Announcements

Allup Silica is seeking to prove up another silica prospect at its Pink Bark project, 110km from Esperance in WA. Preliminary surface sampling has returned silicon dioxide grades up to 98.82 per cent, with iron oxide levels ranging from 0.08 to 0.95 per cent. Further tests are underway to determine the potential for the sands to clean up into a suitable silica sand product.

Venus Metals Corporation and Rox Resources have continued their run of gold hits from the latest round of drilling at the companies’ joint venture Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet in WA. Results include 8m at 5.1 grams per tonne gold from 212m including 4m at 9.45 g/t from 212m in addition to 4m at 6.03 g/t from 140m in one hole.

Coda Minerals has identified multiple targets including outstanding anomalies from induced polarisation surveys at its Cameron River copper-gold project in north Queensland, with drilling set for August. The drilling program will target coincident geophysical and geochemical targets including a shallow chargeability anomaly at the site’s Rebound prospect.

ASX-listed Technology Metals has signed an agreement with energy infrastructure company, APA Operations, to start work on the Gabanintha gas pipeline. The proposed pipeline is less than half the length originally proposed, which should result in lower gas transportation charges. The pipeline will allow an option to source gas from the emerging Perth Basin, further reducing costs for the project’s gas.

ASX-listed American West Metals shares surged more than 70 per cent in intraday trading at the highest volume this year on the back of the company’s best assay results at its West Desert project in Utah, USA. Assay analysis of the 549.83m hole showed more than 105m of high-grade zinc and copper intersected within four major intervals, in addition to high grades of indium and silver.

Triangle Energy will bank almost $17 million from the latest oil sales from its share in the Cliff Head oilfield, offshore Dongara in Western Australia, after lifting more than 140,000 barrels of oil in the last output to be sold through BP’s Kwinana oil terminal before it is converted into a clean energy hub. Triangle shares the Cliff Head venture with Pilot Energy.

Perth-based nickel explorer Estrella Resources has struck nickel-copper sulphides in the first three step-out holes drilled at its T5 prospect 80km north-east of Kalgoorlie in WA’s Goldfields region. The company says the intercepts show mineralisation continues to the south beyond downhole electromagnetic plates from previous drilling of the prospect at its wholly owned Carr Boyd nickel project.

Perth-based Valor Resources has identified seven high-priority uranium targets at its Cluff Lake project in the western Athabasca Basin in Canada after an extensive data review. The company says it is well advanced and can start a ground exploration program this month, including mapping and sampling, in addition to planning a drilling campaign.

Altech Chemicals has set out to bolster the intellectual property of its silumina anodes battery materials technology and alumina coating process by filing an international application that allows it to file national submissions in up to 156 countries. The company has lodged patent tenders in the United States, Europe, China, Japan and Korea as it looks to protect its lucrative technology.

ASX-listed Okapi Resources is all set to launch an 11-hole diamond drilling program at its wholly-owned Enmore gold project in NSW within the next three weeks. Okapi plans to follow up last year’s RC drilling campaign at the Sunnyside gold prospect that returned exceptional gold assay results. The company says mineralisation at the prospect remains open at depth and along strike.

Strong lithium grades up to 2.35 per cent and an extension of the Spear Hill lithium pegmatites to over 4.3km strike length have convinced the owners of Pirra Lithium to spin the company out into an IPO by the end of this year. Calidus owns 50 per cent of Pirra Lithium, the joint venture controls tenements and lithium rights covering over 1000 square kms where recent assaying has doubled the known size of lithium mineralised zones.

Junior explorer Aurumin has intersected multiple pegmatites with indications of lithium after RC drilling at the company’s Mt Palmer gold project in Western Australia. Anomalous lithium and pathfinder elements were uncovered in the first-pass drilling, with up to 370 parts per million lithium detected across several samples in Aurumin’s 12-hole program.

Aruma Resources hopes history repeats with a fresh diamond drilling program to add to its huge gold hits in March that reached 224 grams per tonne from the Salmon Gums gold project in WA’s eastern Goldfields. Other eye-popping RC drill cores from its maiden program graded above 50 g/t and 83 g/t gold.

Ongoing work at Asra Minerals’ Mt Stirling project in the eastern Goldfields region of WA has delivered another stunning set of high-grade gold intercepts that has also extended the operation’s mineralisation down-dip. The Perth-based company says recent drilling at the Estera prospect has delivered some of its best results so far across the operation’s southern tenements.

Brightstar Resources has hit the ground running with its latest drilling program at its Cork Tree Well project, near Laverton in WA’s northern Goldfields, as it bids to expand its JORC-compliant resource. The gold developer reports drilling is averaging more than 200m a day and eight holes have already been completed at the Delta 2 prospect.

Valor Resources’ recent decision to add the 60 square kilometre Charaque project to the company’s portfolio in Peru is paying off with high-grade silver hits more than 900 grams per tonne from rock and soil samples. Other strong results from its existing Picha project 30km away has spurred Valor to kick off a 5000m first-pass diamond drilling program across its prospective acreage.

