Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

The Democratic Republic of Congo Minister of Mines has signed a ministerial decree to award a mining licence to AVZ Minerals and its flagship lithium and tin deposit – hailed as one of the largest undeveloped hard rock lithium deposits in the world. The inking of the decree was the last of the procedural hurdles ahead of the official award of the licence the junior explorer so eagerly awaits.

A pit re-optimisation, the inclusion of vanadium credits and a change of plant location has turbo-charged Toro Energy’s plan for its WA based Lake Maitland uranium project, leading to a potential 48 per cent hike in uranium production over the life of mine to 23.5 million pounds from 15.8 million pounds and potential vanadium oxide production of 12.2 million pounds.

Aldoro Resources is just days from starting to drill at its high-grade rubidium-lithium pegmatites at the company’s Wyemandoo project, 60km southeast of Mt Magnet in WA. Previous surface sampling returned high-grade rubidium to 1.82 per cent and lithium to 1.08 per cent. Metallurgical studies are underway to determine the most cost-effective beneficiation process and extraction efficiencies.

Si6 Metals is gearing up to spin the drill bit at its Monument gold project in WA. The 140-hole 5000m air-core program is expected to run for two weeks as the company tests its high-priority intrusive targets identified from the first air core campaign in late 2021. High-priority structural targets along major regional structures identified from geophysical interpretations will also be tested.

Great Southern Mining has been awarded a Western Australian Government Exploration Incentive Scheme grant for its East Laverton nickel project. The EIS grant will co-fund up to $220,000 for RC and diamond drilling of bedrock conductors prospective for massive and disseminated nickel sulphides. The two conductors identified from electromagnetic surveys present compelling targets for Nova/Bollinger nickel-copper and Voisey Bay nickel style deposits.

The final chapter of resource definition and expansion drilling at American West Metals’ West Desert project in Utah has ended with a bang after the latest two holes sunk at the venture delivered strong visual copper, zinc and molybdenum mineralisation. The venture believes its latest phase of drilling caps an impressive campaign that has underlined the quality and scale of the operation.

Surefire Resources says an updated beneficiation scoping study for its wholly-owned Victory Bore vanadium project, 530km northeast of Perth in WA, has underlined the economic viability of the venture. The company has its hands on a 151 million tonne resource at 0.44 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 25 per cent iron and 6.73 per cent titanium dioxide at the operation.

Cyclone Metals has started its maiden New Zealand exploration program at its newly-acquired Mareburn and Macraes South gold projects. The projects are located adjacent to OceanaGold Corporation's 10-million-ounce Macraes gold deposit currently producing 155,000 ounces per year. Geochemical sampling will target known gold mineralisation and favourable cross-cutting structures that may mimic the 80-million-ounce Carlin trend in Nevada.

Torian Resources has bolstered its heavy rare earths portfolio after a new discovery at its Mt Stirling project in Western Australia. The company believes ongoing work at the venture has identified additional yttrium oxide mineralisation and has labelled the new prospect Wishbone. Interestingly, the finding is within earshot of its recently announced Yttria heavy rare earths prospect.

St George has announced a major expansion of exploration for its four WA based projects. Work at Mt Alexander will test new nickel-copper-PGE targets and extensions to existing high-grade shallow deposits. The hunt for Winu style deposits at its Paterson project is planned to start in May. Whilst at the company’s Ajana and Broadview projects exploration will target Nova/Bollinger and Julimar style mafic intrusion hosted nickel-copper-PGE targets.

Blackstone Minerals has bolstered its engineering horsepower with GR Engineering Services as it heads towards the delivery of a definitive feasibility study into its upstream Ta Khoa Nickel Project. The ASX-listed addition is hailed as a ‘Tier 1’ process engineering, design and construction advisory company and will man the role of Blackstone’s primary consultant.

Gold-focused Horizon Minerals and joint venture partner Richmond Vanadium Technology have settled on the path forward for the development of the duo’s shared vanadium venture in central north Queensland. The pair have agreed Richmond will be the dedicated IPO vehicle to drive the project – that Horizon holds a 25 per cent interest in – to an ASX listing in September or October.

Infinity Lithium subsidiary Infinity GreenTech has inked a deal with Murdoch University that will see the duo form a partnership to commercially test work on a lithium chemical conversion process called ‘GreenTech RPK’. According to the company, a victory in the space could allow it to breathe new life into previously-unviable lithium deposits.

Strickland Metals says it has an emerging large gold system at its Millrose project as the explorer continues to find gold aplenty. The first hole north of known resources returned 54m at 1.8 g/t gold from 130m including 23m grading 2.4 g/t gold. Drilling beneath existing resources returned 95.5m going at 2.0 g/t gold including a high-grade intercept of 8m at 14.6 g/t gold from 215m.

Gold and rare earths explorer Meeka Gold Limited is aiming to bolt on another gold discovery to match its flagship Murchison gold project. The company is continuing to drill out its Circle Valley project in the Albany-Fraser Mobile Belt in WA’s south with the aspiration of transforming the project into one to match the nearby Tropicana mine.

