Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Northern Minerals has raised $10m via a placement to ramp up exploration and development activities at its high-grade Dazzler and Iceman prospects on the back of positive sentiment for the emerging rare earth sector. The company points to key commodity price increases and the recent unsolicited $1.5b takeover approach by Wesfarmers to rare earth producer Lynas Corporation, as evidence of an increased interest in the sector.

St George Mining has identified several strong new conductive drill targets from down-hole electromagnetic surveys at the Fairbridge, Cathedrals, West End, Investigators and Stricklands prospects of its Mt Alexander project in WA. Some of the conductors are located down-plunge from known massive sulphide lenses, which could represent extensions of the high-grade nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation.

Sky and Space Global is extending its reach with plans to provide global telco coverage using its constellation of nano-satellites instead of limiting itself to covering equatorial regions of the world. This will allow the company to meet the growing demand for IoT and M2M connectivity and target new markets such as Australia, China and Russia, which could potentially increase revenue.

Anglo Australian Resources has commenced RC drilling at its Koongie Park project near Halls Creek, WA, with holes targeting the Bulldog and Nicolsons East prospects where quartz vein outcrops have recorded high-grade gold values. The project has geology that is similar to Pantoro Limited’s neighbouring Nicolsons Gold Project, which currently produces about 55,000 ounces of gold per annum.

Azumah Resources has confirmed a substantial, mineralised gold system at the Bepkong East Lode in Ghana after returning high-grade intersections from multiple ore shoots up to 580m from the surface. Deeper intersections included 13.5m @ 3.21g/t gold from 480m down-hole and 2.5m @ 3.55g/t gold from 710.5m down-hole in separate drill holes. The company is now examining the economic merit of underground mining.

Anglo Australian Resources has outlined a maiden mineral resource of 2.86 million tonnes grading 1.3g/t gold for 116,100 gold ounces at its Feysville project, 14km from Kalgoorlie, WA. The new estimate is complemented by excellent metallurgical results for the deposit’s ores, which show a 99.5% recovery for the near-surface, supergene gold mineralisation that makes it ideal for potential toll milling options in the immediate area.

Alterra has appointed Future Fund Board of Guardians and Crown Resorts director John Poynton as the founding Chair of its advisory board, which will provide access to networks, strategic feedback, views on opportunities and risks, and introductions to potential deals and sources of capital. The company is developing a pipeline of potential project opportunities with existing land and water owners in WA.

Bosnian regulatory authorities have accepted Adriatic Metals’ “geological reserves” statement for its Rupice-Juraševac-Brestic project and provided a clearer path to the issue of Exploitation and Operating Permits for developing that deposit. The company continues drilling on four rigs to extend the high-grade mineralisation at the Rupice prospect and test priority targets outlined by technical data that show potential for discoveries.

TNG Ltd has started drilling at its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to recover samples for equipment selection testwork. Sterilisation drilling will also be carried out to ensure that no mineralisation is present at the planned locations of the concentrator, ore stockpile and integrated waste landform ahead of future development activities.

Lithium Australia is acquiring an 18.9% interest in Victoria-based Envirostream, which operates Australia’s only facility for shredding lithium-ion batteries into a powder containing critical metals. The company is looking to prevent this powder from being exported for refining by developing a process to extract the valuable nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium compounds locally.

Hawkstone Mining has generated wide, high-grade mineralisation in two separate ore horizons from drilling at the Northern Mineralised Zone of its Big Sandy lithium clay project in Arizona, US. Better results include 23.3m @ 2,154 ppm lithium from 6.7m down-hole in the Upper Zone and 35m @ 2,078 ppm lithium from 31m down-hole in the Lower Zone, for the same vertical drill hole.

Black Rock Mining’s Chinese EPC partner Yantai Jinyaun has generated high quality, large flake dominant, graphite concentrates exceeding 99% purity at 93% recovery from pilot plant studies on the company’s Tanzanian Mahenge ores. The work was observed by offtake partners and potential investors and completed to validate the company’s optimised circuit design and processing flowsheets.

Classic Minerals has narrowed its focus to the very prospective Forrestania gold project near Southern Cross in WA, which includes the emerging, high-grade Kat Gap project. The company is in discussions with regard to financing for an exploration program to better delineate and potentially increase the size of the Kat Gap project. It has also flagged its intention to divest its non-core assets.

Artemis Resources has defined three new gravity targets at its greenfields Armada prospect in the Paterson Range copper-gold province in the eastern Pilbara. The company now has 11 potential targets to act as a drawcard as it searches for a potential joint venture partner to undertake further exploration near Greatland Gold’s spectacular Havieron copper-gold discovery.

Spectrum Metals has returned a high-grade gold intersection 125m below a historical open pit at its Penny West gold prospect near Youanmi in WA. The intercept of 5 metres grading 28.9g/t gold from 203m down-hole was contained within a wider zone of 31m @ 5.5g/t gold from the same depth. The company said the result might represent a structurally thickened zone and that further drilling is planned.

Image Resources has outlined further evidence of a very high-grade core section in the eastern strand of its Boonanarring heavy minerals mine north of Perth after processing ore with an average grade about 2.5 times than the budgeted grade in March. The company has commenced a close-spaced drilling program to delineate the high-grade zone and update its ore reserve estimate.