Perth-based Cyclone Metals has sealed a binding exclusivity agreement with Ewaah Cameroon on a “world-class” cobalt-nickel-manganese land package in the central African region. The deal gives the company the right to procure 100 per cent of the issued capital of the Camdu Corporation, a subsidiary of Ewaah, that has applied for a mining permit covering the prospective ground.

Middle Island has unveiled a couple of drill-ready targets at its Crosswinds copper prospect in the Northern Territory after a five-line Induced Polarisation survey at the site. The company says the zones are supported by ground-based gravity work and regulatory assessments are the only thing standing in the way of an imminent probe.

Perth-based Surefire Resources NL has tabled encouraging geochemical anomalies from its recent drilling at the Yidby Road gold project in WA’s Mid West, adding they represent a potential new gold d

King River Resources will begin RC drilling at its Tennant Creek gold project in the NT at the weekend, focusing on the Kurundi Main prospect where recent rock chip samples returned gold hits. Multiple samples at the prospect returned results of up to 17.25 grams per tonne gold along a 2km mineralised trend that has never been explored.

WA explorer Meeka Gold is expanding its rare earths project by adding 33 per cent to its Circle Valley landholding in the Albany-Fraser province soon after reporting high-grade rare earths oxides hits at its Cascade project only 50km away. In addition to rare earths, the acreage contains two major regional shear zones, both highly prospective for Tropicana-style gold mineralisation.

ASX-listed Blackstone Minerals has landed a new massive sulphide discovery with portable-XRF readings of up to 20 per cent nickel at its Flagship Ta Khoa nickel project in northern Vietnam. Several nickel targets have been identified at the project including massive and semi-massive and net-textured sulphides. The standout results saw a 2.95m intersection of sulphides, with portable XRF readings indicating the presence of up to 20 per cent nickel.

Superior Resources has potentially unearthed a significant copper system at its Bottletree copper prospect, part of its larger Greenvale project near Townsville in Queensland, after assays returned a 632m copper hit within a remote section of an interpreted porphyry structure. The news was not lost on the market with Superior’s share price up 60 per cent at one point during the session on heavy turnover from the previous close.

Only one month after its first gold pour at the company’s Warrawoona gold operation, Calidus Resources is looking at its Blue Spec East prospect as an open pit operation following strong drilling results. The move could boost throughput at its nearby plant in the Pilbara. The company produced first gold last month with a 33kg pour and aims to ramp up to 90,000 ounces per year.

CZR Resources has increased the mineral resource at its Robe Mesa iron ore project in the Pilbara by more than 50 per cent whilst maintaining an iron ore grade of 56 per cent. Assay results reported in March revealed extensive direct shipping iron ore outside the prefeasibility study pit designs. The deposit’s JORC mineral resource has increased from 24.7 million tonnes to 37.5Mt.

As it looks to stack more gold on its 603,000-ounce Yandal project, 70km east of Wiluna, junior explorer Strickland Metals is gearing up to pass its fleet of drill rigs over its cornerstone Millrose gold system. In preparation for its drill out, the company has completed a heritage assessment and will start a magnetic survey as early as next week.

Podium Minerals has been given the green light to start drilling next week at the central section of its Parks Reef platinum group metals project in the Mid West region of WA after it was granted registered heritage site access in April and its program of work approved last month by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.

Cyclone Metals has wrapped up a maiden gold exploration program at its Mareburn and Macraes South projects, about 40km north of Dunedin in the Otago Province of New Zealand. According to the company, the region has churned out over 10 million ounces of the precious metal and all eyes will now be on the results from the campaign, which are anticipated for around a month.

Multi-element explorer Horizon Minerals has hit nickel sulphides in its first hole at its Euston prospect within the company’s wholly-owned Cannon project in WA. Preliminary assays of the 4m nickel intercept revealed encouraging grades of over 1 per cent nickel, 607 parts per million copper and 250ppm cobalt from 160m. Further assays from the five-hole program are pending.

Metal Hawk’s Berehaven nickel project on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie, WA, is growing in size with strong geochemical platinum group elements results from the Torana prospect. The new data came just to the north of the Commodore nickel sulphide discovery that the company made in the project area last September, 20km south-east of the historic goldfields town.

Coda Minerals has extended its Emmie iron oxide-copper-gold deposit within its Elizabeth Creek copper project in South Australia by more than 900m — increasing its mineralised target zone. A recent surface step-out drill hole encountered multiple zones of visible copper sulphide mineralisation to the north of the Emmie IOCG geophysical anomaly, providing evidence the deposit contains multiple conduit zones.

Okapi Resources is targeting a two-commodity play at its Rattler uranium project in Utah, USA, after a rock chip sampling program confirmed the samples also contained high-grade vanadium. The results ran up to 12.5 per cent vanadium pentoxide, some way above the general concentrations of up to 2.5 per cent found in some deposits.