an area of 185,320 net acres. The maiden resource estimate is based on well logs from the previously drilled exploration well Icewine 1, seismic data, data from other wells in the region, recent petrophysical analysis and geophysical mapping. 88 Energy holds a 75 per cent working interest in the project.

Meeka Metals has delivered a string of high-grade shallow gold hits at its emerging St Anne’s discovery in the prolific Murchison region of Western Australia. The ongoing air-core campaign is testing the fertile gold shear corridor extending from the company’s 610,000 ounce Turnberry deposit. The latest results include a stunning 32m running at 16.07 g/t gold from 48m downhole.

Richmond Vanadium Technology, which is 25 per cent owned by Perth-based Horizon Minerals, has struck an off-take agreement with emerging manufacturer Ultra Power Systems to supply vanadium for its patented energy storage modules. Under the agreement, Richmond will invest up to $5 million to shift Ultra into production of its battery technology and in turn secure a guaranteed buyer of vanadium pentoxide from its Queensland project.

ASX-listed Valor Resources has outlined six high priority drill targets following an initial field visit, legacy data review and airborne gravity survey at its Hidden Bay uranium project in Canada. The project is strategically located about 20km south of Cameco’s historical Rabbit Lake mine where over 200 million ounces of uranium concentrate was once produced.

Quantum Graphite has made a play for fellow SA graphite developer and explorer Lincoln Minerals. Under the off-market bid, the company is offering one Quantum share for every 40 Lincoln shares. Lincoln is the custodian of the 2.2Mt Kookaburra Gully graphite project grading 15.5 per cent total graphitic carbon and is located in a world-class flake graphite province on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

Following ongoing success across its reinvigorated gold and rare earths-focused portfolio, Meeka Metals has offloaded its Gecko North project in WA to private explorer LithGold Minerals. The deal will see the company pocket $130,000 now, $100,000 in February and claim a slice of the operation’s future riches thanks to a 1.5 per cent net smelter royalty.

Godolphin Resources’ maiden diamond drill hole from its Cyclops prospect on the Lachlan Fold Belt of central west NSW has returned multiple zones of shear-hosted high-grade copper with coincident gold, silver and molybdenum mineralisation. Godolphin describes the multiple intersections as “highly encouraging” with assay results greater than 1 per cent copper included within a broader low envelope of mineralisation.

Toro Energy has continued its run of impressive results at the company’s Dusty nickel project in WA with the discovery of a fourth massive nickel sulphide zone from its ongoing diamond drill campaign. The latest discovery was highlighted after a drill hole hit a 3.6m section of massive sulphides from 244.1m. Toro says portable X-ray fluorescence analysis of the 3.6m intersection indicates grades between 1.45 and 3.66 per cent nickel.

ASX-listed gold explorer DiscovEx Resources is gearing up for plenty of Q3 activity after completing a 6000m-plus air-core drilling program at its Sylvania project, 15km south-west of Newman and launching a geophysical gravity survey at its Edjudina project, about 250km north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

PolarX has launched a channel sampling program across an outcropping gold-infused vein system at its Golden Staircase precious metal target, part of its larger Humboldt Range project in Nevada, USA. The campaign is aimed at testing highly prospective targets within earshot of a recently struck 9.1m intersection that ran a dazzling 124 grams per tonne gold from just 27.4m.

Coda Minerals has been given the green light to begin drilling at its highly prospective Cameron River copper-gold project near Mt Isa with final environmental approvals received from the Queensland Government. The company says the 30-hole RC drill campaign will kick off on August 23 and test a number of geochemical and induced polarisation survey targets.

Diamond drilling at American West Metals’ Storm copper project in Canada continues to unearth more visual hits, with four recent holes plunged across a highly prospective area known as 2750N extending the zone’s shallow mineralisation footprint. The company says the first bore of its latest campaign intersected more than 74m of visual mineralisation, including a 15.3m package of breccia and massive copper sulphide material stretching across several intervals.

Strickland Metals has identified a new prospect at its Iroquois zinc-lead project in Earaheedy Basin near Wiluna in Western Australia after rock chip samples and a trial induced polarisation survey confirmed anomalies. Recent rock chip samples at the new Malecite prospect about 1.5km south-east of Iroquois returned peak results of 7.3 per cent lead, 0.5 per cent copper, 4.8 grams per tonne silver, 0.4 per cent zinc and 25 per cent manganese.

Surefire Resources has received results from two more RC holes at the company’s Yidby gold project in the Murchison district of WA’s Mid West region. The 4m assays revealed a high tenor of gold grades with one 4m-sample going as high as 10.4 grams per tonne gold from 72m downhole. The company recently completed a drilling campaign of 23 RC holes for 2754m, primarily aimed at testing “mobile metal ion” anomalies.

Nickel-focused Estrella Resources is becoming increasingly bullish about shifting into production after receiving further high-grade assays from resource drilling at the company’s Spargoville nickel project near Kambalda in WA. Significant results from its latest diamond drilling include 3.45m going 5.46 per cent nickel from 70m, containing a high-grade 1.2m at a stunning 10.85 per cent, 11.12m at 1.68 per cent from 59m and 2.7m at 2.47 per cent from 74m.

Empire Energy has ticked off a milestone in the Beetaloo sub-basin, hydraulically stimulating, or “fracking” a record 21 stages at its Carpentaria-2H gas well in the Northern Territory. The company says a key aim of the program is to assess a range of stimulation fluid mixes to optimise future production.

