Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

ASX-listed aspiring West Africa bauxite developer, Lindian Resources, has received the Guinea Ministry of Mines’ approval to acquire a 61 per cent stake in the strategic Woula bauxite project. The company sees Woula as a possible near-term entree to production given the Woula bauxite resource’s direct shipping ore potential and the project’s close proximity to the mature Guinea bauxite industry’s transport and export infrastructure.

Native Mineral Resources is building confidence that an extensive copper system may lurk beneath its Leane’s prospect in Queensland. Shallow drilling at Leane’s has tested the near-surface, skarn-style copper mineralisation, with deeper diamond holes probing for a porphyry feeder system at depth returning broad intervals of disseminated sulphides, including chalcopyrite with assays for several drill holes due in the coming weeks.

On the back of a recent stellar share price uplift, Surefire Resources has tabled more gold intercepts at its Yidby Road and Cashens Find prospects in the Murchison Goldfields north of Perth in WA. The best intercept of the latest bunch returned 16m at 1.51 grams per tonne gold from 50m, including 4m at 4.18 g/t with one rich metre going 13.43 g/t gold from 51m downhole.

ASX-listed base metals and gold play, Si6 Metals, has taken the plunge at its flagship Maibele North nickel-copper project in Botswana with a diamond drill hole boring day and night on an exploration voyage down to more than 500m depth in the hunt for nickel sulphide mineralisation.

The southern-most Hurley prospect in Legend Mining’s Rockford Northwest property is showing signs it could become another key target for the nickel-sulphide specialist explorer. The prospect, which sits in the heartland of the Albany Fraser belt in Western Australia near the doorstep of the Nova nickel-copper plant, has returned early assays with anomalous results for nickel, copper and cobalt.

Horizon Minerals has continued to ring the till on the back of a toll milling and trial open-cut mining exercise at its flagship Boorara gold project 10km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The company generated a further $6.1 million in revenue including $3.6 million in net cash flow from the trial campaign’s third instalment of gold production totalling 2,491 ounces and a realised sales price averaging $2,466 an ounce.

At a time when steelmaking is receding from the Kwinana industrial estate, just south of Fremantle, high purity alumina aspirant King River Resources has identified the zone as the likely hub to house its planned High Purity Alumina facility. The company is now in discussions with the WA Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation and also Development WA with regard to land sale and leasing issues.

ASX-listed Great Southern Mining has not taken its foot off the pedal in the midst of the festive season and instead has launched into a major drilling program at its historic Cox’s Find gold project about 80km north of Laverton in WA. It hopes to unearth repeats of the old Cox’s Find deposit along strike to the south as well as extensions at depth.

Fresh from ongoing success in the Eastern Goldfields, Lefroy Exploration has switched its attention to the west, to embark on an early-stage quest at another enticing prospect near Lake Johnson. The company’s Bullseye target has sat untouched for more than 20 years and is defined by a 2.5-kilometre-wide ovoid-shaped aeromagnetic anomaly which Lefroy believes may represent an underlining mafic or ultramafic intrusion.

ASX-listed heavy rare earths hopeful, Northern Minerals, has a couple of reasons to hit the festive season with an element of good cheer following a year of significantly improved price action in two key payable elements that occur in the mineral resource at its Browns Range heavy rare earths project in WA.

Kingwest Resources has continued to reel off a string of high-grade gold hits from multiple deposits as part of an onslaught of resource definition drilling at its Menzies gold project about 120km north of Kalgoorlie. The latest stand-out RC drill intersections included 11m at 7.13 g/t from 62m, 2m at 20.71 g/t from 91m, 1m at 26.78 g/t from 40m and 1m at 22.42 g/t from 88m.

ASX-listed West Africa gold explorer, Mako Gold, continues to be rewarded with encouraging gold hits following a recently implemented revised drilling orientation at the Tchaga gold prospect at its flagship Napie project in Côte d’Ivoire. The latest stand-out assay from Tchaga was 26m grading 4.34 g/t gold from surface including 2m at 16.19 g/t from surface and 3m at 13.58 g/t from 21m.

ASX-listed aspiring manganese producer, Element 25, has been granted the key environmental approvals that pave the way for it to click into serious construction mode at its Butcherbird manganese project 130km south of Newman in WA’s southern Pilbara. The company says the approvals marked the final milestone it needed to square away before the main construction of the new mining and beneficiation operation could commence.

Hot Chili is set to spice up its production profile in Chile after putting in place an agreement to ramp up the processing of copper ores from its Productora deposit at the nearby Vallenar mill. The agreement will see the company lift production from its underground mining operations at the high-grade deposit to 180,000 tonnes per annum, a 50 per cent increase on the current mining rate.

ASX-listed iron ore and gold hopeful, CZR Resources, has tabled a robust pre-feasibility study offering positive financial returns for a potential 2 million tonnes per annum development at its 85 per cent-owned Robe Mesa iron ore project in WA’s West Pilbara. The PFS delivers payback within 2 years and more than A$600 million in cash flow over the life of the mine, with direct shipping ore leaving Port Hedland.

Deep Yellow is continuing to extend the boundaries of its uranium find in Namibia as it charges towards the delivery of a feasibility study over the proposed mining centre at Tumas. Shallow drilling over the Tubas deposits, which are located 10km west of Tumas, has returned a wealth of uranium mineralisation including an intercept of 4m at 442 eppm uranium oxide from 4m.

