Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Novo Resources has pulled a rabbit out of a hat by snapping up Millennium Minerals and its Golden Eagle gold processing plant at Nullagine in WA. The bold move sets the stage for the company to become Australia’s first conglomerate gold producer.

Great Southern Mining continues to churn out the high-grade drill hits at its historic Cox’s Find gold project near Laverton in WA, this time outside of the interpreted main lode extension. Better assays from recent RC drilling at Cox’s Find included 9m going 5 g/t gold from 142m, within a broader zone of 16m at 3.7 g/t from 138m, and 2m at 14 g/t from 146m.

The results of unlisted Barton Gold’s latest geophysical survey nearby its soon to be restarted Tarcoola gold project in South Australia are pulse-quickening. The company says it has identified a 3.5km-long trend or geological “channel” that may be harbouring look-alike gold deposits to the existing Perseverance open pit at the rapidly developing Tarcoola gold project.

ASX-listed aspiring manganese developer, Element 25, has ticked a major box at its proposed low-CAPEX Butcherbird project in the Pilbara, this week declaring the site has sufficient process water supply to support production. The company says it successfully pump tested a water bore within a shallow aquifer and determined the project has enough water for proposed production operations.

ASX-listed Troy Resources has returned multiple hits at its Karouni gold project in Guyana, South America, with its Smarts underground prospect throwing up drill numbers like 19m at 9.15 g/t gold from 173m down hole, including 5m going 24.24 g/t gold. Troy has also produced almost 13,000 ounces of gold from its open pit operations since mining re-commenced in January this year.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia, via its subsidiary, the Very Small Particle Company or “VSPC”, has refined the process for the production of its lithium ferro phosphate battery cathode powders, reducing the chemical input costs by 20 per cent in the process. Lithium phosphate raw materials produced using VSPC’s optimised process returned excellent electrochemical results, according to the company.

ASX-listed Canada gold explorer, Ardiden, is gearing up for a very detailed airborne geophysical survey of the New Patricia prospect at its high-grade Pickle Lake gold project in north-western Ontario in Canada as the historic mining area gets its first taste of aerial survey work in 45 years.

Neometals has joined forces with multi-billion-dollar German metallurgical powerhouse, SMS Group, to develop the company’s proprietary lithium battery recycling technology. Under the terms of the joint venture, the companies will form Primobius GmbH to commercialise Neometals’ lithium-ion battery recycling technology with the recovered product set to be used in the growing battery supply chain.

Terrain Minerals is showing impeccable timing, launching a new drill campaign at its Wild Viper gold project in WA, just as the gold price reaches for the stars. The company is set to complete 1,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling across two key targets within the project area north of Leonora. With $2 million in the bank and a bag full of gold targets throughout WA’s rich Goldfield region, Terrain looks set to power through the second half of 2020.

Godolphin Resources has picked up some highly anomalous gold sniffs at its historic Lewis Ponds project about 15km east of Orange, NSW, in the venerated Lachlan fold belt, with the assay numbers swaying the company to now focus its exploration attention on gold at the project. Lewis Ponds lies 20km north of Regis Resources’ two-million-ounce McPhillamys gold deposit.

Eclipse Metals has cleared a critical hurdle as it negotiates a regional land access agreement in the Northern Territory and launches an exploration campaign at its Devil’s Elbow uranium-PGE prospect. The company has reached an agreement with traditional owners to enter into negotiations to approve exploration across the two new leases that surround the Devil’s Elbow prospect, giving it access to key targets in the world-class Alligator River Uranium Field.

Hot Chili has tabled some positive test work from its three copper deposits in in Chile, delivering a common processing route and potentially a high-value product. Metallurgical test work on sulphide samples from the Cortadera, Productora and San Antonio copper deposits confirms the selected processing flowsheet should see over 89 per cent of the contained copper recovered.

Lithium Australia has begun work on its Wundowie nickel-PGE project in the hills east of Perth that were recently made famous in mining circles by Chalice Gold Mines who discovered a cracking nickel-PGE deposit in an area that was previously thought to have limited prospectivity. A first-pass review of the historical exploration data for Lithium Australia’s project has revealed an extensive coincident copper, gold and PGE anomaly.

ASX-listed gold hopeful, Middle Island Resources, continues to eke out promising RC drill results from an array of satellite deposits at its historic Sandstone gold project in the central Goldfields of WA as it works towards the potential recommissioning of the old mine site’s mothballed treatment plant. Latest numbers are from the Old Town Well deposit, located only 600m north of the plant.

ASX-listed platinum group metals explorer Podium Minerals has boosted its coffers by another A$1.1 million after receiving a payment of $711,000 from EV Metals Group for tenement-related costs. Perth-based Podium is also looking to offload its 17 per cent shareholding in EV Metals, who holds the oxide mining rights excluding PGM mineralisation within Podium’s Parks Reef project area in the Mid West region of WA.

Blackstone Minerals looks to have awakened a sleeping giant in Vietnam, after posting a massive, 47-metre-wide, 1.04 per cent nickel hit at the King Cobra prospect within its Ta Khoa project. A maiden resource for the Ban Phuc and King Cobra deposits are due in the third quarter of 2020 and will be highly anticipated by the market given the significant successes Blackstone’s latest drilling campaign has experienced.

