Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Oil explorer 88 Energy is set to get the drill bit spinning at its Hickory-1 well target on Alaska’s North Slope after the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission handed the company an all-important Permit to Drill. The bore is now on track to be spudded early next month and is tipped by the enterprise to hold 647 million barrels of oil within six key reservoir targets.

St George Mining has recommenced lithium exploration at its emerging WA Mount Alexander lithium pegmatite field covering 15km by 5km. Latest rock chip assays to 2.8 per cent lithium oxide and 1.26 per cent rubidium oxide build excitement for the assays from its first 23 RC drill holes, due within weeks, lithium minerals were logged in 20 of the drill holes. More drilling is set to recommence later this month.

Lindian Resources has recorded its best drill hit to date after its latest assays confirmed a 35m intercept at a whopping 3.94 per cent total rare earth oxides at its Kangankunde project in Malawi. The impressive section was part of a wider 179m intercept going 2.2 per cent TREO from surface and also included a 4m hit at a massive 7.82 per cent TREO.

WA-based producer Triangle Energy has squared away a cool $4.5 million after receiving payment for its second oil shipment to a refinery in Thailand over the December period. The shipment is part of the company’s Cliff Head joint venture with Pilot Energy which sees the duo complete production at the Cliff Head oil field about 270km north of Perth before mobilising it to buyers in Asia.

Surefire Resources is eyeing a rapid return to drilling at its promising Yidby Road gold prospect in WA with a drill rig locked in to start exploration later this month. 2500m of RC drilling is planned to follow up on the company’s recent discoveries at Marshall and Fender and the campaign will step out to the north and the south on both gold mineralised structures.

Quantum Graphite has completed the design of its pilot thermal energy storage and power generation system as it moves one step closer to producing long-duration energy devices at an industrial scale. The finalised design of the systems follows the company’s successful high-temperature testing in November that was introduced to mimic the conditions inside a thermal energy cell throughout its charging and discharging stages. Testing was completed alongside the operation’s project engineers, ProTherm Systems.

Test work on rare earths samples collected from ABx Group’s Deep Leads and Rubble Mound deposits in northern Tasmania have delivered Australia’s highest reported clay-hosted rare earths extraction rates with returns of up to 83 per cent. In addition, the program unearthed a wave of potential extensions to the zones’ mineralisation and the company has now mobilised a drill rig to test the newly identified zones.

Green energy metals explorer and developer Octava Minerals and its JV partner Future Metals have received an early boost from their freshly minted joint venture. Future Metals has identified broad zones of disseminated magmatic nickel-copper and platinum group elements sulphides at its Panton project that crosses into the tenement they share, Panton North, which is located in a Tier 1 nickel sulphide-PGM province in the East Kimberley region of WA.

Perth-based minerals explorer Surefire Resources has appointed as managing director a highly experienced resources executive with a 30-year career in exploration and mining. Paul Burton is a geologist with an MSc in Mineral Exploration from McGill University, Canada and was recently the MD of Tivan, formerly TNG. His experience in vanadium will be welcome at Surefire which has massive vanadium resources in WA.

St George Mining has entered into a binding agreement for an option to pick up the Woolgangie critical metals project that covers around 1200 square kilometres in the Goldfields region of WA. The company says Woolgangie is prospective for lithium, nickel-copper sulphides and ionic clay-hosted rare earths mineralisation. The package includes nine granted or in application exploration licences and extends south-west of Coolgardie and west of Kambalda.

Askari Metals has commenced a project wide mapping and sampling program across part of its Uis lithium project in Namibia after its first phase of drilling hit visible lithium in addition to tantalum and tin. The company says most of the project remains unexplored, something the current program will be looking to rectify before the company launches its second phase of drilling.

Legend Mining has declared a maiden nickel-copper-cobalt resource at its Mawson deposit in the Fraser Range that it says still has plenty of room to grow and is currently comparable to about a year’s worth of production from heavyweight Fraser Range neighbour IGO’s Nova discovery. The initial estimate clocks in at 1.45Mt at 1.14 per cent nickel, 0.74 per cent copper and 0.07 per cent cobalt.

DiscovEx Resources’ JV partner, Carnaby Resources continues to kick goals in Queensland announcing a suite of prominent precious and battery metal strikes at the duo’s Greater Duchess project in the Mt Isa region. The campaign was headlined by a 6m parcel grading a sky-high 6.7 per cent copper and 1.2 grams per tonne gold from 77m at the emerging Burke & Wills discovery.

Brightstar Resources is set to kick off a fresh 6300m RC drilling campaign at its flagship Cork Tree Well project as it looks to extend its gold mineralisation along strike to the north and at depth. The company says the 30 hole program will also include infill drilling at the project’s main structure as it looks to convert inferred mineralisation into indicated JORC resource status.

Queensland-based and WA-focused explorer Infinity Mining has wasted little time getting boots on the ground for what promises to be a big year of drilling, opening its 2023 campaign in the Central Goldfields. On the look-out for gold, lithium and rare earths, Infinity has about 2000m of RC drilling planned for this year across several of its WA tenements.

Minerals explorer Godolphin Resources is pocketing a handy $100,000 grant from the NSW Government to help fund its next drilling campaign at its promising Cyclops copper prospect north of Yeoval in the state’s central west. The grant comes from the Government’s New Frontiers Exploration program as part of the NSW Government’s Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy.

