Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Infinity Mining has secured a five-year licence extension for its Strelley Gorge project in the Pilbara that is considered prospective for volcanic-hosted massive sulphide-style copper-zinc mineralisation. Just last year the company completed a helicopter electromagnetic survey across the site with initial data showing several conductive targets. Follow-up testing is planned for later this year.

Meeka Metals is bringing modern techniques to historical areas at its Murchison gold project with high impact drilling targeting the 25km long greenstone hosted Fairway shear zone that hosts its 700,000-ounce Turnberry gold deposit. The company’s St Anne’s gold deposit also lies in the Fairway zone and will have a mineral resource estimate scheduled for release in April. A detailed pre-feasibility study for the project remains on track for June.

Venus Metals will become a major shareholder in joint venture partner Rox Resources after the companies agreed to consolidate their ownership interests in the greater Youanmi gold project in Western Australia. Shares in Venus jumped more than 20 per cent on the back of the latest announcement to touch 17.5 cents during intraday trading after closing yesterday at 14.5 cents.

Auric Mining is set to become WA’s next gold producer after executing a 150,000 tonne gold ore toll milling agreement with the Greenfields Mill at Coolgardie for its Jeffreys Find gold deposit near Norseman. In a major milestone for the company mining will commence in early April with the 150,000 tonnes of ore to be delivered to the mill. Processing will then be completed and its gold delivered by the end of September 2023.

ASX-listed ChemX Materials has signed a memorandum of understanding to work towards an offtake deal from its high-purity manganese project in South Australia with US battery technology company C4V. The non-binding agreement is based around the potential supply of high-purity product from ChemX’s Jamieson Tank project on the Eyre Peninsula and is a significant step in the company’s plans to become a sustainable and reliable global supplier of battery materials.

Image Resources has found a silver lining in unforeseen delays caused by a labour shortage, revealing it has used the extra time to consider adding a mineral separation plant to its Bidaminna mineral sands project. The company says the delays have slowed its prefeasibility study, but also allowed it to assess the potential production of only heavy mineral concentrate at the operation, with positive results.

Oil producer Triangle Energy Global has wrapped up the acquisition of two highly-prospective oil and gas permits in WA’s Perth Basin, handing over 31.3 million shares to Key Petroleum to seal the deal. The company previously held a major stake in both assets and mopped up the balance in exchange for $600,000 in cash and $500,000 in shares to be issued by June 30.

Infinity Mining is eyeing drill targets at its Hillside and Panorama tenements in the Pilbara after beginning a cultural heritage survey with the Nyamal Native Title Group at the two exploration licences. Hoping to start its first Pilbara drilling program for the year, the company has engaged Heritage WA and the traditional owners group to seek clearance for heavy equipment access and pad clearing.

American West Metals is set for an exploration blitz with a new rig at its Storm copper project on Somerset Island in Canada and has scheduled a 10,000m RC and diamond drill campaign to begin within days. The company says its initial drilling phase is designed to define maiden JORC resources within the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N zones where high-grade copper mineralisation starts from surface.

Multinational explorer Askari Metals has expanded its exploration hopes in Namibia after acquiring a key patch of dirt abutting its Uis lithium project, bringing its strategic footprint to more than 308 square kilometres in the distinguished mineral postcode. The company is midway through a 3000m RC drilling program targeting outcropping pegmatites at depth where the rods have already pulled up many thick pegmatite hits.

Horizon Minerals has raised $3.34 million to further develop its proposed high-grade Cannon underground gold mine near Kalgoorlie, hoping to soon tap into Australia’s recent record gold price hikes. The company has reported strong support from new and existing Australian and international institutional and sophisticated investors and now plans to accelerate resource extension drilling at its Cannon and Penny’s Find gold deposits.

With mapping now completed, new outcropping identified and geophysics kicking off before a diamond drilling campaign next quarter, Everest Metals is getting closer to full ownership of its Mt Edon project in WA. The company says its most recent mapping program, covering over 192.4 hectares, delivered another surprising exploration windfall, with several new lithium-ceasium-tantalium pegmatites and quartz bearing veins identified this time, all of which were not previously known to the company before.

Empire Energy says it has boosted production ambitions by lifting its average 30-day gas flow rate by more than 17 per cent in initial tests held at the NT’s Beetaloo Basin. It says a new rate of 2.81 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) per day at its first horizontal well represents a normalised flow rate of more than 3mmscf a day per 1000m of horizontal section.

Image Resources is fast approaching ‘mission complete’ at its high-grade Boonanarring mineral sands project 80km north of Perth with the company expecting the ore reserves to be depleted by mid-year. The company has had a stellar run at the project, generating a tidy $50m bank balance while eliminating its debt ahead of schedule and paying out a maiden dividend to shareholders in the process. Image now has its eyes firmly trained on its next target, the Atlas mineral sands deposit near WA’s Wheatbelt town of Cervantes.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has quickly escalated its chase for a lucrative 647 million barrels of oil by tapping into the giant Alaska North Slope basin with drills intersecting three primary reservoirs at its Hickory-1 well. Early interpretations allude to a hydrocarbon pay that will be further assessed by wireline logging and a coring program, as drilling continues to target two deeper secondary reservoirs.