Shares in gold explorer DiscovEx Resources vaulted more than 28 per cent on intraday trading following an announcement it had executed two binding-option agreements with Rio Tinto that allow the mining behemoth to acquire 100 per cent of the iron ore rights for four tenements within the Sylvania project, 15km southwest of Newman in Western Australia.

Mineralisation has been observed in all holes drilled in the latest campaign by PolarX at its Star Canyon gold-silver target at the northern end of its overarching Humboldt Range project in Nevada, USA. The explorer says it’s a strong start to the program with visual results consistent with the styles of alteration and mineralisation seen in the region. It’s now heading south to drill a further 10 holes.

Panther Metals is continuing to keep its drill crew busy as it moves its RC rig from the 38 holes just drilled at the company’s Eight Foot Well gold prospect near Laverton in WA to the Merolia gold project where grab samples from the Burtville East target have yielded grades of up to 38.45 grams per tonne gold.

BMG Resources has boosted the regional prospects of its Abercromby gold project in the north-eastern Goldfields region of WA after assay results from more than 10,000m of an air-core drilling program underlined its broader potential. According to the company, a raft of solid hits from drilling across the venture's tenements has identified a sequence of compelling anomalies and opened a string of new target areas.

Allup Silica has listed on the ASX with an exploration strategy of targeting high-purity silica sand resources with economically viable road and port access. The company raised $5 million for exploration and evaluation of its three WA silica sand projects that include an inferred JORC mineral resource estimate of 73 million tonnes at an average grade of 96.6 per cent silica at its Sparkler prospect.

Gold-focused Aurumin is gearing up for its inaugural drilling program at the company’s recently-acquired Central Sandstone gold project 130km west of Leinster in WA. The campaign will feature a mix of RC and diamond drilling and is expected to start this month following the end of the company’s ongoing lithium hunt at its Mt Palmer project, 350km to the south.

Alcore, an ABx Group subsidiary, has secured a $7.5 million modern manufacturing grant from the Federal Government to assist in the development of its world first aluminium smelter bath recycling plant. The facility aims to generate aluminium fluoride, an essential chemical for aluminium smelting, from smelter waste product bath. Australia currently imports its entire aluminium fluoride supply.

K2fly has tabled some healthy numbers from the March quarter with record invoices of $3.3m, maintaining its all-time high total contract values of $16.6m and cracking the $5m mark in annual recurring revenue for the first time. The company operates in the global resources space under a ‘Software as a Service’ business model – meaning it delivers its software on a subscription basis.

ASX-listed Image Resources says it has successfully navigated another challenging quarter at its wholly-owned Boonanarring mineral sands project, 80kilometres north of Perth in Western Australia. The company’s quarterly report shows the average realised price per tonne of its heavy mineral concentrate set a new quarterly record despite lower production and sales over the previous period.

ASX-listed Quantum Graphite says the long-term demand for natural flake graphite in the production of anodes for lithium-ion batteries along with the global push towards a net-zero carbon economy could drive its thermal battery technology with joint venture partner Sunlands Co to the forefront of the bubbling sector.

Junior explorer Tambourah Metals has pegged new tenements prospective for gold and lithium that it has now coined as the Nullagine project. The 34-tenement package under application covers 5788ha and is 5km north of the explorer’s existing Russian Jack lithium project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. After beginning a project scale compilation of the available data Tambourah has found historical soil samples indicating lithium up to 40ppm.

ASX-listed minerals developer Technology Metals has dived into the implementation phase of its Murchison Technology Metals project after awarding Danish-based kiln supplier FLSmidth a Notice to Proceed with front-end engineering and design services for the key roasting kiln section of its vanadium processing plant.

Surefire Resources has bagged another wide and shallow gold intercept in the latest drilling campaign at its Yidby gold project in WA’s Mid West region. The wide and shallow intersection of 8m going 1.43 g/t gold from 18m was encountered as the explorer drilled for extensions to its Yidby Road prospect. The company says up to 4000m of RC drilling is due to kick off in the next few weeks.

Wiluna Mining's first test of down-plunge extensions of the historic East and West Lodes have yielded strong sulphide mineralisation in the first of eight holes it will sink into the leads in WA’s northern goldfields. The company has seven holes remaining to drill in the current program that is aimed at backing up recent ultra-high-grade gold results at its nearby Bulletin North target.

Okapi Resources is poised to sink its teeth into a 10,000 metre, 24-hole drilling campaign at its Middle Lake uranium project in Canada’s Athabasca Basin after it received the government go-ahead to launch the probe. The company says it has received a raft of permits that will also allow it to kick off a geophysical survey.

Junior explorer Aurumin has just wrapped up the first stage of auger drilling at its recently-acquired Central Sandstone gold project in WA. A vehicle-mounted auger drill rig tested five near-mill targets in addition to a further 29 areas of interest. The 467-hole program aimed to geochemically sample the interface between the covering sediments and bedrock with the company expecting its results in a few weeks.

ASX-listed Middle Island Resources has completed a ground-based induced polarity survey at its Barkly copper-gold project in the Northern Territory's East Tennant Creek region. The company says the survey is expected to provide a three-dimensional outline of the prospect's anomaly and assist in target definition with a drill program expected to kick off next month.