Public Company News

TSX-listed Novo Resources is aiming to join the ranks of ASX mineral explorers after lodging a prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission amid plans for an initial public offering. It has secured the support of giant neighbour De Grey Mining as a cornerstone investor and potential joint venture partner in a deal worth up to $35 million at its Becher project.

Galan Lithium says its new Catalina tenement in Argentina’s “Lithium Triangle” could add between 500,000 and 1.5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at between 953 and 988 milligrams per litre lithium to its Hombre Muerto West resource. Management says a well-drilled 500m to the south of Catalina hit lithium grades in the target range and believes it may extend into its exclusively-owned ground.

An independent technical review of Gold Mountain’s Wabag project in Papua New Guinea has highlighted its potential for more copper exploration and recommended extra work across several prospective zones. Management says the comprehensive report’s author, Dr Steve Garwin, has already identified a series of targets using the company’s database for its Wabag tenements.

American West Metals’ stock touched an all-time high of 31 cents during today’s intraday trading, up from last night’s close of 20c after making a fresh copper discovery at its Storm project in Canada – including 45.5m of visual sulphides in one hole. It says the discovery exhibits similarities to many of the world’s major sediment-hosted copper systems.

Octava Minerals has launched a new soil-sampling program to follow up three priority targets defined by a recent hyperspectral survey within its Talga project near Marble Bar in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The campaign has a particular focus on lithium, although the gold and base metals potential in the wider tenement area is also of interest to the company.

Emerging sustainable battery materials producer Neometals says it has completed an engineering cost study for the hydrometallurgical refinery section of its Primobius lithium-ion battery recycling facility. The company says the study delivers greater transparency on the project’s commercial economics. Primobius is a joint venture between Neometals and SMS group, which has installed plants in nearly every country in the world.

Venture Minerals’ maiden drilling probe at its recently-acquired Greater Brothers project in WA’s Mid West region has landed a swag of high-grade rare earths that included an impressive 45m averaging 1455ppm TREO. The reconnaissance program has tested just a fifth of its 1165-square=kilometre tenure, with plenty of blue sky to scale up the mineralised horizon over the remainder of the company’s prospective patch.

After a successful $4 million capital raise, Reach Resources is set to test its Morrissey Hill lithium project with a maiden drilling program to target areas that returned high-grade lithium from rock chips. Management says its 4500m campaign will be split between reverse-circulation and diamond drilling at its project in Western Australia’s emerging Gascoyne region.

Quantum Graphite has acquired the complete set of flake graphite purification technology from The Sunlands Energy Company, providing what it says is a commercialisation path for products from its Uley flake graphite mineral deposits in South Australia, to advanced industrial manufacturers in North Asia and Europe. The company plans to deliver superior natural flake products across all applications.

Perth-based 88 Energy has bolstered its 100 per cent-owned Peregrine oil project in Alaska, adding two new reservoir intervals to its Harrier prospect, with 180.1 million barrels of oil as a best-case estimate. Basin modelling has also revealed that Harrier sits in an area of good reservoir quality and will be tested by the drillbit as a priority.

Legend Mining believes it is getting closer to unearthing a “Nova-style” nickel-copper deposit after finding encouraging signs in its latest diamond drillhole at its Octagonal prospect within Western Australia’s rugged Fraser Range. Management says it identified visual sulphides at regular intervals between 848m and 1661m in the hole which ran to a depth of 1700m.

Higher zircon grades and increasing demand for heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) has had Image Resources ringing its till, with a bottom-line boost of nearly $12.5 million revealed in its quarterly report today. The company also increased HMC production quarter on quarter by six per cent at its Boonanarring minerals sands project near the Western Australian town of Gingin.