Public Company News

Adriatic Metals has successfully cleared the final major regulatory approval hurdle that now opens the way for it to start construction of its proposed Vares silver-zinc-lead mining and processing operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina later in the year. The company says it clinched the exploitation, or mining, permit for the project’s keystone Rupice underground deposit from the country’s Federal Ministry for Energy, Mining and Industry.

Australian Bauxite’s 87 per cent owned chemical refining subsidiary, Alcore, appears to have made a significant technical breakthrough with its proprietary mineral production process used to produce commercial-grade aluminium fluoride from metal refining waste known as “dross”. The company believes its process can deliver substantial economic and environmental benefits for Australasian aluminium smelters reliant on imports of the material.

ASX-listed Comet Resources expects to have results of testwork to assess the suitability of concentrate produced from its Springdale graphite project in Western Australia to be used in battery anode manufacturing in the current quarter. The company says the testing at a specialised facility in Germany follows initial “excellent” grade and recovery results in preparation of the concentrate sample in Perth.

Terrain Minerals has intercepted “exciting” new gold zones at three prospects at its Smokebush project in Western Australia’s Murchison goldfield, including a 3m hit going 4.86 grams per tonne gold at the Monza prospect where strike length has now more than doubled to 700m. First pass drilling has also hit a new mineralised structural zone at Monza North with returns including 3m at 1.53 g/t gold from 39m.

After locking in a couple of major project acquisitions that consolidate its foothold on the north-eastern flank of the Yandal-Millrose greenstone belt in WA’s north-eastern Goldfields, Strickland Metals has cranked up a systematic initial exploration campaign across its expanded ground position. The company’s current gravity survey and surface geochemical programs will pave the way for 100,000m of aircore drilling and 30,000m of reverse circulation drilling.

ASX-listed explorer Victory Mines has extended the length of the gold-copper mineralised trend at its Coogee project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to 1km, with latest drilling results including 8m at 3.03 grams per tonne gold and 0.37 per cent copper from 124m in the “Eastern Trend” area. Assay results from other holes remain pending as the recently commenced drilling program motors on.

ASX-listed Altech Chemicals has officially opened an advanced battery materials research and development centre in Germany, where it is seeking to construct a battery materials high purity alumina coating plant. The company is ticking along with a pre-feasibility study into the venture as it looks to fast-track its coating technology to full-scale commercialisation.

Barton Gold has launched a “phase two” drilling campaign at its brownfields Tarcoola gold project in SA designed to follow up on a string of earlier high-grade gold hits. The company says last year’s RC drilling at Tarcoola encountered multiple southern and down-dip extensions of the Deliverance target beneath the former Perseverance mine and also led to the discovery of the shallower Perseverance West gold zone.

Strickland Metals has sewn up the acquisition of strategic ground-holdings abutting its flagship Horse Well gold project in WA that increases its footprint in the Yandal greenstone belt in the north-eastern Goldfields. The company completed the deal to purchase a 75 per cent stake in the Yandal East gold project tenements from Renegade Exploration for a consideration of 40 million new Strickland shares and $800,000 cash.

ASX-listed junior precious and base metals explorer Godolphin Resources is set to kick off a follow-up reverse circulation drilling program at its high-priority Lewis Ponds project in the New South Wales Lachlan Fold Belt region’s Lachlan Transverse Zone next week following encouraging gold sniffs from an initial round of resource definition diamond drilling.

ASX-listed Galan Lithium is consolidating its position in South America’s prolific “Lithium Triangle”, executing a binding option agreement with a private Argentinian landholder to earn a 100 percent interest in the Casa Del Inca III lithium brine tenement. The land package strategically abuts Galan’s Hombre Muerto West project. A further 900 hectares is also available under the agreement.

Infinity Lithium is edging closer to producing battery-grade lithium hydroxide from its 75 per cent owned San Jose lithium project in Spain with feasibility study metallurgical testwork advancing to the final “crystallisation” stage of the planned process flow sheet. Infinity recently entered a memorandum of understanding with leading lithium-ion battery producer, LG Energy Solutions, on potential long-term supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide.