Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Buru Energy and Chris Ellison’s Energy Resources have agreed to restructure their interests in the area known as Permit L20-1 in the Carnarvon Basin through a farmout by Buru to Energy Resources. Buru will assign an additional 25 per cent interest and operatorship of the area in the onshore Carnarvon Basin to EnRes. The resulting permit interests will be Buru 25 per cent and EnRes 75 per cent.

Meeka Gold has appointed Paul Chapman as Chairman, succeeding Tim Moore in the role. The gold and rare earths company has also elevated Chief Executive Officer Tim Davidson to Managing Director, in addition to CEO. Both appointments are effective immediately. Chapman is a chartered accountant and resources sector veteran with more than 30 years’ experience in Australia and the United States.

Gold and lithium explorer Ora Banda Mining has identified five new gold targets from a detailed mapping and rock chip sampling program in the Greater Callion area of the North-Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The targets will be tested with a reverse-circulation drill rig as early as possible in the coming financial year. A mapping and sampling program is continuing to further delineate the geological and structural settings.

Venus Metals has begun a 2500m drilling program at its Pincher Well zinc-copper prospect that is part of its Youanmi base metals project 600km north-east of Perth. The RC drilling will target an historically strong induced polarisation anomaly. The anomaly is just south of previously drilled high-grade zinc mineralisation that threw up a 10m hit going 7.31 per cent zinc from 52m.

With the humble home getting smarter and smarter, the opportunities associated with smart home products are endless and ASX-listed Zimi Ltd has positioned itself in the vanguard of the new wave of players. Zimi’s smart power points and switches are next level and the company already has product in the market via distribution agreements with a seriously big retailer and a wholesaler that supplies almost 1000 stores.

Estrella Resources has begun resource confirmation drilling at its Spargoville nickel project in Kambalda as it prepares to produce a definitive feasibility study of its 5A nickel mine resource. Drilling contractor Topdrive Drillers Australia has mobilised at the project, that Estrella acquired in late 2017 with planning ongoing for an open pit cutback at the site’s 5A nickel mine.

Asra Minerals, formerly Torian Resources, has announced new high-grade gold hits at its Mt Stirling project near Leonora in WA, setting the scene for an anticipated resource upgrade, expected later this month. Following the discovery of rare earths at Mt Stirling back in January, Asra has opened up a second front at the project that is rapidly becoming a multi-mineral play.

ASX-listed Quantum Graphite has executed a binding offtake agreement with Swiss-based global metal and minerals trading group MRI Trading AG for 100 per cent of stage 1 production from its Uley 2 flake graphite mine. The five-year agreement will add flake graphite to MRI’s existing mineral coverage and provide Quantum with access to the trader’s customer base across Europe and Japan.

Gold explorer DiscovEx Resources has discovered multiple gold anomalies at its Sylvania project, 15km south-west of Newman in WA, after combing through its ground with a geochemical surface sampling program. Multiple trends above 15 parts per billion gold at the company’s newly identified Contact prospect were delineated over a 2km strike length within prospective Archean greenstone rocks.

Estrella Resources says an appreciation in nickel prices will see it accelerate development plans for its Spargoville project located about 20km southwest of Kambalda, WA. The company picked up the rights to the operation during a lull in the nickel price and believes under current conditions it could be scrubbed up to be a lucrative play that warrants the mine's development.

Image Resources has revealed a more than ten-fold increase in its total mineral sand stocks in an updated mineral resource estimate following its acquisition of the McCalls project near Gingin in WA. The company’s holding now stands at 6.4 billion tonnes after securing the asset in March in a deal worth $12 million.

Meeka Gold is looking to accelerate metallurgical test work on rare earths from its Cascade and Circle Valley projects near Esperance in WA after assay results from the wholly owned operations pointed to shallow, wide and high-grade mineralisation across a significant tenement area. The company has now teamed up with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation to develop a commercial product.

Podium Minerals is closing in on preferred locations to start mining at its Parks Reef platinum group gold project in WA’s Mid West. Results from its stage-nine drilling program continued to deliver the potential for higher grades in its hunt for critical minerals. Last month the company doubled the depth of the Parks Reef orebody to more than 500m along a 15km strike length.

After poring over its geological data, Tambourah Metals has lit up a handful of nickel, zinc and gold targets at its Achilles project, 200km north of Laverton in WA. The explorer plans to start drilling during the second or third quarter of 2022. Reprocessing of geophysical figures has identified a deep-seated structure whilst a data review has revealed historical gold and zinc hits.

Mineral explorer Cyclone Metals has been granted two exploration permits covering about 198 square kilometres in the Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island. The newly acquired Drybread and Waikerikeri projects form part of the company’s broader six-project acquisition completed in March. At the time the two projects were under application, however approvals have been given for a period of five years and can be renewed.

Emu NL’s Badja gold project has continued to produce quality hits in the shadow of the historic Gnows Nest mine. The junior explorer’s assays from its stage three drilling program have outlined more high-grade gold from the north plunging ore shoot at the Gnows Nest ore body in addition to discovering a new, shallow broad gold zone at the Flying Emu prospect.

