Announcements

Buru Energy remains on track with its drilling program at the Ungani 8H horizontal development well designed to lift production levels at its cash-generating Canning Basin oil field in Western Australia. The company reported it has now passed the 1000 metre mark towards a target depth of 2560m with operations proceeding as planned and there were no adverse incidents to report.

JV partners DiscovEx Resources and Carnaby Resources look to have made it onto Santa’s nice list after drilling at their Greater Duchess project near Mt Isa in Queensland outlined an “extremely” high-grade copper-gold discovery. ASX-listed Carnaby Resources, which owns the majority rights to the project, says the results are summarised as 41 metres at 4.1 per cent copper with 0.5 grams per tonne gold from 274m.

Triangle Energy, operator of the Perth Basin’s only offshore oilfield, is hoping the recent run of company-making onshore gas finds will breathe new life into the drilling prospects near its Cliff Head field. The Perth Basin ‘deep gas’ resurgence has reinvigorated exploration across the Basin, kicking off drilling programs, company takeovers and breathing new promise into a number of companies.

Newfield Resources has retired approximately $40 million worth of corporate bond debt and roughly $2.1m of associated accrued interest for its Tongo diamond mine in Eastern Sierra Leone. Additionally, the company raised $12.5 million through a capital raise with the combined exercise significantly strengthening its balance sheet and reducing long-term bond debt to zero.

Venus Metals Corporation has tallied some impressive gold recovery rates with an average of 92.2 per cent gold extraction from metallurgical testwork on its Youanmi Deeps mineralisation near Sandstone in WA. Venus, together with its joint venture partner, Rox Resources, trialled a series of treatment methods and decided the Albion process is the preferred treatment to deliver high gold yields with low overall cost.

Junior explorer, Torian Resources has scooped a slew of high-grade gold hits at its flagship Mt Stirling gold project, some 40km north-west of Leonora in WA. The company struck a 10m intersection at 3.59 grams per tonne gold from 12m including a 3m hit grading 7.9 g/t gold from 14m in the first planned drillhole at its Mt Stirling-Viserion resource.

Quantum Graphite will incorporate the 50 per cent return from its new joint venture partner, Sunland Co’s thermal storage media manufacturing business using Quantum’s flake graphite for assembly within its thermal energy storage cells. The technology is at the forefront of a blossoming ‘long-duration energy storage’ industry that is becoming central in providing stability and flexibility to energy grids increasingly reliant on renewable power.

ASX-listed Neometals has moved a step closer to production at its massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium deposit after commissioning a gravity beneficiation plant at Menzies in Western Australia to produce titanium-rich gravity concentrate samples for offtake evaluation trials. The company will produce and ship around 150 tonnes of the concentrate to Chinese titanium slag producer Jiuxing Titanium Materials for commercial scale trials early next year.

ASX-listed, Blackstone Minerals has delivered a cracking 73 per cent lift to its nickel resource base at its multi-deposit Ta Khoa nickel, copper and platinum group elements project in northern Vietnam. A global resource base at the project taking in four deposits now clocks in at a hefty 130 million tonnes grading 0.37 per cent nickel for an eye-catching 485,000 tonnes of contained nickel.

Twenty Seven Co has wrapped up a 31 hole RC drill program that intersected a 4m envelope of massive sulphides at its Rover gold project approximately 25 kilometres southeast of Sandstone in WA. The company says Rover has the potential to host volcanogenic massive sulphide targets given its similar geology and location only 30km north of Cobre Limited’s Perrinvale base metals project.

Toronto-listed conglomerate gold miner, Novo Resources has kicked off ‘Phase 2’ mechanical sorter trials of bulk samples taken from its Comet Well, Purdy’s Reward, Egina and Talga Talga gold projects in the Pilbara region of WA. The sorter and its infrastructure are designed for deployment at Novo’s array of projects to produce gold-bearing concentrates on site in a single pass for further upgrading or downstream processing.

Venus Metals Corporation has bolstered its already overflowing suite of high-grade gold hits with a series of solid gold intercepts from recent resource drilling at its Youanmi gold joint venture project in WA. Notable results include 3m grading 7.2 grams per tonne gold from 131m downhole, 2m going 8.16 g/t gold from 183m and 2m at 6.78 g/t gold from 127m downhole.

Mineral exploration company, Coda Minerals has delivered more cracking copper hits at its exciting Emmie Bluff Deeps IOCG-style copper discovery in South Australia. New intercepts from one hole returned two mineralised intervals of 26.9m grading 1.95 per cent copper from 803.5m and 41.8m going 1.21 per cent copper from 911.5m to grow the high-grade bornite zone at the prospect.

Horizon Minerals’ toll milling of stockpiled low-grade ore from its Boorara open pit mine in the historic WA Goldfields has yielded profitable results, with the company banking $770,000 from the initial campaign of 69,700 tonnes milled at a reconciled grade of 0.92 grams per tonne gold for 1,857 ounces. It said its second campaign was underway and due to be completed in January.

Lithium Australia’s battery recycling venture took a critical step forward after its 90 per cent owned subsidiary Envirostream was given the all-clear to open a second battery recycling plant in Laverton, Victoria. According to the company, its latest work puts it ahead of demand for electric vehicles and energy-storage system battery dismantling.

Middle Island has kicked off a detailed magnetics and radiometrics survey over its prospective Barkly copper-gold project area located in the emerging Tennant Creek mineral hub in the Northern Territory. The company is also marching forward with the Crosswinds copper discovery, also in the NT having recently completed a 2 kilometre IP survey following up on initial copper oxide mineralisation identified in October.