ASX-listed White Cliff Minerals is leaving no exploration stone unturned at its Reedy South gold project in WA’s Murchison Goldfields as it buckles up for a large aeromagnetic survey having almost completed an upsized 4,500m RC drilling program. The company plans to fly 6,100 line kilometres at 50m line spacing across its Reedy South tenement holdings prior to further in-field exploration earmarked for early next year.

Venus Metals has stumbled across a new gold discovery after getting the drill rods spinning again in the hills around Youanmi, Western Australia. The Hope prospect turned up gold mineralisation in fresh granite adjacent to the area’s classic granite-greenstone contact, with one RC drill hole hitting 1m at a solid 9.3 g/t gold from 103m downhole.

Blackstone Minerals has racked up some of its longest nickel sulphide intersections to date across the King Cobra discovery zone at its Ban Phuc disseminated sulphide deposit in Vietnam. Infill and extension drilling included one drill hole that produced a 127.6m intersection going 1.17 per cent nickel, 0.22 per cent copper, 0.02 per cent cobalt and 0.24 g/t PGE.

ASX-listed aspiring gold producer, Calidus Resources, has moved to top up its coffers with a heavily oversubscribed $31.8 million share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors and an additional $5 million placement to eligible existing shareholders. The capital raises come hot on the heels of the company securing $110 million in debt funding for its planned Warrawoona gold mining and processing operation currently in the initial development stages.

Si6 Metals is set to hit the ground running in Botswana as it builds on a developing program in southern Africa. Drilling is poised to kick off on the Maibele North nickel-copper project, where geophysical surveying has identified a deep electromagnetic target. The company is also seeking approval for drilling at the Monument gold project in WA after completing a $2 million placement.

ASX-listed Calima Energy has released the preliminary findings of an independent technical study which confirms the rich liquids potential and strong gas productivity of the Upper and Middle Montney zones across its 60,000-plus acres of ground in Canada. More importantly, the review points to fresh oil and gas resource volumes in the currently ‘unbooked’ Lower Montney interval on Calima’s ground.

Lithium Australia has granted privateer, Charger Metals, an option to acquire a suite of its projects in WA and the NT. The option will see Charger pick up the Coates and Lake Johnson polymetallic projects in southern WA and the Bynoe lithium-gold project south of Darwin. Charger will pay $100,000 and issue Lithium 8.8 million shares in the new entity to take a 70 per cent stake in the project positions.

ASX-listed aspiring manganese producer, Element 25, has struck an offtake agreement to sell half the manganese ore produced under a proposed stage two expansion of its Butcherbird project development in WA’s southern Pilbara region. The Perth-based company says its new offtake partner, private equity firm and commodity trader Semeru Energy, will buy between 175,000 tonnes and 200,000 tonnes per annum of Butcherbird manganese ore.

Victory Mines has confirmed the presence of solid grades of copper at its Bonaparte project in WA following a short, sharp drilling program which was completed in October 2020. Results from the drilling include 4m at 1.18 per cent copper and 34.4 grams per tonne silver, hosting 1m at a stunning 3.9 per cent copper and 117 g/t silver from only 47m down-hole.

Horizon Minerals has firmed up the mineral resource estimate for one of its quintet of key satellite deposits which are set to complement its proposed flagship Boorara gold project development 10km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The updated resource for the Rose Hill deposit, which is less than 1km south-east of Coolgardie, now stands at 793,400 tonnes grading 3.65 grams per tonne for 93,200 ounces of contained gold.

InteliCare has joined the winners list in this year’s Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Rising Star Awards. The coveted program is in its 20th year and looks to rank Australia’s fastest-growing public or private technology companies, providing international recognition for local innovation. InteliCare is successfully harnessing artificial intelligence to provide smart home monitoring solutions to help care for the elderly and disabled people.

Dampier Gold has locked in a $6 million capital raise to fund its ongoing exploration program in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. The company’s placement was oversubscribed and well supported by both institutional and strategic investors, with the funding ear-marked to expedite exploration across its Zuleika Shear projects, including more than 8,000m of aircore drilling planned for early 2021.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources is marching towards the start-up at its flagship Warrawoona gold mining project in WA’s Pilbara region after ticking a few infrastructure and permitting boxes. The installation of a 65m tall telecommunications tower is complete, 10 per cent of its 240-bed accommodation village is operational and the company has received regulatory sign-off on its project management plan from WA’s Department of Mines and Petroleum.

ASX-listed aspiring Chile copper developer, Hot Chili, has been granted crucial water extraction rights for its overarching Costa Fuego porphyry copper-gold project located about 600km north of the country’s capital, Santiago. The company says the maritime concession, which was granted following an exhaustive seven-year application process, represents a critical infrastructure requirement for Costa Fuego by securing sufficient water supply to support a large-scale copper-gold operation.

Okapi Resources has narrowed its focus at Lake Johnson in WA, zeroing in on the Mount Day gold prospect. The company has amended its previously announced farm-in agreement with Lithium Australia, electing to concentrate on the Mount Day tenure, which hosts a 10km long surface geochemical anomaly and has produced rock chips of up to 10.68 grams per tonne gold.

ASX-listed explorer, Venus Metals Corporation, says it has picked up a couple of early polymetallic sniffs at its Bridgetown East nickel-copper-PGE project in WA’s south-west region as the company looks to emulate the feats of Chalice Mining following its exciting Gonneville nickel-copper-PGE discovery at the Julimar project further north.