Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Aurora Labs has partnered with engineering firm Gränges AB to embark on a potentially lucrative research project that will investigate the possibility of commercialising Aurora’s 3D printing technology for the high value, high turnover automotive spare parts industry. The innovative pair will look to combine their expertise, potentially paving the way for significant sales of Aurora’s “RMP1” 3D metal printer into the car parts manufacturing industry.

With a recent new drill hole at its Penny North prospect going 2.87m at 14.7g/t from 363m downhole, Spectrum Metals appears to be showing that its shiny new ore body, recently discovered just to the north of the historic Penny West open pit in W.A, is not going to give up anytime soon. Penny North is located 25km south of Youanmi.

Further surface mapping conducted just before the launch of its maiden drilling program at the Gaoual bauxite project in northwest Guinea has given Lindian Resources the confidence it is sitting on an ore body that is significantly larger than previously anticipated. The company says it is convinced that Gaoual’s high grade, outcropping Bouba “conglomerate” bauxite target is almost double the length than originally thought.

Agricultural asset developer, Alterra, has signed a property rights agreement for its Dambadgee Springs investment property in Western Australia that could see $2.5 million flow into the company’s coffers over the next 25 years. The PRA will allow the construction and operation of wind turbines at the evolving $400 million Yandin wind farm in the WA wheatbelt shire of Dandaragan.

Altech Chemicals has effectively been given the go-ahead by a German corporate regulator to further rattle the tin in a USD$100 million fund raising that will provide a runway for the Perth company to breathe life into its proposed high purity alumina plant in Malaysia. High purity alumina is in demand from the electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery industry and from the LED lighting markets.

Blackstone Minerals has caught the eye of South Korea’s largest electric vehicle battery cathode manufacturer, Ecopro BM Co, which has offered to help the Australian outfit expand the downstream processing capabilities of its re-emerging Ta Khoa nickel project in north Vietnam. The two companies have signed a non-binding MoU which could become a full-blown joint venture involving the production of nickel and cobalt for lithium-ion batteries.

Middle Island Resources has attracted WA-based engineer, Brad Marwood to its board as a Non-Executive Director as it approaches its moment of truth at the Sandstone gold project. The ASX-listed company is looking to make the transition from explorer to developer and Marwood looks well placed to give the company a shove in the right direction.

The tills have been ringing at mining software company, K2fly, with annual recurring revenues from just one of its software offerings, “RCubed”, almost doubling the annual target of $500,000 in just six months, with $900,000 a year now contracted annually for RCubed. The latest numbers come only weeks after the Perth based ASX-listed company signed a five-year software provision contract with mining goliath, Rio Tinto.

Terrain Minerals is looking to acquire the Smokebush gold project in the Murchison, west of Paynes Find in WA. Subject to positive due diligence, it will fund exploration for two years to farm into the project and earn an 80% interest for a total spend of $250,000. Terrain will acquire five tenements in an area prospective mainly for gold deposits but that also have some base metal and tungsten potential.

Venus Metals is adding another chapter to its growing Youanmi story in WA with the first drilling results from its Vidure project encountering base metals and platinum group elements. Four RC holes partially testing previously identified electromagnetic targets near the historical Vidure prospect have discovered a significant extension of the Vidure West mineralisation towards the north, including 10 metres at 0.46% copper and 0.25% nickel.

Fast-moving teleco disrupter, Vonex, will take on the client and technology base from veteran 2SG Wholesale, a telecommunications and data provider, for a turn-key deal with the potential to lift its annualised recurring revenues to over $14 million. The deal is laden with opportunities for Vonex to apply synergies across the business units and comes gift wrapped with clients, some of which are teir-1s.

Lithium Australia is radically transforming the lithium market by creating a new “circular economy” courtesy of its lithium-ion battery recycling technology that essentially “harvests” battery metals from spent lithium-ion coin cell batteries. The ASX-listed company produced its first paid shipment of a valuable recycled mixed metal dust this for South Korean offtake firm, SungEel.

Adriatic Metals has found a silver lining at its brownfields, zinc-heavy polymetallic Vares project in central Bosnia and Herzegovina - particularly at the Rupice target, where recent drilling returned an intercept of 6 metres at an impressive 1,019 grams per tonne silver, 11.3g/t gold, 13.1% zinc, 12.5% lead and 1.3% copper from a depth of 238m. Rupice’s mineralised strike length is now over 500m long.

Solar window glass innovator, ClearVue Technologies, is on the brink of breaking into the lucrative US renewables energy market after receiving UL 61730 Certification for its ClearVue solar glass technology following a year of rigorous scrutiny. The certification is a key requirement for ClearVue to sell its unique “PV IGU” solar window glass to the international market given that it confirms the electrical and mechanical credentials of the product.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have hit more gold in RC drilling at their Venus JV project in WA. The drilling is located north of the old Penny West gold mine and followed up on an exciting aircore discovery with the best recent numbers coming in at 3m grading 6.61g/t gold from 78m downhole. New aircore holes, 50m south from the now defined mineralisation, showed an 8m wide zone grading 1.92g/t gold.

Kairos Minerals is off and racing with a drill rig now churning away on a 1,500m RC program at the Iron Stirrup prospect, part of its flagship Pilbara Mt York gold project in WA. Iron Stirrup has a current resource of 1.07 million tonnes grading 1.94 grams per tonne for 67,000 ounces of gold and the drilling will target high grade shoots within the deposit.

