Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

PharmAust has signed an agreement with US pharmaceutical heavyweight Elanco that allows the biotech company to reference certain safety and blood chemistry data that were generated for the regulatory approval of Monepantel in Australia, New Zealand and the EU, as an anti-parasitic drug in livestock animals. This could potentially expedite the early proof of principle phase two trials of the anti-cancer drug in dogs.

Kairos Minerals has uncovered additional gold anomalies over more than 10km strike at its emerging Croydon gold project, located near Port Hedland in the Pilbara region WA. Encouraging new assays up to 1.2g/t gold were returned from geochemical stream sediment sampling. The company is also reviewing a development pathway for its 643,000 ounce gold resource at the Mt York project, located 100km west of Croydon.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has completed the sale of its cannabis-based cosmetics business, MGC Derma, to CannaGlobal for a 10% stake in the private Canadian cannabis investment company. The company will now focus on its cannabis-based pharmaceutical products and deliver on its seed-to-pharma business model.

Southern Gold has confirmed narrow, high grade gold/silver mineralisation from an underground infill and extensional channel sampling program at its emerging Weolyu South epithermal precious metal project in South Korea. Results included 0.45m @ 30g/t gold and 1,280g/t silver and 0.55m @ 28.9g/t gold and 1,350g/t silver. A re-assay of 2017 samples also provided a significant 30% uplift in gold grades from the original analyses.

Calima Energy has spudded the second of two horizontal wells at its Canadian Montney oil and gas play that will be placed on extended production testing to assess the commerciality of its acreage. Successful testing of the Calima-2 and Calima-3 horizontal wells will allow the company to convert at least some of its resources from prospective to the higher confidence contingent level.

Venus Metals’ metallurgical testing of beneficiated oxide ores from the Youanmi project in WA, has shown that heated, sulphuric acid leaching produces recoveries near 80% of the contained vanadium pentoxide content, whilst rejecting 40% of the waste materials. Further work is underway to optimise the process flowsheet for the scoping study and Venus is presently updating the Youanmi mineral resource estimate.

Upstart telco Vonex continues to steadily build its cloud based PABX telephony business with the company reaching a record of 26,000 registered users as at 25 January 2019. This is up 22% from the 21,000 users it had a year ago and is a key indicator of the company’s business development progress as it expands its reach to small and medium enterprises.

Tyranna Resources’ partner Alliance Resources has identified a new gold target within the Wilcherry JV project in South Australia after re-assaying historic iron ore drill samples. Better results from the re-analysis of drilling carried out by Ironclad Mining between 2008 and 2012 at the Weednanna North prospect included 8m @ 1.06g/t gold from 58m down-hole and 22m @ 0.34g/t gold from 42m.

Great Southern Mining has successfully completed metallurgical test work on oxidised ores from its flagship Mon Ami project in WA that showed up to 97% recovery of the contained gold. The work has confirmed that the ores are amenable to conventional cyanide leaching and gravity recovery techniques and that low reagent uptake and coarse grinding will likely result in low operating costs.

Blina Minerals ongoing due diligence work at the Maintirano copper project in western Madagascar continues to return encouraging results with eight samples returning more than 5% copper, including a sample that registered 37.5% copper and 33ppm silver. The company will now carry out airborne surveys to help locate additional vein systems as no modern exploration methods have been used at Maintirano to date.

Sovereign Metals has outlined the high grade potential of its titanium-rich rutile mineralisation in central Malawi, this week reporting significant assays from re-sampling of historical hand-auger drill holes located in two areas 40km apart. Nearly 80% of the holes contained significant titania mineralisation, with an average weighted grade of 1.89% titanium dioxide.

Hammer Metals has received some encouraging news at its Perentie project near Mt Isa in Queensland, with its first pass RC drilling campaign returning some high grade copper results. Notable results include 1m @ 4.21% copper and 0.13g/t gold from 75m down-hole at the Paddy B prospect and 2m @ 2.36% copper and 2g/t gold from 37m down-hole at the Trackside prospect.

Altech Chemicals continues to progress its high purity alumina project with the company securing the development order for the processing plant in Johor, Malaysia. Site establishment works have now commenced and will be followed by the stage 1 construction works such as the bulk earthworks, construction of retaining walls and a maintenance workshop.

Greenland Minerals now has a formal means for the Chinese processing of its rare earth concentrates from the massive Kvanefjeld project in Greenland that contains the radioactive elements uranium and thorium. This follows its largest shareholder Shenghe Resources Holding forming the China Nuclear Hua Sheng Mining joint venture with subsidiaries of China National Nuclear Corporation.

Wireline logs at Calima Energy’s first well at the revered Montney oil and gas play in Canada have returned porosities and hydrocarbon saturations comparable to those in adjacent producing wells. Analysis of the log and core data also confirmed the presence of three zones that match those already targeted by other operators in the region. The company has also spudded the first of two horizontal wells.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has secured approval from Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration to start the Phase IIB clinical trial of its CogniCann medical cannabis treatment for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. The company’s manufacturing facility in Ljubljana, Slovenia, has also secured a permit to extract and develop its own Phytocannabinoid active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Australian Potash has hit a major milestone with the manufacture of high grade sulphate of potash at its pilot processing plant in Perth that exceeded its previous expectations of product quality. The 98% purity SOP product was generated from the first raw salt products from the pilot pond network at the company’s Lake Wells SOP project, located about 180km northeast of Laverton in the Goldfields region of WA.

