Public Company News

Blue Star Helium has clinched a vital initial consent from US authorities as part of a new protracted pathway towards an eventual approval allowing it to drill a first exploration well at its exciting Las Animas helium project in Colorado. The ASX-listed US helium player now hopes to secure an all-important drilling permit in relation to its planned maiden well at the project’s Enterprise prospect later this year.

ASX-listed Kingwest Resources has kicked off an aircore drilling campaign at its Lake Goongarrie project 90km north of Kalgoorlie. The campaign taking aim at litho-structural targets will punch out 5,000m of drilling with first assays expected in a couple of weeks. Final assays from recent drilling at “target A9” show a headline hit of 5m going 8.31 grams per tonne gold.

Emu NL is back on the bit in Western Australia with the tenacious ASX-listed explorer set to plough more than 6,500 metres of drilling into its Monte Cristo and Gnows Nest gold discoveries south of Yalgoo. Previous drilling over the prospects uncovered a bounty of high-grade mineralisation, with better intercepts including an impressive 3m at 42.17 grams per gold from 77m.

Great Southern Mining has uncovered another cluster of high-grade gold hits from the exciting Southern Star deposit at the ASX-listed company’s Duketon gold project about 45 kilometres north of Laverton in WA. The pick of the latest batch of assays from its maiden RC drill program at Southern Star are 7m at 13.9 g/t gold from 123m including 1m at a bonanza 91.7 g/t.

ASX-listed Legend Mining has kicked off a regional exploration program at its Rockford project in Western Australia’s famed Fraser Range. The diamond drill rods are now spinning into nickel-copper prospects along the western structural corridor with four holes, totalling 1800m, to be punched into the Magnus and Octagonal intrusive complexes. Another 100 aircore holes will be ploughed into regional targets to test geophysical and geochemical targets.

ASX-listed Coda Minerals continues to ring the till with a bevy of high-grade copper and gold intercepts at its Emmie Bluff Deeps deposit, which is located 100km south of Olympic Dam in South Australia. Latest numbers include 24 metres at 2.2 per cent copper, 0.3g/t gold and 8.9g/t silver. Peak grades of 15.3 per cent copper and 4.49 g/t gold confirm the deposit’s potential to host a large-scale, vertical mineralised structure of substantial thickness, according to Coda.

NSW gold and base metals explorer Godolphin Resources has kicked off a new round of drilling at its Lewis Ponds polymetallic project in the revered Lachlan Fold Belt as it looks to grow its already impressive existing mineral resource. The company plans to put down four RC holes zeroing in on the project’s Quarry lode, which occurs outside the current boundaries of the Lewis Ponds mineral resource estimate.

Aldoro Resources continues its tour-de-force in Western Australia’s resurgent Murchison mineral field and is now testing a series of new nickel targets including a pair of strong off-hole conductors that were lit up by geophysics below its flagship VC1 discovery. The company recently completed its maiden drilling program over its exciting VC1 target, returning solid intercepts of massive nickel sulphides.

Globe Metals & Mining has released a barnstorming feasibility study on the proposed development of its Kanyika niobium project in Malawi in south-eastern Africa. The study foreshadows a cracking total EBITDA figure for Kanyika of US$3.74 billion across an initial mine life of 23 years. It follows hot on the heels of the recent formal granting of a mining licence covering the project by the country’s Mines Minister.

ASX-listed junior explorer Aruma Resources is on the cusp of a maiden reverse circulation drill program at its Mt Deans lithium project about 10km south of Norseman in Western Australia. The Perth-based company says it plans to put down 12 RC holes for an aggregate drilling coverage of about 1,000m starting next month, following the recent completion of a requisite comprehensive flora and fauna survey.

Strickland Metals has launched an aircore campaign at the Horse North prospect at its Horse Well gold project on the north-eastern flank of the Yandal-Millrose greenstone belt in WA’s north-eastern Goldfields. The 10,000-metre drilling program will be focused largely on a three-kilometre section of the regional Celia shear zone that hosts the nearby resource for the multi-deposit Horse prospect of just over 148,000 ounces of gold.

ASX-listed Venture Minerals is on the verge of shipping its first iron ore from its Riley mine in north-west Tasmania having chartered a bulk carrier vessel that will transport the ore in early September. The milestone achievement comes after the mine reached steady state production enabling enough ore to be generated for continuous haulage to the Port of Burnie for export.