Middle Island Resources is widening its copper-gold chase at its Barkly project in the NT with its maiden drilling program throwing up all the trademarks of an iron oxide-copper-gold style mineralisation. The company has been on the hunt for all available sources of data to build into its geological model as it awaits final assay results from the four-hole probe.

Surefire Resources’ Victory Bore deposit in WA’s Mid West, is looking like the gift that keeps on giving after a program of 62 RC holes for 5189m delivered a 56 per increase in the operation’s already hefty vanadium resource. The asset now tips the scales at 235 million tonnes at 0.39 per cent vanadium pentoxide.

Mineral sands producer Image Resources has posted a productive quarter with higher ore tonnes processed than forecast at its flagship wholly owned, high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project, located 80km north of Perth in the North Perth Basin in WA. Lower ore grades were partially offset by the higher production and heavy mineral concentrate sales were in line with forecast.

ASX-listed Sydney-based reproductive biotechnology company Memphasys has received a tick of approval for its trademarked sperm separation device, Felix, in an article published by a leading medical magazine specialising in male reproductive and urological issues. Felix has been nominated by Memphasys as one of its three priorities in 2023 to deliver the highest and quickest commercial returns.

Ora Banda Mining is steadying itself for a year of strong gold production with lower costs at its mining operation in WA’s Goldfields. The company’s ongoing improvement strategies have boosted its key performance indicators by increasing mining productivity and ounces mined. A string of strong exploration results will feed into an updated mineral resource estimate slated for February this year.

Sydney-based Australian oil and gas company Empire Energy Group has hailed its December quarter as the most active in its history. The workstream was headlined by Empire’s drilling completion of the Carpentaria-3H gas well in the Northern Territory’s world-renowned Beetaloo sub-basin and included a record breaking 2632m horizontal section that was realised on time and significantly under budget.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia has enjoyed a record-setting December quarter with the company increasing revenue from customers by more than $200,000 to $1.261 million in addition to a significant reduction in operating costs. The latest figures are more than double the $488,000 made in receipts from customers in the corresponding December quarter of 2021 and appears to be a record for Lithium Australia.

Perth-based Buru Energy reeled in $3.7 million over the December period after exporting about 73,000 barrels of crude oil from the company’s Ungani oilfield near Broome in WA. The figure represents a 50 per cent slice of the producer’s operating interest in the conventional field with the balance filling the coffers of project partner Roc Oil Company.

Minerals explorer Auric Mining has uncovered significant enrichment of rare earth elements along a 7km-long strike at its Chalice West project near Norseman with a swag of assay results indicating the widespread rare earths mineralisation including valuable magnet rare earths critical for high-tech products. Auric says a prominent magnetic feature in the project’s centre is also promising and needs drilling.

DiscovEx Resources has lit up a geophysical target on a freshly granted patch of dirt along strike from Capricorn Metals 2.2-million-ounce Karlawinda gold project in WA’s Pilbara goldfields. Complementing the company’s extensive Sylvania land package near Newman, the company has wasted no time in getting boots-on-ground to complete a ground gravity geophysical survey in its hunt for the precious yellow metal.

With all assay results from its recent air-core drill program at its Chalice West project now back from the laboratory, Auric Mining says widespread gold and nickel mineralisation can be added to its rare earth elements discovery. The latest results include another five holes returning anomalous gold values and anomalous nickel intercepts were also returned in a further five drill holes.

Okapi Resources has engaged BRS Engineering to spearhead a technical study into its Maybell uranium project in Colorado which historically produced 5.3 million pounds of uranium. The company’s recent land grab at the project comes laden with key geological data and technical reports. Okapi has entrusted the US-based consultancy to sift through the valuable data as it looks to unlock the potential of the Maybell uranium project.

Panther Metals has been buoyed by initial testing results of samples from its Coglia nickel-cobalt project in the WA Goldfields that returned final nickel extraction levels of 92.6 per cent. The test work was based on a blended sample obtained from the company’s maiden drilling program. Panther says the high-pressure acid leach testing indicated the potential to further upgrade the nickel grade through beneficiation.

Ultrafine soil sampling results have revealed gold in soil anomalism generating several fresh targets on a recently acquired tenement along a 1.4km zone on the Sandstone Greenstone belt. The site, that sits in Aurumin’s Central Sandstone project and near its Two Mile Hill deposit lies about 520km north-east of Perth where the company says the newly generated targets will help inform planning for the next drill program.

Asra Minerals is putting the finishing touches on its 2023 exploration assault at its multi-commodity Mt Stirling project near Leonora in WA following extensive data compilation and a comprehensive technical review. The company’s vast land holding, in the shadow of Red 5’s King of the Hill gold operations, houses multiple gold resources along with multiple intriguing rare earths and critical metals discoveries at Yttria and Wishbone.

West Perth-based Zuleika Gold is itching to get the drill bit back in the ground after discovering a 3km-long gold-in-soil anomaly at one of the company’s prospects along the prolific Zuleika Shear zone in the WA Goldfields. Zuleika says geochemical results from 1100 soil samples at its Zuleika project are “very encouraging” and hopes to launch a drill campaign in March.