St George Mining has brought forward a drilling campaign designed to pierce two recently identified high priority nickel-copper sulphide targets at its Mt Alexander project in the north-eastern Goldfields of WA. According to the company, both deeper seismic targets have a geophysical signature consistent with its Investigators prospect where shallower drilling recently returned a sizzling 8.49m hit grading 5.8 per cent nickel and 2.6 per cent copper.

Superior Resources has intersected sulphide mineralisation in its third consecutive drill hole targeting a large, induced polarisation anomaly at the company’s Bottletree Copper prospect within its Greenvale project in Queensland. The company believes it may be onto a potential porphyry system west of the induced polarisation anomaly indicated by an enormous 1.5km by 1km intense copper and gold soil anomaly coincident with a large magnetic feature.

White Cliff Minerals has wrapped up the heritage survey over its 100 per cent owned McCaskill Hill and Cracker Jack prospects, with further sampling and drilling planned for the wider Reedy South Gold Project. The company is planning to assemble a number of mineable ore bodies in the Reedy’s South Gold Project area, which can collectively underpin commercial operations.

Perth-based gold-miner Wiluna Mining is ringing in the new year with the successful commissioning of the sulphide ore concentrate plant at its namesake project in WA. As part of its major production ramp-up plan the company is looking to treat 750,000tpa through the plant as it targets 90,000-100,000ozpa of gold in concentrate production by the end of the 2022 financial year.

Venus Metals Corporation has uncovered anomalous rare earth, gold and palladium mineralisation at its Mangaroon North project abutting Dreadnought’s prospective nickel-copper-PGE rich tenure in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Initial geochemical reconnaissance surveying has outlined multiple target areas that Venus is planning to extensively explore through geochemical sampling, geophysical surveying and drill testing during 2022.

Oar Resources says the maiden exploration program at its Douglas Canyon Gold Project in the US has yielded “very encouraging” initial results which included intersecting a massive 213m silica matrix brecciated quartz vein. Laboratory results from Douglas Canyon, located in the prolific Walker Lane Gold-Silver district of Nevada, are expected in the new year.

The boards of St Barbara Ltd and its smaller peer Bardoc Gold Ltd have announced a $157 million buyout of Bardoc with St Barbara now set to acquire all the shares in Bardoc by way of a scheme of arrangement, at an almost 30 per cent premium to last Friday’s closing share price. Bardoc’s proposed Woodie Woodie manganese spinout would still proceed, according to the companies.

Brightstar Resources continues to deliver sparkling results with significant shallow gold intercepts at its flagship Cork Tree Well prospect near Laverton in WA. The latest strikes include 26m going 2.97 g/t gold from 111m downhole and 17m at a respectable 3.09 g/t gold from 139m. These intersections are wider than the previous intercepts but still maintain similar metal tenor.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has spied out a gold target east of Kalgoorlie that it identified through geophysical interpretation. The same areas have recently turned up some cracking gold nuggets and the company is now planning a 3,000 metre-plus RC drill program to test the new target area. It also plans to drill test other established gold prospects that showed promising first pass drilling results.

Horizon Minerals has reached an agreement to acquire the remaining 50 per cent of the high-grade Penny’s Find gold project from Labyrinth Resources. Horizon will transfer $500,000 cash, $250,000 worth of Horizon shares and a series of smaller payments including net smelter royalties pending Horizon bringing the project into production which lies 50 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie.

Altech Chemicals has attained a “Medium Green” rating for its proposed battery materials coating plant in Germany from independent Norwegian outfit, the Centre of International Climate and Environmental Research. A medium green classification potentially qualifies the plant as suitable for future financing through green bonds – a type of fixed-income instrument specifically earmarked to raise capital for projects that generate climate and environmental benefits.

After three years of R&D development, including bench and pilot trials, feasibility studies and engineering investigations, Neometals and its joint venture partner, engineering colossus SMS Group, have successfully commissioned its first commercial lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Hilchenbach, Germany with operations to start early next year. The plant will process up 10 tonnes per day of battery-grade metal sulphate chemicals safely recycled into new battery production.

In the lead up to Christmas, Coda Minerals has delivered a gift of its own – a maiden mineral resource for the Emmie Bluff Copper-Cobalt deposit at its Elizabeth Creek project in South Australia. The company calculated a resource of 43 million tonnes going at 1.3 per cent copper, 470 ppm cobalt and 11 g/t silver cementing its position amongst the largest known sediment hosted copper deposits in Australia.

In a milestone achievement, Memphasys has landed the first sale of the company’s revolutionary trademarked Felix bio-separation technology placed by a women’s centre in Coimbatore, India. The centre will be the first to use the system for clinical IVF with the order including a Felix console plus an initial supply of single-use cartridges. The Felix business model is based on recurring sales of the cartridges so the initial sale may represent ongoing business.

Aircore drilling by mineral exploration company, Strickland Metals has unearthed a hefty 1.3km long gold trend lying along strike to its multi-deposit Horse Well resource in Western Australia where about 129,000 ounces of contained gold have been defined. Stand out hits from the drilling include 8m at 3.3 grams per tonne gold from 40m that also takes in a higher grade 4m interval going 6.3 g/t gold.

Buru Energy continues to press hard in its hunt for Canning Basin oil having just spudded another well at the producing Ungani field in WA’s Canning Basin. Surrounded by almost all the necessary infrastructure, Buru will be aiming to boost production and sales from Ungani 8H whilst the oil price remains relatively strong.