St George Mining has seen its biggest volume of share trading in nearly two months after recording a continuous 121m pegmatite hit in a single diamond drill hole at its Mt Alexander project, 200km north of Kalgoorlie. The company has reported 225m of pegmatites intersected in the same hole as part of its investigation into a wider target identified by a large seismic reflector.

Infinity Lithium’s bid to join Europe’s burgeoning green energy revolution has gained further momentum after it was granted another important permit for its ambitious San José project in western Spain. The Extremadura Regional Government has granted Infinity a new exploration permit, which the company regards as a milestone on its lithium journey and one that reinforces stakeholder commitment to San José.

Aruma Resources has set the rods in motion at its flagship Salmon Gums gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields as it looks to follow up previous bonanza hits of 5m running at 50.2 grams per tonne gold. The exploration program is designed to probe the extent of gold mineralisation at the company’s Iris and Thistle prospects which sit along a 4km stretch of greenstone belt housing Pantoro’s nearby 3.9 million tonne Scotia deposit averaging 3.6 g/t.

Altech Batteries has launched what it says is game-changing technology in the design of its new sodium chloride battery “GridPack”, which it expects to be up to 40 per cent cheaper to produce than lithium-ion batteries. Designed for the renewable energy storage market, the battery uses sodium ions found in table salt and avoids using scarce and expensive metals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite and copper.

A detailed 3D seismic cube has helped Legend Mining identify what it says are compelling targets within its Octagonal nickel-copper prospect, which sits within the same structural corridor as IGO’s Nova-Bollinger deposit in WA’s Fraser Range. The company says data processing results support its exploration model that suggests the intrusive complex continues below previously completed drilling.

Zuleika Gold has its drills on standby after it uncovered encouraging gold anomalies in Menzies. The finds have provided a boost for its hopes of producing the precious yellow metal in the “medium term”. The company says one anomaly is 2km long and coincides with a line of poorly-tested historical workings. It plans to complete an in-field review, with possible in-fill geochemistry, prior to drilling.

Askari Metals is eagerly-awaiting results from a reconnaissance mission targeting rare earths at Barrow Creek after rock chip samples highlighted results of up to 4553 parts per million total rare earth oxides. The project is within 40km of Arafura’s Nolans Bore deposit that hosts a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 56 million tonnes at 2.6 per cent TREO. Askari believes it may host similar geology.

Infinity Mining is turning towards space to find what lurks underground at its Tambourah South project in the East Pilbara, where it is chasing pegmatite-hosted lithium, rubidium and rare earths mineralisation. The company is installing a new, advanced geophysical method to map several hundred metres of subsurface and to create 3D data visualisation to help focus its exploration activities.

White Cliff Minerals will focus its rare earths exploration on the company’s Hines Hill, Diemals and Lake Tay projects after the sale of its Yinnetharra lithium-rare earths project to ASX-listed Minerals 260. The company will receive a total of seven million Minerals 260 shares and $100,000 cash for the sale of Yinnetharra in the Gascoyne region of WA. The transaction value of the deal comes to $2.445 million.

Lindian Resources has secured $9 million in funding for its Kangankunde rare earths project, with chairman Asimwe Kabunga tipping in $500,000 as the company closes in on its processing plant construction. The funds come via a share placement at a near 10.5 per cent premium on the past closing price. Two new investors have poured in $7.5 million and $1 million respectively.

Ora Banda Mining directors and London-based investor Hawke’s Point have stumped up a combined $9.2m as part of a $30m capital raise to fund the cost of operating the reimagined underground Riverina project. The company says the well-supported shares placement and planned development of the underground system will help set it on the path to producing 100,000 gold ounces annually by the 2025 financial year.

Australians suffering hard-to-beat cancers are set to be the first to benefit from trials of new treatments conducted as part of a two-year partnership between Radiopharm Theranostics and GenesisCare. Tumours in the brain, lung and prostate will be targeted in three first-phase clinical trials in Australia, which will be aimed at studying the safety and tolerability of Radiopharm’s novel radiopharmaceutical treatments.

Seismic data from the Perth Basin has unveiled four high-graded oil and gas targets within two permits for a joint venture led by WA-based producer Triangle Energy. Drilling is now scheduled for the first half of next year, while work is also ongoing to further define the identified targets, in addition to adding others to the list.

While many gold producers are delighted to churn out 100,000 ounces a year, five leading companies wouldn’t get out of bed for that. Take a look which WA company stands head and shoulders above them all.

Venture Minerals believes the identification of two new priority nickel-copper-PGE targets by its JV partner Chalice Mining will enhance the prospectivity of its South West project, 240km south of Perth. Two previously-identified soil anomalies have been extended and better-defined during a phase-two program at the project Venture describes as a look-alike to Chalice’s Julimar discovery.

Ora Banda Mining has been given the green light to start mining at its Riverina underground gold deposit near Kalgoorlie after receiving financial investment decision approval from its board of directors. While the mining decision is still subject to the company securing a capital requirement of about $30 million, the approval supports its 2025 financial year production target of 100,000 gold ounces per annum.

Coda Minerals looks set to press the go button on plans to mine its Elizabeth Creek copper-cobalt project in South Australia after positive results from its recently completed scoping study on the operation. The study has revealed a net revenue of more than $5.7 billion over an estimated 14-year mine life at a pre-tax internal rate of return of 26.5 per cent.