Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Neometals has confirmed the technical feasibility of its Barrambie titanium-vanadium deposit located in the Murchison region of WA following successful metallurgical pilot test work. The work, that was aimed at optimising hydrometallurgical recoveries, produced a high purity “titanium hydrolysate” from the titanium processing phase. The company has now shipped samples of its new titanium bearing concentrate to potential offtake customers to evaluate.

Black Rock Mining is a step closer to developing its mammoth Tanzanian graphite mine, inking a framework agreement with a Chinese firm to act as head EPC contractor. A deferred payment schedule will result in over 30% of the contract being paid only after the plant passes certain performance hurdles. The agreement is with Chinese Government-owned China Railway Seventh Group Co.

Mid-tier, ASX-listed gold developer, Horizon Minerals, is continuing to scrub up its Boorara gold project with exciting pockets of high-grade ore just 10km east of the Kalgoorlie super-pit. After 18 kilometres of infill drilling, some excellent assays from parallel mineralized lodes have been identified at the Regal and Crown Jewel deposits with individual assay grades as high as 12.62 grams per tonne gold.

Big River Gold is looking to lock down a finance package for its 100%-owned Borborema gold Project in Brazil that boasts a 2.43 million-ounce resource and a reserve of 780,000 ounces at a grade of 1.22 grams per tonne gold. The project is showing an initial projected mine life of ten years and solid economics at a gold price of US$1,400/oz.

Dual-listed Adriatic Metals was always going to have a problem at its Vares multi-metals project in Bosnia – but it is a nice problem to have. With such a smorgasbord of different high-grade minerals present at Vares, Adriatic’s biggest problem is working out which metals will lead the project economics, which will be mere credits and which ones will gel together well metallurgically to produce highly payable concentrates.

King River Resources’ plans to push its giant Speewah vanadium-titanium-iron deposit in Western Australia towards a definitive feasibility study have taken a strategic change of direction. The company is now firmly focusing on the opportunity around the aluminium oxide that is also contained within the deposit. Test work is pointing towards a small-scale start-up operation with a view to creating early cash flows from converting the aluminium oxide to high purity alumina.

Drilling at Ora Banda Mining’s Davyhurst gold project in WA has provided a substantial boost to the company’s confidence in its Waihi deposits with new assays showing a haul of impressive results including a 34-metre intercept grading 3.8 grams per tonne gold from just 30m. After a difficult period under previous management, Davyhurst looks to be on a solid footing now. A resource update is expected soon.

Classic Minerals has continued its newfound success at Forrestania in WA with a 71% resource boost to one of its deposits. The Lady Ada deposit now stands at 1.35 million tonnes grading 1.38 grams per tonne for 59,700 ounces of gold. The broader project at Forrestania now holds 311,050 ounces of gold. Classic’s Forrestania gold project is located about 120km south of Southern Cross.

Medicinal cannabis company, MGC Pharmaceuticals, has inked a new supply agreement that will generate an immediate revenue stream from THC Global Group Limited who will white label MGC’s pharmaceutical-grade phytocannabinoid, or “CBD” products to the Australian and New Zealand markets. The products will be sold under THC’s “Canndeo” brand and are not expected to compete with MGC’s existing cannabis-based product lines.

ASX-listed PolarX’s Alaska Range project in the US is starting to look interesting with recent boots on the ground work identifying a potential 600-metre extension to the Zachly East Skarn, which already plays host to a one kilometre long mineralised system and a resource of 41,000 tonnes of copper, 213,000 ounces of gold and 1.5 million ounces of silver, right from surface.

The Grace prospect is holding up as potentially a stand-alone discovery for JV partners, Rox Resources and Venus Metals, with assay results hot off the press of 8m going 37.25g/t, including a 4m zone grading 73.81g/t gold from 48m. Rox and Venus recently identified Grace at their Youanmi South project in the Goldfields, a prospect that literally sits right between the historically mined Youanmi pit and the mothballed mill.

Blackstone Minerals has revealed the most impressive drill result to date at its Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam with 60m grading 1.3% nickel and another 11.9m at 1.09% nickel contained within another 142m intersection further down in the same drill hole at the King Cobra prospect. The 60m intersection also showed 0.22% copper and 0.29g/t PGM plus gold.

After lighting a fire under its Chilean Cortadera copper-gold project in late 2019, the first intersection in the latest step-out drilling program for Hot Chili has continued the company’s extraordinary run of ultra-deep drilling success. Latest numbers include a 649m mineralised zone going 0.4% copper and 0.1g/t gold. The latest hole in the current eight-hole program also intersected 440 meters grading 0.5% copper and 0.2 g/t gold.

Norwest Energy has topped up its cash box in readiness for the drilling of its Lockyer Deep prospect in the Northern Perth Basin. The final payment of A$630,000 was received this week for the sale of its interest in production licence L14 in the North Perth Basin. Norwest is getting set to drill Locker Deep in partnership with uber-successful resources house, Mineral Resources who is not known for backing duds.

Private equity firm, Ibaera now holds a relevant interest in Azumah Resources of 88.85% following last year’s off-market takeover bid. Azhuma’s sole independent director has encouraged remaining holders to accept the offer before the official closing date of the 17th January. If Ibaera acquires 90% or more of Azumah’s shares, it will likely move to compulsorily attain any remaining shares and/or delist the company from the ASX.

Troy Resources is back on track at its Karouni gold mining operation in Guyana, South America, with mining now in full swing again after a death on-site last year closed the operation down. The company is also experiencing considerable and sustained success with the drill bit and expects ore processing to re-commence in late January as ore stocks are built up. Gold sales will commence soon after in February.