MGC Pharmaceuticals continues to progress its strategy to commercialise its bio-pharma business with research partner RMIT receiving approval from the Australian Office of Drug Control to possess and handle phytocannabinoids for research purposes. The company has also been awarded a European Union licence to produce non-sterile schedule two medicines in that jurisdiction.

Canadian conglomerate gold specialist Novo Resources has increased minerals resources at its Beatons Creek gold project near Nullagine in the East Pilbara region of WA by 30% to 10.94 million tonnes grading 2.57g/t gold for 903,000 ounces. 85% of the company’s oxide resources that total 316,000 gold ounces are within the high-confidence indicated category subset, from which future ore reserves can be derived.

Coziron Resources has identified an electromagnetic conductor down-dip of the Martin prospect at its Croydon Top Camp multi-element project in WA’s Pilbara region as a priority target for its upcoming drilling program. Reprocessing of 2016 electromagnetic data is underway to determine if any additional anomalies are present. Any conductive targets with coincident geochemistry will be prioritised for drilling.

Artemis Resources has outlined a development drilling program for its flagship Carlow Castle gold-copper-cobalt project in the Pilbara of WA that is aimed at upgrading the current inferred mineral resource to the higher confidence indicated status. The drilling will close up the drill spacing over higher-grade sections of the existing mineral resources and allow the company to derive a maiden ore reserve for the project.

Aurora Labs has successfully printed a series of 10mm high, titanium parts in just 20 minutes, proving the ability of its proprietary multi-level 3D printing technology to manufacture complex shapes at high speed. This outcome is another step towards its goal of using additive manufacturing to produce parts in a whole range of application. The company has also successfully printed an aluminium part with a high density of around 99%.

Hammer Metals has delineated a number of prospective looking copper-gold and gold only anomalies from a soil geochemical survey program at its early-stage, Mt Philp breccia iron oxide-copper-gold project, near Mount Isa in Queensland. The company said that it is now field checking the new copper-gold anomalies and that a ground gravity survey is planned to investigate possible blind exploration targets.

Buru Energy has completed the acquisition of a further 22.5% interest in two exploration permits in the Canning hydrocarbon Basin in WA’s Kimberley from Mitsubishi Corporation for $720,000, taking its operating stake up to 60%. Permits EP 457 and EP 458 are considered to be prospective for conventional oil in a number of formations with the 2015 Victory-1 well recovering oil from the Laurel Formation.

Spectrum Metals has drilled a bonanza grade intercept at its new Penny North gold prospect near Youanmi in WA, returning a 4 metre wide intersection of mineralisation grading 105.2g/t gold from 151m down-hole. The company has expanded its drilling campaign to follow up the new find, which is along strike from a historical open pit that produced 85,000 ounces at 21.8g/t gold in the 1990s.

Terrain Minerals has generated a high-grade grab sample of 4.67g/t gold from its new 382-shear prospect, located just south of its flagship Great Western gold resource, near Leonora, WA. The target is interpreted over more than 2.5km of strike and the company is planning a follow-up field program of shallow trenching, geological mapping and surface sampling to delineate potential drill targets along the prospective structure.

Greenland Minerals has reached a key milestone for its giant Kvanefjeld rare earth project in Greenland with its social impact assessment now ready for public consultation. This offers stakeholders the opportunity to provide feedback on the assessment, which will be incorporated into a final document forming part of the package of material required for the mining licence application process.

Anglo Australian Resources has started a 52 hole infill drilling campaign at the Mandilla South target of its Mandilla gold project located 20km southwest of Kambalda and along strike from the East Mandilla resource. This campaign will define initial bedrock drilling targets for a future reverse circulation drilling campaign within the extensive supergene-enriched gold blanket.

TNG Ltd has applied to trade mark its high-quality, low iron titania pigment produced via hydrometallurgical processing of ore feedstock from the Mount Peake multi-commodity mine near Alice Springs in the NT. The product’s main use is in paint additives and coatings applications, so the minuscule iron content is a bonus, as it enhances the “brightness” of the tint and inhibits corrosion.

PharmAust continues to tick off the milestones at its ongoing Phase I clinical trials for its anti-cancer drug Monepantel in dogs with the escalation study showing no adverse safety issues. Beagles treated with up to 10 Monepantel tablets displayed no adverse effects or signs of toxicity after being monitored over three days. The company will now start dosing tests to determine how best to maintain long term monepantel blood levels.

Vonex is continuing to build its sales momentum with a 34% year-on-year growth in new customer orders for February as it continues to sign up new channel partners and users for its cloud-based PABX telephony business. The company passed the 27,500 PABX users mark in March and processed more than 500 new customer orders through its channel partner-focused sales software, Sign on Glass.

Hawkstone Mining has estimated that its Big Sandy lithium clay project could hold between 242.1 million tonnes and 417.6 million tonnes grading from 1,000 ppm to 2,000 ppm of lithium, in an Exploration Target unveiled this week. The company is completing a follow-up diamond drilling program over the Northern Mineralised Zone at Big Sandy, with the aim of generating a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource.

Greenland Minerals has reduced civil construction costs for its massive Kvanefjeld rare earths project in southern Greenland by 44% to USD$175m following the completion of key engineering studies. The savings were achieved through substantial reductions in civil earthworks, an updated port design and greater use of local materials. The company added that process plant optimisation is also nearing completion.