Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Adriatic Metals has systems kept its foot on the gas at its remarkable poly-metallic Vareš project in Bosnia with the ASX listed company continuing to successfully manage the global coronavirus pandemic right across its operational areas and only experiencing minor delays as a result of some border closures. Adriatic has already drilled 2,800 metres this year of a planned 20,000m program between an impressive five drill rigs.

Terrain Minerals has offloaded its Great Western gold project near Leonora to ASX-listed Red5 under an option agreement that will see Terrain receive $2.2 million worth of Red5 scrip. The company has already pocketed $300k from Red5, who purchased the option for the Great Western project in November last year. Terrain will use the funds to launch exploration programs at its Wild viper and Smokebush projects.

Neometals has completed pilot plant testing on its potentially lithium-ion battery recycling technology with the work pointing to high recoveries of nickel, cobalt and other valuable battery materials such as lithium from spent and scrapped batteries. The company’s proprietary hydrometallurgical process can then turn the metals into a host of chemicals for re-use within the lithium supply chain. Commercial-scale feasibility studies and demonstration trials in Europe are next.

Lithium Australia will focus on ramping up revenues from its Envirostream battery recycling plant in Melbourne whilst implementing targeted austerity measures to preserve as much of its $3.3m cash balance as it can throughout the global COVID-19 crisis. The company also said it is expecting Soluna Australia to generate revenues from battery sales during the current quarter whilst exploration and technology development expenditures are deferred.

Impact Minerals has been awarded a $75,000 grant from the New South Wales Government in a nod to the company's technical accomplishments at its Broken Hill project. The windfall was awarded by the New Frontiers Cooperative Drilling grants programme and Impact will use the money to explore its NSW play for nickel-copper-platinum group metal deposits.

With the world crying out for non-fossil fuels and the uranium supply and demand curves predicted to cross over soon, Deep Yellow is sitting on a veritable powerhouse of uranium assets in Namibia that are moving rapidly towards being production ready ahead of an expected uranium price hike. In recent drilling at the Tumas 3 deposit, 85% of drill holes returned a result greater than 100ppm eU3O8 over 1m.

ASX-listed St George Mining’s latest geophysical program has identified potentially game changing new areas at depth along the Cathedrals Belt, some of which are untested for nickel-copper-cobalt-PGM mineralisation. The surveys were conducted to give the company an insight into the geological structure to depths of more than 5km. The surveys lit up multiple areas of interest that may either play host to nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation or show where faults are hiding.

Anglo Australian Resources has managed to get a drilling program going at its Mandilla project near Kalgoorlie in WA as many mining and exploration companies come to terms with operational restrictions as a result of COVID-19. The company has started on a program of three diamond drill “tails” that will test the extents of gold mineralisation at Mandilla East to 200m. It will also drill 27 RC holes at the project.

Venus Metals has completed a heliborne EM survey over its Bellchambers gold project east of Sandstone in WA. The company has zeroed in on ten new high priority targets that are sitting on the Western Ridge ‐ Mickey Well gold mineralised trend. It has identified 25 new targets in total at Bellchambers as a result of a recently completed “Xcite” airborne electromagnetic survey.

Novo Resources is continuing to execute on its strategy of picking up nuggety gold projects and has increased its presence in the goldfields of Victoria, famed for its long and rich mining history. Novo has entered into a deal that could see it land up to 75% of GBM Resources’ Malmsbury gold project and just over 4% of the ASX-listed company.

ASX-listed oiler, 88 Energy, has logged multiple hydrocarbon shows over several prospective oil zones whilst drilling its highly anticipated “Charlie-1” oil appraisal well on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope. The well has now reached total depth and the company said its hydrocarbon zones are looking remarkably like the oil zones identified in a nearby offset well. With drilling operations now complete, wireline logging is underway.

After a year or two of scientific vectoring in on a nickel ore body in the famed Fraser Ranges, things are hotting up now for ASX-listed Legend Mining after it hit what may well be pay dirt in its latest drill campaign at the Rockford project. The company said this week it had hit an impressive, combined 42 metres worth of nickel and copper sulphides intersected at the Mawson prospect.

Lindian Resources’ high-grade conglomerate-hosted bauxite deposit at its Gaoual project in Guinea continues to bulk up, with the company confirming it has extended the Bouba plateau one kilometre to the north. Lindian has also verified the presence of conglomerate bauxite at Bouba South, which is currently sized at half a kilometre by 2.5km. The northern extension of Bouba is 4m thick Bouba South has an average width of 5m, both starting from the surface.

Classic Minerals managed to squeeze in a few priority RC drill holes at its Kat Gap project near Southern Cross in WA before being impeded by restrictions arising from coronavirus. New results show that gold mineralisation at Kat Gap is still open in all directions and very high grade with latest drill numbers showing 3m grading 62.10g/t gold from 36m, including a single metre grading a whopping 181g/t gold.

Troy Resources has recorded a three-fold increase in mineral reserves at the company’s Hicks-4 deposit that sits about 2km away from Troy’s operating Karouni gold mine in Guyana, South America. The company has also commenced trial mining at the nearby Ohio Creek discovery, just one of its regional deposits that have proximity to its existing plant. Troy said its operations remain unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Buru Energy’s executive chairman, Eric Streitberg, has taken a 55 per cent pay haircut and its board fees have been reduced by 40 per cent to help it ride out the current global Coronavirus financial storm. Buru’s strong balance sheet leaves it well placed to weather the storm, despite weak oil prices, with ongoing production at its Ungani oil field set to deliver further oil sales in mid-May.

