Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals has teamed up with the University of Notre Dame in Perth to undertake a new clinical trial for its “CogniCann” phytocannabinoid-derived medicine, after the first bulk shipment of the medicine arrived in Australia. Management said CogniCann was developed with the specific aim to treat symptoms associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and it is already available under prescription in Australia.

Altech Chemicals is close to enlisting financial heavyweight, Macquarie, to provide USD$90m worth of mezzanine debt for its Malaysian HPA plant, potentially avoiding issuing a large slab of stock to get its project into production. In a London meeting held recently, Macquarie re-affirmed its interest in potentially providing the mezzanine debt for Altech’s project that could spit out over AUD$100m a year in free cash, according to the company.

Ardiden Limited has pegged a large number of new land claims along a 100km stretch of the gold-rich greenstone belt that hosts its Pickle Lake gold project and other historical mines in Ontario, Canada. The freshly staked claims take Ardiden’s total land holdings in the region to more than 500 square kilometres and add exploration targets to its existing inferred resource of 110,000 ounces of gold at Pickle Lake.

ASX-listed oiler 88 Energy has successfully commenced drilling at its Charlie-1 appraisal well on Alaska’s prospective Central North Slope. The company is aiming to intersect several prospective targets that it says could hold up to a staggering 1.6 billion barrels of gross mean prospective resources. The Perth-based company is partnering with UK oil outfit, Premier Oil on the promising looking project, who is funding the cost of the well up to US $23 million.

ASX-listed smart home technology provider, Quantify Technology, has taken its “smart” light switches, power points and related hardware to market after securing international patents, global certification, a world-class manufacturer and distribution by one of Australia’s largest commercial appliance suppliers. Quantify’s patented products can be integrated with Amazon and Google’s voice control technology allowing householders to control everything from the blinds to the TV to the lights using their voice.

Venus Metals has commissioned a detailed heliborne EM survey over its Bellchambers gold project east of Sandstone in WA. The project already boasts a resource of 340,000 tonnes @ 1.5 grams per tonne gold with the company now seeking repetitions along the ‘Western Ridge Gold Trend’. Venus has also commenced negotiations with nearby producer, Adaman Resources, in relation to the potential development and processing of the Bellchambers deposit.

Lindian Resources’ exploration program in northern Guinea continues to meet with outstanding success. Field work has identified two additional high-grade conglomerate bauxite targets adjacent to and along strike from the main prospect area at Bouba. Sampling at Bouba South has returned samples consistent with the main target area including 62.6% alumina with the strike length now blowing out by a further 3.5km.

Perth-based Kairos Minerals appears to be marching towards a 1Moz global gold resource at its Pilbara Gold Project after booking a resource upgrade to 873,500 ounces of gold from 643,000 ounces previously. The resource includes its Mt York, Iron Stirrup and Old Faithful deposits and now sits at 20.9Mt grading 1.3g/t gold, with the bulk of it in the Mt York deposit.

Perth-based gold explorer, Great Southern Mining is back in the field at its Cox’s find project for a tenement-wide air-core geochemical drilling campaign to target further Cox’s Find-style mineralised systems. The company will grid-drill the entire area with a 100m x 50m spacing to deliver around 500 shallow holes down to just 1-6m below surface. Geochem samples will be recovered from the base of each hole for assaying.

Ora Banda Mining’s ongoing development program at its Callion deposit in the Goldfields has continued to intersect high-grade gold in drilling of both open pit and underground targets. The company is presently working on upgrading the resource at Callion and has proposed a conceptual development program to access high-grade ore within the upper levels of the historic underground mine in addition to the extraction of high-grade lodes at depth.

Terrain Minerals has recently completed a first pass program of exploration over its Smokebush project in the South Murchison mineral field of Western Australia. Initial reconnaissance and sampling over three priority targets returned impressive assays in excess of 17 grams per tonne gold. A site visit has also thrown up more targets for follow up drill testing by the Perth-based, ASX-listed company.

TSX-listed, Pilbara-focused gold player, Novo Resources, has acquired 15.97 per cent of Canadian explorer, New Found Gold Corp via a scrip-for-scrip deal that gives Novo access to New Found’s stellar gold prospect on the east coast of Canada. A recent drill intercept at New Found’s Queensway project returned 19m at 3 ounces to the tonne from 98m with 6m at a staggering 9oz/tonne gold.

ASX-listed biotech, PharmAust, has added a fifth site to its expanding network of anti-cancer trial sites for canines, securing the Brisbane Animal Hospital as the latest location for its Phase II anti-cancer trial in dogs with B cell lymphoma. The addition of the site in Brisbane expands the trial that is already underway in Perth, Melbourne and two centres in Sydney.

Medicinal cannabis player MGC Pharmaceuticals has inked a seven-year supply deal with Brazilian medical cannabis company Onix, with an estimated value of at least $1.65 million in the first year. From year two, the deal, which will see Onix purchase a bulk order of MGC Pharma’s pharmaceutical grade products, has an estimated value of at least $4.1 million per year.

Troy Resources has been out in the field surrounding its Karouni gold mining operations in South America, scouting for potential new gold discoveries off the back of the highest-grade drill intercept ever recorded in the region. Activities at the Upper Itaki, Kaburi Hills and Potaro–Kuribrong prospect areas, all within cooee of Troy’s existing Karouni Mill, are now hitting high gear.

Novo Resources has achieved some outstanding gold recovery rates on the latest set of mechanical ore sorting tests for multi-tonne bulk samples of crushed ore from its Egina and Beatons Creek gold deposits in the Pilbara. Tests done at laboratories in Sydney and Germany have recovered between 92 and 100 per cent of gold in three size fractions from the Egina sample and the Beatons Creek fractions returned between 82 and 94 per cent of the gold.

Altech Chemicals’ green credentials for its disruptive new kaolin clay-based high purity alumina production processes appear to stack up well against the industry standard alkoxide process that uses high-grade aluminium metal as a feedstock, according to the Perth based company. Altech says its numbers show that its HPA process produces substantially fewer greenhouse gas emissions and consumes much less energy per tonne of HPA produced.

Classic Minerals has hit some solid gold drill numbers only 1.2km south and along strike from the main drilling area at its Kat Gap gold prospect where gold-filled quartz veins extend at depth into the granite host rock. The best RC drill result to date returned 8m grading 7.91g/t gold from 60m, including 4m at 13.56/t gold from 60m.

ASX-listed MGC Pharma has secured a key market in Europe after signing an exclusive, commercial wholesale supply agreement with Polish NGO, Cannabis House Association and the University of Lodz to supply a large-scale research project in Poland. Under the deal, MGC Pharma will supply its medicinal cannabis-based, cannabinoid medicine products to up to 250 pharmacies and provide scientific support to the commercial research study whilst gathering participant data.

Well known technology man, Terry Stinson, has joined the board of ASX-listed Aurora Labs to support the company’s commercialisation strategy. Aurora considers his appointment key to delivering its 3D metal printing technology to market as it pulls out of the research and development phase. Mr Stinson will no doubt help the company to focus on large-scale commercial applications for its printing technology.

ASX-listed explorer, St George Mining, has a foothold on some early stage multi-metal exploration ground in the sought after Paterson Province in the eastern Pilbara region of WA. The company has one granted tenement in the Paterson covering over 35 kilometres, that, according to management, holds the same geological characteristics as the behemoth Telfer gold mine that has produced over 32 million ounces of gold and 1 million tonnes of copper to date.

ASX-listed Coziron Resources has pinpointed a couple of new priority gold targets at its Croydon Top Camp project in WA’s Pilbara region after a data review highlighted areas where a number of compelling geological criteria all lined up nicely. The company is now looking to add its newly identified drill ready targets to the expanding schedule as it plans to follow up maiden RC results from Top Camp such as 8 metres grading 10.2 grams per tonne gold.

In a Target Statement made to the ASX, Spectrum Metals’ Board has unanimously urged its shareholders to accept the friendly take-over bid by Ramelius Resources. The ASX300 listed company’s implied offer of 15 cents per Spectrum share is a serious 70% increase to its 30-day volume weighted average share price of just over 8 cents. Ramelius’ offer represents an implied value of about $231m for Spectrum’s Penny West gold project.

Hammer Metals will have the rods turning and Geophysicists on the ground very 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.

After scratching away at the dam wall for a while, it seems that the wall is now crumbling for ASX-listed mining software provider K2fly, with a wave of giant mining companies signing on recently for its unique “RCubed” resource governance software. Latest potential devotees to K2fly’s software include BHP Billiton spin off, South 32, and Vale Australia, a subsidiary of Vale S.A, the largest iron ore producer in the world today.

As the historic Youanmi goldfields gets a new lease on life courtesy of a modern rush of gold explorers, ASX-listed Venus Metals is ahead of the pack with its portfolio of assets surrounding the old Youanmi mine playing host to a range of projects from resource stage to first pass exploration drilling. Venus is about to kick off a geophysical survey across its Penny West Deep South gold target.

ASX-listed Infinity Lithium has executed a binding agreement to divest its African potash assets and the Perth company is now set to focus 100% on its San Jose industrial lithium project in Spain that is looking to lever burgeoning demand for lithium-ion batteries in Europe. Infinity has a 75% interest in San Jose that, according to its pre-feasibility study, is set to deliver 15,000 tonnes per annum of battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

ASX-listed St George Mining has lit up multiple EM anomalies at its various discoveries and prospects along the Cathedrals Belt trend which already boasts a number of high-grade nickel-copper sulphide mineralised zones. St George says it is planning to start drilling the new anomalies shortly and complete resource definition drilling at its Stricklands prospect, all of which are a part of its Mt Alexander project, 120km from the world-class Agnew-Wiluna nickel belt.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources said the near-term development strategy for its 1.25Moz Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara has received a shot in the arm after the project was granted a streamlined State and Federal environmental approval process. The WA office of the EPA has advised Calidus that it will assess the project as an “Accredited Assessment”. Calidus is targeting 100,000 ounces of gold per year at Warrawoona.

In a stunning turnaround, AusIndustry has reversed its decision to deny Northern Minerals’ $24.16m research and development tax offset grant relating to its Browns Range heavy rare earths plant in the Kimberley. The ATO will now review the claim and it looks likely that the outcome will be so profound that it will allow Northern Minerals to thrive and possibly even submit a further multi-million dollar claim for FY19.

Spectrum Metals is not sitting idly by while shareholders consider a takeover bid by ASX-listed Ramelius Resources Ltd. In fact, Spectrum is gearing up for another bunch of drill holes around the various deposits that make up its Penny West gold project. It is targeting resource additions to add to an already healthy maiden estimate of 799kt at 13.8g/t for 355,500 ounces of contained gold.

With rhodium and platinum touching record prices, Podium Minerals has revealed a swathe of notable rhodium assays at its Parks Reef PGM project near Cue in WA. Demand for the rare metal is forecast to soar ahead of its increasing use as a catalyst in automotive catalytic converters, a vehicle part that cleans up exhaust fumes. The company is now looking at rhodium as a potential “credit” metal, with re-assay results averaging about 3% to 4% rhodium within the platinum, palladium plus gold zones across the entire Parks Reef deposit.