Public Company News

88 Energy could be sitting on an estimated 283 million barrels of oil recoverable from its Canning prospect at the company’s Project Leonis in Alaska, according to its just released maiden, total net mean, unrisked prospective resource estimate. The unrisked net entitlement to the estimated prospective oil resource comprises 3U (High) 469MMbbls, 2U (Best) 259MMbbls and 1U (Low) 136MMbbls.

Aurum Resources’ drilling of two targets at its Boundiali BM tenement has returned multiple high-grade gold intercepts, including a top hit of 1m at 150.5g/t gold in a 3m intercept going 50.56g/t gold from 124m. Drilling of 17 diamond holes for 4550m at its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire also produced 2m at 63.55g/t gold from 111m, including 1m assaying 110.95g/t gold and 23m at 2.04g/t gold from 118m.

Six months after picking up the once-dormant high-grade Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia through a takeover of Andean Mining, Aguia Resources has triggered a gold rush with a maiden pour of the yellow metal. The initial pour kicked off much needed cashflow at a critical time for Aguia as it pushes forward with expansion plans to shortly increase its processing capacity to 50tpd.

Lycaon Resources recently completed scout drillhole at its Stansmore target in WA to test a magnetic anomaly has intercepted 1m at 425ppm combined niobium, neodymium and praseodymium and 217ppm yttrium and ytterbium from 302m. The zone is associated with up to 12 per cent sulphides and weakly elevated multi-element geochemistry within a mafic intrusive with trace sulphides in fresh rock below 80m depth.

McLaren Minerals is gearing up for a six-week infill drilling program to gather metallurgical samples, explore for extensions and strengthen its resource at the company’s existing McLaren titanium sands project in Western Australia’s Eucla Basin. Designed by ERM Australia Consultants and kicking off in two weeks, the campaign is expected to cover 6000 metres of air core drilling.

Galan Lithium has extended a 2019 resource estimate for its Candelas resource in Argentina from 685kt lithium carbonate equivalent to 1634kt LCE, an impressive rise of more than 138 per cent. Upgraded estimates put the Candelas LCE resource at an indicated 1284kt and an inferred 350kt, for a total 1634kt, boosting Galan’s total combined resource for its Candelas and Hombre Muerto West projects to a world-class 9501kt LCE.

Metals used for steel alloys, once considered the poor cousins to iron ore, are starting to come into vogue, with both big and small players moving heaven and earth to uncover the next big discovery of metals vital to the massive global steel industry. The coveted group includes manganese, vanadium, molybdenum and others and Australia has rich resources of all of them.

Joint venture partners Firetail Resources and Thunderbird Resources are ramping up work at their Peruvian Picha copper-silver project, following its recent selection in the prestigious BHP Xplor 2025 program. Mapping, gravity surveys and a drilling program targeting large-scale intrusion relation deposits are in full swing and a new target adjacent to the existing prospect has been staked.

Great Southern Mining has kicked off an RC drilling campaign at its Duketon gold project, which spans 178 square kilometres within 13 virtually contiguous leases in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. The program has been designed to unlock the full potential of its promising Golden Boulder prospect which previously produced some impressive results before the rig is moved onto several other high-priority targets.

Terrain Minerals has launched into stage two drilling at its Wildflower gold project in WA’s Mid West region, following its recently completed, high-impact sulphide conductor drilling in the Albany-Fraser Belt. The company has turned its focus to the surging commodities of gold and gallium at its broader Smokebush project, ramping up a 1368m RC program targeting gold discoveries and gallium metallurgy research that is currently underway.

In this edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some notable drill hits revealed on the ASX, including Cygnus Metals’ 9.1 per cent copper hit at its Canadian Chibougamau Copper-Gold project. Brazilian Critical Minerals has another interesting drilling program underway at its Ema rare earths project in Brazil, as does Astral Resources at its Mandilla gold project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Buru Energy is putting an updated game plan into play to focus on its flagship Rafael gas project in Western Australia’s Canning Basin. It has wasted no time selling off non-core assets by inking a deal to offload its 50 per cent stake in the Barbwire Terrace base metal project to joint venture partner Sipa Resources in exchange for a royalty over future production.