Terrain Minerals is set to kick off its field campaign at the Wild-viper gold project near Leonora. It is looking to conduct a major first pass geochemical soil sampling program and will collect approximately 400 to 500 samples across three separate targets, which the company anticipates will throw up a grab bag of drill ready targets. Terrain previously picked up a rock sample grading 4.67 g/t gold at Wild-viper.

Image Resources says it has managed to shoulder the current Coronavirus inspired pandemic as it continues to operate its Boonanarring mineral sands project in WA with only marginal impacts on regular day-to-day activities. The Patrick Mutz run company’s mine site is located 80km north of Perth where production for January 2020 was a record 35,300 tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate.

Neometals has tabled some interesting pathfinder results from a significant air core drilling campaign across its Mt Edwards nickel project near Widgemooltha in WA. The program was designed to vector in on potential sulphide mineralisation across five of the company’s mining tenements and two broad target areas. Significant intercepts include 7m grading 0.63% nickel from 47m and 13m grading 0.46% nickel from 6m down hole.

Adriatic Metals has identified a number of new multi-metal exploration drill targets after modelling historical gravity data over its Bosnian license that includes its Rupice and Jurasevac-Brestic prospects. Some of the geophysical anomalies are adjacent to known discoveries and are ready for immediate drilling with a total of 29 drill pads approved for action to further define the extraordinary multi-metal deposits within its project area.

TSX-listed conglomerate gold explorer, Novo Resources, has inked an important heritage agreement with the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation that covers a total of 1,492 square kilometres of country across a substantial portion of the company’s Pilbara gold exploration play. The agreement facilitates and potentially expedites the process of exploration.

Aurora Labs has executed on a strategy to refresh its board in line with its vision to get set for the commercialisation of its 3D printing technology. Perth corporate finance player, Grant Mooney of Mooney & Partners corporate advisory is now in the Chair and COO Peter Snowsill will step up into the interim CEO role as founder and 3D printing specialist, Dave Budge moves into the role of Chief Technical Officer.

Podium Minerals’ non-executive chairman and major shareholder, Clayton Dodd has stepped up into the executive chair role in a move that is part of a plan to cut corporate overheads by $300,000 per annum whilst continuing to leverage the expertise of the existing management team. Podium’s CEO, Tom Stynes will step down but will continue to manage the company operations and Grant ‘Rocky’ Osborne has resigned as a director in support of the cuts.

Coziron Resources will soon have a diamond rig operating at its Croydon Top Camp project in WA’s Pilbara region after the company’s maiden drill program hit some notable results recently, including 8m grading 10.2 g/t gold. The maiden program was drilled on wide-spaced sections and the company says the new drilling will provide valuable structural information on the orientation of its emerging discovery.

Coronavirus willing, Hammer Metals will have the rods turning soon at its Mt Isa project in Queensland after being awarded Government grants amounting to $283,000. The windfall will fund a diamond drilling program at the Koppany copper-rare earths project and two magneto telluric surveys, one at the Kalman copper, molybdenum, gold and rhenium deposit and the second across part of the Mt Philp Breccia that is prospective for gold and copper.

Hot Chili has struck a win-win deal with the Chilean Government by accepting an offer for lease mining and processing of ore from its Productora copper-gold deposit in Chile, which will see Hot Chili realise surprise revenues from Productora way ahead of any internal planning. The company said its agreement potentially represents between US$400,000 to US$500,000 in annual payments for its 80% interest in the Productora JV.

Altech Chemicals is continuing research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems in Dresden, Germany on HPA battery applications with a focus on lithium-ion battery separator technology and the impact of alumina impurities on battery safety. Altech also said this week that construction at its Malaysian HPA plant had been suspended due to the imposition of a COVID-19 movement control order.

Infinity Lithium has managed to tap an innovative, European, public private partnership known as EIT InnoEnergy for at least AUD$1.5m in funding to support stage one of a lithium pilot plant at its San Jose lithium project in Spain. EIT InnoEnergy is the manager of the European Battery Alliance whose stated goal is a competitive and fully integrated battery manufacturing chain in Europe and preventing technological dependence on Asia.

King River Resources and its consultants are pushing hard to achieve the holy grail of high purity alumina purity levels of 99.99% ahead of the tabling of a PFS for the ASX-listed company’s giant Speewah HPA/titanium/vanadium/iron project in WA. King River recently pivoted away from titanium/vanadium/iron in favour of the highly sought after HPA product. All are present at the project.

Big River Gold is forging ahead with its efforts to develop the Borborema gold project in Brazil, despite the current global economic headwinds. With a DFS for a multi-million ounce gold project on the street and over A$3m in the bank, Big River is well placed to weather the Coronavirus storm and the prospect of potentially adding a newly identified waste by-product that is potentially saleable should change the economic dynamics.

As AVZ Minerals approaches the home straight of its definitive feasibility study, the lithium developer has revealed that the first phase of its heavy metals test work has yielded potentially saleable tin and tantalum concentrates from its Manono lithium project in the DRC. AVZ recovered a total of 63% tin at a grade of 64.1% cassiterite, using the company’s existing lithium metallurgical flow sheet.

Novo Resources has finalised the acquisition of its remaining joint venture interests from Artemis Resources in its Purdy’s Reward and 47K gold leases south of Karratha in WA’s Pilbara. Novo issued 1,640,000 shares to Artemis and paid out A$820,000 in cash consideration for the remaining interests in the leases. Sorrento Resources, Artemis’ JV partner has also been paid A$180,000 and issued with 360,000 Novo shares.