Godolphin Resources is set to kick off a maiden drilling program at its Copper Hill East project located 35km north of Orange in NSW and only 60km south of Alkane’s venerated Boda copper-gold discovery. A recent soil sampling program defined a coherent gold and copper anomaly at the project with copper assays grading up to 817 parts per million.

Coziron Resources will soon have an RC rig spinning up a storm at its Croydon gold project in WA’s Pilbara region after the company’s maiden drill program hit some notable results, including 8m grading 10.2 grams per tonne gold with a one metre interval running at over two ounces to the tonne from the Top Camp discovery.

Hammer Metals has nailed down additional strategic tenure in the revered Yandal gold belt of Western Australia. The company has added the Bronzewing North project to its already impressive ground holding in the region and extended its footprint across the world-class terrane to over 260 square kilometres, adding two near-term exploration targets at Sword and Sam Well in the process.

Classic Minerals looks set to deliver early cashflows from the high-grade Kat Gap gold deposit in WA. The company has flagged the early delivery of its modular Gekko gravity processing plant which is now slated to be on the ground in Perth in second half of August 2020. The modular gold plant looks set to deliver Classic a clever short-cut through the development process and a rapid pathway to early cashflows.

ASX-listed aspiring gold developer, Middle Island Resources, appears to have another satellite deposit unfolding at its Sandstone gold project in the central Goldfields of WA as it works towards building a mineable resource inventory to support a strategy of recommissioning the mine site’s mothballed processing plant. The new McIntyre deposit recently returned better intersections of 13m grading 1.94 g/t gold and 9m at 3.53 g/t.

ASX-listed bauxite hopeful Lindian Resources has snared the services of 45-year bauxite and alumina veteran, Yves Occello, pictured, appointing him as a Non-Executive Director as the company looks to beef up its board to execute a plan to advance its high-grade Gaoual conglomerate bauxite project in Guinea towards production. Occello has been a Director of Compagnie de Bauxite de Guinee, Guinea’s largest bauxite producer for 30 years.

With its Browns Range pilot plant in WA’s north set to re-start heavy rare earths production any day now, ASX-listed Northern Minerals has moved quickly to replace its former MD, George Bauk, by promoting long-serving Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, Mark Tory, to the role of Chief Executive Officer. Tory is a Chartered Accountant with over three decades of mining industry experience.

ASX-listed gold explorer, Great Southern Mining, looks to have struck paydirt in its first diamond drill hole at its Cox’s Find gold project about 65km north of Laverton in WA, underlining the high-grade aura of the historic project. The Perth-based company returned a bonanza intercept of 1.1m going a whopping 404.0 grams per tonne gold, or an eye-watering 13 ounces to the tonne gold.

Legend Mining believes it is onto the northern extensions of its Mawson nickel discovery in the revered Fraser Range with a down hole EM survey lighting up a booming off-hole conductor adjacent to a recent RC drill hole. The conductor is perfectly positioned along strike from the previously drilled nickel sulphides at Mawson’s with a diamond rig now scheduled to be onsite next week to test the enticing target.

Kingwest Resources is about to embark on a maiden RAB and aircore drilling program at its Goongarrie gold project 40km south of its flagship Menzies project and 90km north of Kalgoorlie. The gold hopeful, who recently completed an encouraging scoping study on the Goongarrie Lady deposit, has decided to sink the drill bit into what it describes as “an overlooked gold exploration opportunity”.

Great Southern Mining has moved to tie up more ground adjacent to its Cox’s Find gold project about 65km north of Laverton in WA, applying for 50sqkm of new tenements along structural trends that host gold deposits within the Duketon greenstone belt. Cox’s Find is located along strike and about 12km from Regis Resources’ Garden Well open pit gold mine.

Barton Gold has kicked off drilling at its Tarcoola gold project in South Australia, targeting high-grade strike and depth extensions to the Perseverance open pit. The current program is expected to plough more than 10,000 metres of drilling into a range of lucrative looking, near mine targets and is aimed at proving up the additional resources needed to underwrite a restart of the Challenger mill.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have continued to put meat on the bones of the exciting Grace discovery at the Youanmi gold project south of Sandstone, with more high-grade hits rolling off the drill bit. The JV partners are not quite at the halfway mark of a 126-hole, 16,000m RC drilling campaign, which is focused on Grace, underlining the importance the partners place on that prospect.

ASX-listed agribusiness developer, Alterra Ltd, has elevated Non-Executive Director John McGlue to the Chairman’s role as the company advances towards completing feasibility studies on its Carpenters, 300-hectare avocado development in Pemberton. McGlue replaces well known farmer, Trevor Stoney, who served as Chairman from 2012 but remains on the Board as a Non-Executive Director as the company moves forwards with its new business model.

ASX-listed Proteomics International has locked up patent protection throughout much of Asia, Europe and the Americas for its predictive diabetic kidney disease test known as “PromarkerD”. Proteomics said granted patent and trademark protection now covers areas where 59 per cent of the 463 million adults living with diabetes reside after it recently secured patents for Brazil and Canada.

Emerging gold developer, Wiluna Mining, is on course to deliver an updated mineral resource at its historic Wiluna project by September and a new reserves statement by the end of the year as it advances towards fulfilling its stage one expansion plans to become a 120,000-ounce-a-year producer in WA’s Goldfields region.