Public Company News

It’s raining gold! Meeka Metals has produced a veritable shower of significant gold hits from drilling ahead of mining at its St Anne’s North zone, with a best intercept of 33m going 3.07g/t gold from 42m. The intercept includes 8m assaying 4.51g/t gold, another 6m running 4.58g/t gold and an additional 1m at 28.50g/t gold.

Xanadu Mines has handed over the reins of its flagship Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia, following the successful transition of operatorship to its joint venture partner, Chinese mining giant Zijin Mining. Zijin will now progress the world-class Kharmagtai project towards final development, following a promising prefeasibility study delivered by Xanadu late last year.

Strickland Metals has launched into 2025 with a bang, revealing strong vertical extensions at its Shanac gold-copper skarn deposit in Serbia. The new results, which came from a single hole targeting the underexplored southern extent of the prospect, included an 80.2m intercept at 1.9g/t gold equivalent from 501.9m, featuring 11.7m at 4.3g/t gold equivalent and a 30.1m section grading 1.6g/t gold equivalent from 438.9m.

Latitude 66 says an ongoing scoping study, due in March, has identified the K2 deposit as an ideal source of high-grade ore to kick off a standalone mine and generate early cashflows at its flagship Kuusamo Schist Belt Project gold-cobalt project in northern Finland. Consultants have also finalised pit optimisation, mine designs, process flow sheets and scheduling for a new development.

In this edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Ordell Minerals’ 22.70m at 4.09g/t gold intercept from 71.3m from its Barimaia project in WA. We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Sierra Nevada Gold in the USA and Asian Battery Metals in Mongolia.

Ardea Resources has hit the ground running at its massive Goongarrie Hub nickel laterite project in WA’s Goldfields with four drill rigs active and several work contracts already awarded. Supported by mega joint venture partners Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, the $98.5 million DFS is looking to prove up the economics of turning the project into a low-cost, multi-decade laterite nickel-cobalt producer.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Wellard Limited. The company is quitting the livestock transport business and spiked on news it has sold a ship for US$50 million. Condor Energy increased its gas resource by 147 per cent, Western Gold Resources revealed a preferred contractor for its Gold Duke operation and Terrain Minerals kicked-off drilling at its Lort River nickel-copper project.

Meeka Metals’ drilling at its Turnberry resource in WA’s Murchison continues its alluring run of gold hits in combinations of thick intercepts and high grades that would make any seasoned miner salivate. The best intercept from one of its reverse circulation drill holes was 10m at 15.71g/t gold from 114m, including 1m going 34.70g/t gold and another 1m interval at an astonishing 113g/t gold.

Ora Banda Mining produced 22,973 ounces of gold in the December quarter at 2.9g/t, totalling 47,300 ounces for the half year. All-in sustaining costs rose 14.7pc to $2536 due to processing residual low-grade ore. With the Riverina mine paying for itself inside 18 months, Sand King is set to boost output to 150,000 ounces annually by June. Cash reserves grew by $9m to $57.8m.

A consortium of South Korean mega-energy firms is set to enter into an agreement with Pilot Energy to jointly develop the Mid West clean energy project in the Perth Basin to secure a supply of ammonia. The ammonia will be used in coal-fired power plants. The consortium received more than $2m in funding last November from the Korea Export-Import Bank to conduct a feasibility study on the project.

Strickland Metals is poised for a blockbuster start to 2025, with key assay results from the Shanac and Gradina deposits at its flagship Rogozna project in Serbia expected next week. A maiden resource estimate for the Medenovac deposit is slated for late February, while at its Yandal project in WA, an updated resource estimate is on track for late March.

Terrain Minerals has launched into an eagerly awaited reverse circulation drilling campaign early at its Lort River copper-nickel project in Western Australia’s renowned Albany-Fraser Belt. The campaign will target two high-priority Nova-Bollinger-like sulphide conductors, hot on the heels of promising ground-based electromagnetic survey results completed last month.