Public Company News

A life cycle assessment of Blackstone Minerals’ proposed upstream and downstream nickel business has confirmed its process of producing nickel-cobalt-manganese precursor products will be one of the greenest pathways to supply the growing lithium-ion battery industry. The study found Blackstone’s flagship Ta Khoa project could produce 1kg of precursor cathode active material at a cost of 9.8kg of carbon dioxide equivalent, substantially lower than the industry average of 16.1kg.

Multi-metal explorer Conico has detected copper sulphide mineralisation at a number of prospects explored as part of a recently completed diamond drill campaign at its Ryberg project in Greenland. The 11-hole program was targeting copper, nickel, gold and platinum group elements at the company’s Sortekap, Miki, Cascata and Pyramid prospects that were identified from previous field campaign data.

Infinity Mining has confirmed mineralisation of up to 6489 parts per million rubidium in rock chip assays from pegmatites at its South Tambourah project in the east Pilbara region of Western Australia. The commodity is principally used to make speciality glasses such as fibre optic cables and its discovery sets up another commercial avenue for the lithium-focused operation.

An exploration blitz combining air-core drilling and electromagnetic surveys has identified highly prospective new targets for Legend Mining across its Rockford multi-metal project in WA’s Goldfields region. The company says the site’s potential has been highlighted by the recent discovery of nickel-copper occurrences at Legend’s Mawson and Octagonal prospects that sit within the greater Rockford project.

Lithium and gold explorer Octava Minerals is set to light up the ASX boards this Friday with a trio of projects across Western Australia, the world’s premier mining district. The new listing kicks off with the company’s flagship Talga lithium project just 10km north-east of ASX-listed Global Lithium Resources’ Archer deposit of 10.5 million tonnes going 1 per cent lithium oxide.

Mineral explorer Godolphin Resources has had a 25-hole, 1,500m diamond drilling program at its Narraburra rare earth project near Temora in central-west New South Wales waved through by the state's resources regulator. The company plans to use the campaign to modernise the operation’s existing resource up to a JORC 2012 standard.

Radiopharm Theranostics has partnered with a US research centre to launch Radiopharm Ventures — a joint venture that aims to develop radiopharmaceutical therapeutic products to help in the fight against cancer. The new company has been created in partnership with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre and will initially focus on developing at least four therapeutic products based on the centre’s intellectual property.

Middle Island Resources has been buoyed by visual analysis of a completed maiden drill program at its Crosswinds copper prospect in the NT where the company is targeting iron oxide-copper-gold alteration. The company says iron oxide-copper-gold hematite alteration, including carbonate, potassic feldspar, sericite and biotite alteration has been visually observed in all four completed holes.

ASX-listed mineral explorer Surefire Resources has tabled a clutch of high-grade, heavy metal hits following a reconnaissance rock chip sampling and mapping exercise at its Kooline lead-silver project, about 200km from Paraburdoo in WA. The bumper results include 16.2 and 14.2 per cent lead with traces of anomalous silver running 41 and 55 grams per tonne.

Altech Chemicals has forged a JV partnership with German research group Fraunhofer ITKS to commercialise a large-scale energy storage alternative to lithium-ion batteries. The new technology uses table salt and nickel and the partners argue it churns out safer, longer-term power solutions without the concern of price hikes and supply chain issues associated with critical metal-infused devices.

Neometals’ joint venture offspring Primobius has finalised an internal engineering cost study for a first stage shredding plant of a potential 50tpd integrated lithium-ion battery recycling operation on a greenfields site in Germany. In a European first, the new design will cater to electric vehicle car makers by integrating the processing of larger units arising from end-of-life electric vehicles in addition to cell production scrap.

Metal Hawk and farm-in partner Falcon Metals are set to follow up historical results at the duo’s Viking gold project in WA’s highly prospective Albany Fraser Province with a 1600m RC drilling campaign in coming weeks. Falcon listed on the ASX last December and is the spin-off of heavyweight mineral explorer Chalice Mining’s gold interests with an earn-in stake in the Viking project that is located 30km southeast of Norseman.