A nanobody with its origins in the camel family, that is now being used to fight cancer, is at the centre of two agreements inked by Melbourne-based company Radiopharm Theranostics. One deal is a collaboration agreement with US-based Lantheus – a US$5 billion NASDAQ-listed radiopharmaceutical company. The other is with UK company biotech NanoMab and gives Radiopharm important intellectual property rights in a cancer-fighting product.

ASX-listed Lindian Resources has followed up its shift into rare earths exploration by appointing commodities specialist Alistair Stephens as its new Chief Executive Officer as the company awaits shareholders to approve its takeover of the globally significant Kangankunde project in Malawi. Non-Executive Chairman Asimwe Kabunga will move to the role of Executive Chairman. Lindian is aiming to take full control of Kangankunde through a 100-per cent share acquisition of Rift Valley Resource Developments.

Ahead of an RC drilling campaign later this month, battery metals and gold explorer Askari Metals has uncovered up to 31.9 g/t gold in stream sediment from a loaming campaign at its Horry copper and gold project in WA’s Kimberley region. The company’s exploration campaign included panning creeks and tributaries, metal detecting and collecting rock chip samples. The rock chips revealed grades of up to 3.82 g/t gold and 4.3 per cent copper.

Panther Metals is working the drill bit at its Ironstone prospect, part of the company’s larger Merolia project near Laverton in Western Australia. The explorer says its 1200m diamond drilling program is aimed at testing historic mineralisation and modelling the target’s main lode. Earlier work in the area delivered a peak intercept of 9m at 22.27 grams per tonne gold from 112m.

TSX-listed Novo Resources has launched an RC drilling campaign aimed at testing gold and nickel targets at its Purdy’s North project near Karratha in WA’s Pilbara region. The campaign will initially focus on Novo’s Milburn nickel-copper-gold and Morto Lago orogenic gold targets before moving to several identified areas within the district. The initial targets are next to Azure Minerals’ Andover nickel-copper-cobalt discovery and Artemis Resources’ Carlow Castle gold-copper-cobalt prospect.

Perth-based Infinity Lithium has wrapped up its commitments to a successful test work program for its San José lithium project in western Spain by delivering the final tranche of share options to the program’s backer. The company has also announced a new battery industry training program for locals in the Extramadura region, the site of its proposed mine.

ASX-listed biotech and cancer fighter Chimeric Therapeutics has been granted patent protection in Japan for some of its novel cell therapy treatments – including one in a phase one trial and another at the pre-clinical stage. Chimeric management says the patents will expand the company’s intellectual property portfolio underpinning important assets in its development pipeline. Japan is the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical market.

Classic Minerals has returned high-grade gold intercepts from the first 10 holes of an RC drilling campaign at its flagship Kat Gap project near Southern Cross in WA’s Goldfields region. Assays include a 3m intercept going 13.23 g/t gold from 32m including 1m reading a substantial 17 g/t gold from 34m. The 109-hole infill program was designed following Classic’s recent bulk sample operation that mined 1011 ounces of gold.

After nailing down a brace of new targets at Venture Minerals’ South West nickel-copper-PGE project about 240km south of Perth, Chalice Mining has decided to commit to the second phase of the duo’s joint venture agreement. As part of the deal, Chalice will spend an additional $2.5 million on exploration over the next two years to claim a 70 per cent stake in the operation.

Buru Energy and Sipa Resources are continuing their foray into base metals, kicking off diamond drilling at the joint venture's Barbwire Terrace project south-east of Broome in Western Australia. The 50/50 split operation plans to sink up to four holes at nominal depths of up to 500m as they look to test targets along the south-western margin of the Fitzroy Trough.

Calidus Resources has identified strong gold-in-soil anomalies in samples taken across a 3km strike length in historically mined sections of its Blue Spec project near Nullagine in WA’s Pilbara region. The program targeted the untested western end of the Blue Spec fault zone associated with gold mineralisation. Preliminary fieldwork is underway to identify drill targets in addition to areas for program of work applications and heritage surveys.

Podium Minerals has officially added rhodium and iridium to its mineral resource estimate at the company’s Parks Reef project in WA — creating what it says is Australia’s first defined 5E PGM resource. 5E PGM represents a combination of platinum, palladium, gold, rhodium and iridium. Podium says its updated inferred resource is now 52.2 million tonnes at 1.64 grams per tonne for three million ounces of 5E PGM.

Xanadu Mines has completed metallurgical recoveries of up to 91 per cent gold and 46 per cent copper from preliminary glycine and cyanide leach testing at its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia. The tests were performed on partially oxidised material from surface to 30m depth and returned head grades between 0.52 and 2.25 grams per tonne gold and from 0.12 up to 0.67 per cent copper.

A strategic alliance between CZR Resources and Red Hill Iron has been forged to co-operate on developing shared haulage and port infrastructure that supports the companies neighbouring Pilbara iron ore developments. CZR says an agreement has been signed in a bid to lower capital costs as it steers towards releasing a definitive feasibility study on its Robe Mesa iron ore deposit.

Ora Banda Mining has reduced the assumed gold price used to calculate its ore reserve figures at the company’s Davyhurst gold project near Kalgoorlie as it focuses on higher-margin ounces and increased quality from deposits. The change to the price assumption means the company will target higher gold grades to improve the economic viability of each of its deposits at Davyhurst.