Junior explorer Askari Metals has bagged further high-grade assay results from a second phase of RC drilling at its Burracoppin gold project in WA’s eastern Wheatbelt region. Significant results include a high-grade hit of 2.5m going 11.24 g/t gold contained within an 8.5m strike running 4.88 g/t gold from 19.5m. Another 1m intersection grading 13.2 g/t gold from 34m was also recorded.

Multi-metal explorer American West Metals says the latest assays from a diamond probe of its West Desert project in Utah have confirmed the presence of near-surface extensions of zinc, copper, gold and indium mineralisation that has emphasised the operation’s open-pit mining potential. According to the company, the results add another win to a remarkable campaign that continues to highlight the venture’s quality and scale.

Beetaloo Basin hopeful Empire Energy Group has outlined the 1250-metre-long hydraulic stimulation program it is planning for its Carpentaria-2H gas discovery in June. The company is trialling several fluid mixes used in the fracking process to obtain the best production rates from the Velkerri Formation B Shale in its massive but remote gas resource.

New gold producer Calidus Resources has poured the first gold bar from its carbon in leach circuit, marking the successful commissioning of a full processing circuit at its Warrawoona gold project in WA. A total of 33kg of gold was poured with the company’s gold production now scheduled to ramp up to about 90,000 ounces per year in stage one.

Quantum Graphite and its JV partner, Sunlands Co are pressing ahead with plans to develop thermal energy storage cells using natural flake graphite after launching independent test work to accelerate the commercialisation of the technology. According to the company, the devices could provide long-duration energy solutions and play an integral role in delivering stable and flexible energy to grids dependent on renewable power.

Allup Silica says an independent metallurgical review using targeted samples from its Sparkler silica sands exploration project, about 300km south of Perth in the South-West region of WA, has highlighted the potential to deliver a high-quality product. The recently ASX-listed company is looking to stake a claim as a prominent player in the silica sands space.

ASX-listed multi-element explorer Conico Ltd has revealed a 2000m reverse circulation drill program is planned to begin imminently at its Mt Thirsty project, following the recent spectacular PGE discovery by Galileo Mining only 200m from the northern tenement boundary held by the Mount Thirsty joint venture. A comprehensive geological review is also underway.

Meeka Gold says an 85-hole probe of the western block portion of its Cascade rare earths project near Esperance in Western Australia has highlighted shallow, high-grade mineralisation in saprolitic clays. According to the company, the program defined thick rare earths accumulations running up to 29m wide across a large area that has demonstrated the project’s remarkable scale.

In its bulk sample mining operation, gold developer Classic Minerals mined 1011 ounces of gold from its Kat Gap deposit, 170km south of Southern Cross in WA. The precious metal is currently sitting in its stockpile of 6504 tonnes of ore grading 4.82 g/t gold and will be used to dial in the company’s mobile gecko gold plant once it is assembled.

Si6 Metals has kicked off a regional exploration program across its 100 per cent owned Botswanan base and precious metals assets. The program will include rock and soil sampling in addition to geological mapping and aims to define targets for further exploration. The regional exploration will start at prospects along strike from an existing advanced resource of 2.36Mt at 0.72 per cent nickel and 0.21 per cent copper.

Aldoro Resources has broken ground at its Wyemandoo rubidium-lithium project about 60km southeast of Mt Magnet in WA after launching a maiden RC drill campaign at the venture. A number of key targets have been identified through earlier rock chip sampling and Aldoro is targeting a brace of pegmatites that previously delivered impressive grades of up to 2.06 per cent lithium oxide.

Neometals has executed a conditional binding agreement with a subsidiary of luxury vehicle manufacturer Mercedes-Benz that will see the duo team up to develop lithium-ion battery recycling technology. The collaboration will see Primobius, a joint venture partner of Neometals, team up with the car manufacturer’s subsidiary, LICULAR GmbH.

Estrella Resources has rallied a second rig to accelerate exploration at its Carr Boyd nickel and copper sulphide project, 80km northeast of Kalgoorlie in WA. The company is wheeling the new diamond drill rig to its T5 prospect where it will target expansions to the mineralisation along strike and at depth. The holes will initially test an array of downhole electromagnetic plates generated from earlier drilling.

Torian Resources’ Mt Stirling project in the Eastern Goldfields region of WA is scrubbing well and looks set to be a formidable multi-commodity play after the company identified an extensive suite of cobalt and scandium mineralisation that could lead to a significant rebrand for the gold miner. The operation already boasts heavy rare earths potential and a set of gold deposits.

After setting out in search of lithium and gold, Kula Gold fired a second volley of auger holes into its Rankin Dome project in WA’s Southern Cross region and struck a welcome cluster of rare earth elements. The program uncovered some impressive results across the tenure with 70 per cent of the 375 samples registering more than 115ppm total rare earth elements with two samples peaking at 1080ppm.

The succession baton is being readied at Buru Energy who has appointed Beach Energy executive Thomas Nador as CEO. Founder and Executive Chairman Eric Streitberg flagged an orderly transition to the role of Non-Executive Chair. Streitberg says he is looking to focus on overseeing the monetisation of the company’s expansion opportunities.