Public Company News

Junior explorer Meeka Gold has entered the rare earths game following the acquisition of the Cascade project that boasts a huge 2,068 square kilometre landholding in the emerging province along the Albany-Fraser mobile belt in southwest Western Australia. Neighbouring explorers have had successes in the region with the most notable being Mount Ridley Mines who intersected peak grades up to 10,461 parts per million rare earths.

ASX-listed junior explorer Askari Metals has launched an accelerated exploration program at the Barrow Creek Lithium project in the Arunta Pegmatite Province of the Northern Territory. The work will investigate the outcropping lithium pegmatites identified in an earlier round of field reconnaissance. Initial sampling found the rocks running up to 817 parts per million lithium oxide.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources has spun out a new company, Pirra Lithium, together with Haoma Mining with the aim of focusing exploration primarily on the most prospective lithium ground in the Calidus and Haoma portfolios. The lithium rights tenure granted totals 1,063 square kilometres with the two companies each owning an equal share of the newly created venture.

Oar Resources is poised to return to an early-stage, gold-focused diamond drilling campaign at its Douglas Canyon project in Nevada in the United States after adverse weather conditions and the festive season break paused the program. According to the company, the area to be examined has been expanded during the recess with new claims staked in the west.

Alaskan explorer 88 Energy has increased its American presence with the purchase of a 75 per cent stake of Texas oil player Big Horn Energy who is currently producing around 300 barrels of Permian Basin oil per day. The company will spend US$9.7 million to take a majority share of Bighorn Energy’s 32 wells across nine leasehold areas and is targeting a doubling of production by year’s end.

Allup Silica is poised for a March 2022 listing on the ASX and is aiming to raise $5 million to supercharge its resource definition drilling efforts across its four WA based high-purity silica sands projects. The company has been quietly accumulating high-quality, low impurity silica sands projects near shipping ports across the southwest and Kimberley regions of WA over the last two years.

ASX-listed Trigg Mining is eyeing a seat at the table amongst global sulphate of potash producers as it shifts gears from fertiliser explorer to developer. The company is progressing a pre-feasibility study to develop its flagship Lake Throssell project east of Laverton in WA that it says should see it muscle its way into the top ten SOP producers club globally.

Toronto-listed gold miner and explorer Novo Resources has unveiled a series of “high-order” soil sampling assay results from exploration work completed late last year at its Nunyerry North gold prospect in the West Pilbara region of WA. According to the company the work has advanced its understanding of the region’s prospectivity ahead of additional sampling and drill testing.

Home and hygiene products business Pental Ltd has delivered a bumper $5.27 million net profit after tax driven in part by last year’s acquisition of online hamper and gifting specialist, Hampers with Bite. Revenue from Hampers in the four months since its August acquisition was higher than the unit’s entire FY21 sales, pushing the bottom line up 82.5 per cent.

Northern Minerals has been refining its heavy rare earths processing systems using a specialised pilot plant that could see the company become the world’s first serious heavy rare earth producer outside of China. Northern has an expanding dysprosium and terbium resource base at its flagship Browns Range project. Both products are critical in the manufacture of permanent magnets in an electric vehicle motor.

DiscovEx Resources and joint venture partner Carnaby Resources have identified multiple, strong, undrilled chargeability targets in an ongoing induced polarisation geophysical survey at its Lady Fanny prospect, part of its Greater Duchess project in Mt Isa, Queensland. The company says the anomalous targets correlate very well with outcropping mineralisation, almost certainly identifying strong copper sulphides at surface and at depth.

ASX-listed junior explorer Askari Metals has unveiled some sizeable lithium targets with a hyperspectral survey at its Yarrie project in the eastern Pilbara hotspot. Seven high priority targets were identified including one measuring a staggering 88 square kilometres and another with a potential strike length of 24km. The company is aiming for on-ground exploration to commence as soon as possible.