Novo Resources has picked up 10 million shares in ASX listed Kalamazoo Resources at $0.40 cents per share. Novo Director, Eric Sprott, has also personally taken up 10 million shares in the placement that raised a total of $8 million for Kalamazoo. Novo now holds a strategic 8.17% stake in the Victorian explorer. Kalamazoo recently tabled an exceptional grade result from its Castlemaine prospect of 1.42m @ 261.3g/t gold.

Middle Island Resources has started a major, multi-phase drilling campaign at its 100%-owned Sandstone gold project in central WA. The company says the campaign, slated for completion by the end of the March quarter, has the potential to add significant open pit mineral resources to the gold project and take it a step closer to the recommissioning of the old mothballed mill on-site.

AVZ Minerals’ has inked a deal with the DRC Government to probe a potential refurbishment of a hydro-electric power station near its giant Manono lithium project. The old power station has been mothballed for years but potentially presents as a future power source for AVZ’s rapidly advancing lithium project that boasts possibly the largest undeveloped lithium resource in the world today.

ASX-listed ag player Alterra, says that its investment in and association with carbon credit forestry business, Carbon Conscious, has been generating solid income streams that are set to continue into the future on the back of long term tree planting and management contracts with energy titans, BP and Origin. Alterra took over $1.1m off the table at Carbon Conscious last year by way of dividends, management fees, interest and a $400k early loan repayment.

Lindian Resources looks to be onto a lucrative, high grade bauxite deposit in Africa that has now been confirmed by the company as a rare “conglomerate” style deposit. Initial unconfirmed XRF results at the Bouba Plateau at Lindian’s Gaoual Bauxite Project in Guinea, show extraordinarily high aluminium oxide numbers of around 61% with only 4.6% of the nuisance mineral silica present.

After years of dogged determination, plugging away in the Fraser Range in search of a Nova-Bollinger look-a-like nickel-copper discovery, Legend Mining looks like it is onto something now with drill core showing over 70 meters of sulphide mineralisation, including 14.9 meters containing solid nickel-copper-cobalt mineralisation. The new find is part of Legend’s Mawson Discovery, 280km east of Kalgoorlie where the mineralisation commences at a relatively shallow depth of 76 meters.

Spectrum Metals has encountered its highest gold grades yet outside of the historical Penny North deposit located 25km south of the Youanmi mining centre in Western Australia. Recent exploration drilling has snagged a 4 metre wide zone grading at 11.1 grams per tonne gold from 195m downhole, including a metre grading 41g/t gold at the Magenta prospect, 1.5km north of Penny North.

Altech Chemicals will update the resource estimate at its promising Kerrigan kaolin project near Hyden in the WA Wheatbelt after successfully completing a drilling program. Whilst the Meckering kaolin deposit will provide feedstock for Altech’s soon-to-be-built HPA plant in Malaysia, Kerrigan also appears to host a high-purity kaolin deposit . Altech is partly financing its HPA plant with a loan that is guaranteed by the German Government.

ASX-listed PharmAust’s innovative biotechnology work via its wholly owned subsidiaries Epichem and Pitney Pharmaceuticals has been recognised by the Australian Tax Office with the company receiving more than $700,000 in a research and development tax rebate. The funds will be used to advance its clinical trial programs in dogs and humans with the company now on a fast tracked pathway to prove up the cancer fighting abilities of its “re-purposed” Monepantel drug.

Horizon Minerals isn’t leaving anything to chance after getting its hands on MacPhersons Resources’ Boorara Gold project just east of Kalgoorlie post its merger with MacPhersons. The ASX listed company is headlong into an infill drilling campaign at Boorara ahead of the expected commencement of mining in the June quarter with drill spacings now down to a minimum of just 4m x 10m – and the numbers haven’t disappointed.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia has taken a major step forward in its mission to obtain patents for the recovery of lithium phosphate from lithium bearing silicates and solutions after the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organisation published two of the company’s patent applications. It is the fourth step on the road to the granting of the patents, which can take some time to achieve.

Canning Basin focussed hydrocarbon explorer and producer, Buru Energy, has reported $3.5 million in revenues from its flagship Ungani oilfield near Broome in WA. Buru is sitting on 5.5 million acres of development and exploration permits in the Canning and it is already turning out about 1,400 barrels of oil per day at its flagship oilfield.

King River Resources has received all assay results following a drilling campaign at its Mt Remarkable project in WA. A new mineralised zone 150 metres east of the main Trudi deposit with notable gold grades up to 2.42 grams per tonne has been identified. The best result to date from the Trudi Main vein is 6 meters grading 5.95 grams per tonne gold from a shallow depth of just 20 meters downhole.

ASX-listed rare earth’s producer, Northern Minerals, looks to be potentially onto something in the East Kimberly with some solid results from rock chip sampling, grading up to 2.92% copper at its John Galt Project, located 200 kilometres south of Kununurra in WA. The rock chip sampling program covered an area of 2 kilometres by 500 metres with half of all samples returning high copper grades of 1% or greater.

ASX-listed Australian Potash has hit a major milestone at its Lake Wells gold project in WA, with the Perth-based company announcing the completion by St Barbara, of its expenditure commitments under the first earn-in stage of a joint venture between the two companies. St Barbara will now proceed to the second earn-in stage which requires a further $3.5 million spend.

ASX-listed mineral sands miner, Image Resources, has capped a successful first year of operations at its zircon-rich, Boonanarring mineral sands mine in WA, with the company reporting that it has easily met its 2019 production and sales targets and is now upwardly revising its heavy mineral concentrate production estimates for 2020. Image’s commissioning of its mineral sands mine in WA was almost text book perfect last year, coming in on time and on budget with no major setbacks.