Public Company News

Terrain Minerals has discovered clay-type rare earth elements at its fully owned Lort River project in Western Australia after a review of historic auger drilling data, including a high percentage of rare earths used in the production of magnets. Assays also show high scandium grades the company says are a potentially important addition to the high-grade rare earths mineralisation.

Aruma Resources has returned high-grade lithium and rubidium results from a surface rock chip sampling program at its fully owned Mt Deans lithium project in south-eastern WA. Results included high-grade lithium of up to 1.96 per cent lithium oxide and very high-grade rubidium of up to 1.42 per cent rubidium oxide. A total of 11 samples were taken along a 500m strike.

Adriatic Metals has its foot down on construction of its Vares high-grade zinc-silver project in Bosnia and Herzegovina as it works towards opening its namesake mine and processing plant next year. The company says a newly appointed drilling contractor has delivered a dramatic increase in productivity in converting the Rupice ore body, increasing confidence in its mineral resource.

After an air core drilling campaign, mineral explorer Meeka Gold Limited has detected grades of up to 5791ppm TREO over an expansive 1143 square kilometre region at the company’s Cascade rare earth elements project in WA. The assays reveal shallow and high-grade mineralisation up to 24m thick, with a standout strike of 4m at 5791ppm TREO unearthed within a 16m zone running 2223ppm TREO.

Junior explorer Emu NL has plans underway for further RC drilling at its Flying Emu prospect at Badja gold project near Yalgoo in Western Australia after early positive results. The first hole targeted from Emu’s stage three-drill program in April recorded a 9m hit at 3.44 g/t gold from 39m downhole, including 2m at 10.14 g/t.

Initial assays from gold and nickel explorer Metal Hawk have come up trumps, with results from five diamond drilling holes from its Commodore prospect at the Berehaven project in WA returning gold hits, its best zone grading 38.5 grams per tonne. Nickel was also discovered with the company saying the result demonstrates a link with both the gold and nickel sulphide zones announced in February.

Godolphin Resources is one step closer to starting a proposed diamond drill program at its Narraburra rare earth project in NSW following its submission to the State regulators. The six-hole program has been fast-tracked after previously approved air core drilling was postponed because of waterlogged land conditions. Diamond drilling will start once approval is received.

Pirra Lithium, one of Australia’s newest lithium explorers, has started drilling at its Spear Hill project in WA’s Pilbara Craton region, testing a 1.2km stretch of outcropping lithium pegmatites where rock chips previously returned assays grading up to 2.34 per cent lithium oxide. Pirra is a 50-50 JV between Calidus Resources and Haoma Mining.

Mineral explorer Aurumin has kicked off a barrage of diamond drilling after completing the RC portion of its exploration campaign at the company’s 784,300-ounce Central Sandstone gold project in WA. Nine holes for 1245m of RC drilling on the project’s 86,500-ounce Shillington deposit have been completed in addition to five RC “pre-collars” for the explorer’s Two Mile Hill tonalite deposit.

ASX-listed explorer Kalgoorlie Gold continues to expand the size of its La Mascotte discovery in WA’s goldfields, with the prospect now extending to a 700m strike length. The company says the mineralisation remains open in every direction. Only last month KalGold doubled the strike length of La Mascotte to 500m on the back of rich results going 16 grams per tonne gold.

Venus Metals Corporation has hit returns of 5.8 and 3.6 per cent lithium dioxide from the latest round of exploration at its Henderson tenements near Menzies in Western Australia. Following the discovery of lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatites at Henderson in February, assay results from 89 rock samples showed 29 had more than 100 parts-per-million lithium dioxide.

After collecting lithium-rich soil samples from Askari Metals’ Barrow Creek lithium project in the NT’s Arunta pegmatite province, the company has now found lithium in its samples of rocks protruding through the soils. The find validates an extension of its interpreted zone of lithium mineralisation to a strike length of 3km.