Neometals lithium-ion battery recycling arm has successfully extracted a nickel sulphate solution with more than 99.9% purity in testwork that has far exceeded its scoping study assumptions. The company’s hydrometallurgical, patent-pending, battery metals recycling technology extracted a nickel product at a recovery rate of 98%. The work brings Neometals a step closer to a commercial-scale lithium battery recycling operation with a pilot plant due by the end of the year.

Perth-based South American gold miner, Troy Resources’ decision to closely focus on its exploration assets appears to be paying off with the recent discovery of a new style of mineralisation along strike from the Hicks 1 pit at its Karouni gold project in Guyana. The Hicks NW prospect has contributed around 19,000 additional reserve ounces and ongoing exploration continues to identify broad, shallow gold zones.

88 Energy is still on track to spud its 30%-owned Charlie-1 appraisal well at its Project Icewine on Alaska’s prospective Central North Slope by next February after successfully finalising a three way farm out agreement signed in August. The total gross mean prospective resource across the seven stacked targets to be intersected by Charlie-1 is 1.6 billion barrels of oil, with 480 million barrels attributable to 88 Energy, according to the company.

Lithium battery supply chain disrupter, Lithium Australia, is making significant inroads into the lucrative Chinese and Japanese battery markets following the successful first stage testing of its “lithium-ferro phosphate” battery cathode material. The company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary VSPC, is now looking to set up a supply chain in China during 2021 and another in Japan by 2022 as it meets growing demand from the energy storage and transportation sectors.

TSX listed Novo Resources is deciding what processing route to use for its Beatons Creek and Egina “nuggety” gold projects in WA’s East Pilbara by subjecting 10 tonnes of their combined ores to mechanical ore sorting. Around 5t of Beatons Creek’s and another 5t of Egina’s gravels have been shipped to a test facility in Perth, where they will be put through sorting trials during December.

King River Resources has wrapped up a drilling campaign at its high grade, Mt Remarkable project in WA and is now poised to provide more enticing assay results as the year draws to a close. The Trudi Main vein has again provided the goods for King River with 6 meters grading 5.95 grams per tonne gold from a very shallow depth of 20 meters downhole.

Kingwest Resources recent Menzies acquisition looks like it might provide a payday for the ASX listed junior with ounce plus hits spinning off the drill bit. Latest results include 0.3m grading 71.3g/t within a broader zone of 1.5m grading 14.33g/t. This gold hit is located an impressive 100m below the known mineralisation at the historic Lady Shenton mine, potentially extending the length by at least 100m.

Industrial technologist, Aurora Labs, is finding there is plenty of global market interest in its ground breaking, uber-fast RMP-1 metal 3D printer, with the company now in early negotiations with a number of industrial players wanting to know more about its printer’s capabilities. The WA outfit recently touched base with potential new clients at Formnext, the world’s leading additive manufacturing exhibition in Germany.

Two lengthy diamond drill intercepts at the Cortadera coastal range copper-gold discovery in Chile continue to reaffirm Hot Chili’s suspicions that it is sitting on a globally significant underground bulk tonnage copper gold operation. New results include 168 metres at 0.4% copper and 0.1 grams/tonne gold from 44m and a massive 334.1m at 0.5% copper and 0.2g/t gold from 654m.

High purity alumina pioneer, Altech Chemicals, could take the global electronics sector by storm once its HPA product starts being used to help dissipate heat in semi-conductors. The enterprising ASX listed outfit, which plans to mine aluminous clays in WA before sending it to Malaysia for processing, could see its niche mineral used in the production of epoxy moulding compounds employed by the semi-conductor industry to improve heat dissipation.

King River Resources’ plans for the development of its giant Speewah vanadium, titanium and iron deposit in the East Kimberley have received another economic boost in the form of positive metallurgical findings as the company continues to optimise its flowsheet ahead of a pre-feasibility study. King River is on a metallurgical mission to the recover high purity alumina, with an updated process showing impressive extraction rates in excess of 90%.

Great Southern Mining has kicked off its maiden exploration drill program at the prospective looking northern Goldfields based Cox’s Find project, with high grade gold hits close to surface starting to roll in. Initial results include 2 metres grading 9 grams per tonne gold from 76 meters downhole and 3 meters grading 16 grams per tonne gold from 74 meters downhole.

Infinity Lithium has received strong support for its Spanish lithium project from the EU Commission and has been invited to present its investment case to the European Battery Alliance’s recently launched, Business Investment Platform, where funding opportunities will be made available for select projects. The EU is keen to capture some of the forecast €250b lithium market value and said that €20b would be made available for European developments.

Lithium Australia has increased its equity in strategic partner, Envirostream Australia, from 23.9% to 73.7%. Envirostream is on its way towards becoming potentially the largest recycler of lithium battery minerals in Australia. It is looking to develop a national lithium battery recycling program from spent lithium-ion batteries that would ordinarily have been sent to landfill, providing a further market-leading niche for Lithium Australia.

ASX-listed Tyranna Resources has conducted a full review of its Knight nickel project in WA, which the company says may have significant exploration upside that requires further investigation. Tyranna has teamed up with independent geological consultant, Xplore Resources to conduct a full review of the project that sits on geological structures linking directly along strike to St George Mining’s successful nickel play next door at Mt Alexander.

A giant Japanese resources house has thrown its weight behind ASX-listed Hammer Metals in a $6 million joint venture which seeks to unlock further mineral wealth in Queensland’s highly prospective Mt Isa region. JOGMEC is looking to earn 60% of a 290 square kilometre portion of Hammer’s 2,200sqkm Mount Isa project, where the targets are massive IOCG ore bodies similar in style to the giant Ernest Henry deposit.