Terrain Minerals plans to undertake a 650m RC drilling campaign at a priority and potentially high impact gold target under transported soil cover at the Wild-Viper project tenement north of Leonora in WA. A successful drilling program will validate the company’s structural geological model and potentially unlock the multiple targets it has identified throughout the tenement.

Kalia Limited’s preliminary interpretation of new geophysical data over its Mt Tore JV tenements located on Bougainville Island in PNG has identified intrusive geological complexes and structural pathways for potential mineralisation. Imagery produced from the survey data is being used by Kalia personnel on-site for the generation of new exploration targets.

PharmAust has received new data from Canada’s BRI Biopharmaceutical Research that a specific combination of diet and excipient could double the amount of its Monepantel anti-cancer drug that can be delivered into the bloodstream of dogs. This could increase the flexibility for dosing schedules of Monepantel and potentially simplify the treatment of canine cancers.

Nzuri Copper has extended copper mineralisation to 1.2km of strike at its Kasangasi prospect, located 20km west from the flagship Kalongwe deposit in the DRC. Results of up to 15m @ 1.07% copper from 83m down-hole were returned. The company also reported impressive cobalt results from the Monwezi 7 prospect, saying the prospect has potential to be a key, near-mine, additional source of high-grade cobalt feed.

Coolgardie Minerals has started mining the higher grade oxide ore at its Geko pit near Bullabulling in WA under the second stage of its three stage mine plan. About 260,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 2.23g/t gold will be mined during this stage. Ore with a grade exceeding 2.75g/t gold will be offered to Northern Star Resources under the existing ore sale agreement.

King River Resources has recovered up to 92% vanadium in heated sulphuric acid vat leaching metallurgical test work on coarse lump ores from its massive Speewah project, located near Kununurra in the Kimberley region of WA. The company says the encouraging results support the development of an alternative ore processing route for its flagship vanadium project that could drastically lower capital and operating costs.

Middle Island Resources pocketed $1.4m last week from an entitlements offer to shareholders that closed well over-subscribed in a challenging market. The funds were raised primarily for key exploration and development activities at the company’s Sandstone gold Project in WA’s Murchison region. This will include completing work on the flagship Two Mile Hill tonalite deeps deposit and diamond drilling three intriguing lookalike gravity targets nearby.

Adriatic Metals has intersected a stunning 72m long diamond drill intersection grading 18.3% zinc, 10.7% lead, 2.5g/t gold, 211g/t silver, 2.5% copper and 25% barite from 206m down-hole at its emerging Rupice prospect in Bosnia. The new result extends mineralisation 30m down-dip and down-plunge to the north. A maiden mineral resource estimate for Rupice prospect is expected in the first half of 2019.

Aspiring ASX listed satellite telco, Sky and Space Global, has signed a reseller MoU with Spanish telco Global Telesat and a trial service agreement with Brazil’s Telespazio Brasil. Global Telesat will explore how the Sky and Space’s nano-satellite based, narrow-band communications services can be incorporated into its network and improve its offering.

Artemis Resources has discovered multiple exploration targets from a geophysical interpretation of its high-resolution, aeromagnetic survey over its Armada prospect in the emerging Paterson Ranges in the eastern Pilbara of WA. Two new priority targets lie in a 6km long corridor, directly along strike and north of Greatland Gold’s spectacular new Havieron copper-gold discovery. Gravity surveys will now be undertaken to better define the highest priority targets.

ASX-listed biotech Phylogica has continued its march towards commercialisation of its potentially game-changing biological “peptide” vaccine, with the Perth company set to release results from in-vitro testing by mid-2019. Phylogica says its vaccine is able to provoke an amplified immune response against diseased tissue including viruses and cancer. The vaccine is based on technology that allows drugs to fully penetrate cell walls in order to deliver a drug payload.

Kairos Minerals has uncovered widespread gold anomalies over more than 10km strike at its emerging Croydon gold project, located about 120km southwest of Port Hedland in Pilbara region of WA. Encouraging assay results up to 1.53g/t gold were returned from stream sediment sampling, with most of the new anomalies recorded from the same rock unit that hosts Novo Resources’ 667,000 ounce Beatons Creek gold resource further east.

Spectrum Metals has generated multiple, high priority drill targets from a regional exploration auger geochemical sampling program at its newly acquired Penny West gold project, located in the Murchison mining district of WA. The company said it will drill the Columbia-Magenta prospect in the coming weeks and also target high grade gold mineralisation beneath the historic Penny West open pit shell.

Aspire Mining has reported that the expected supply and demand gap in the high quality, “fat” coking coal market in China over coming years will assist in fast tracking the development of its Ovoot coal project in north western Mongolia. The company recently finalised a $15m financing package for the project and is now debt free and fully funded through to the completion of all required feasibility studies.

Blina Minerals NL has taken an 11% shareholding in public unlisted Australian exploration company, Condamine Resources, who is developing a suite of interesting looking gold plays in New Zealand. Condamine holds 4 high grade projects in the historical Reefton Goldfield on the South Island of New Zealand and the investment by Blina will provide additional funding for Condamine to start drilling campaigns, programmed for the first half of 2019.