Public Company News

Hot WA mid-west precious metals explorer Podium Minerals is on track to post an updated shallow resource next month for its promising Parks Reef project south-west of Meekatharra after drilling confirmed continuity of platinum group metal mineralisation over a 15km targeted strike length. The company, whose share price has climbed more than 500 per cent since the start of 2021, is also stepping up deeper resource drilling.

Coda Minerals has landed a $75,000 grant from the South Australia Government, which may prove timely as it ramps up exploration at its Elizabeth Creek project in the state’s Olympic Dam copper province. Coda’s new funding comes courtesy of the Accelerated Discovery Initiative and will be used for an airborne electromagnetic survey over its Emmie Bluff copper discovery.

Smart aged-care and healthcare technology developer InteliCare, in conjunction with the University of Sydney and Macquarie University, has been awarded a $100,000 grant by the NSW Smart Sensing Network to further develop the company’s machine learning product for predicting risks associated with chronic deterioration in the elderly.

Eclipse Metals has locked in a four-year extension to its exploration licence at the Ivittuut cryolite and rare earth project in Greenland, with heavily reduced minimum expenditure commitments for the first year. The extension follows amendments to the previous licence made by the newly elected Greenland Government. A program of work for 2021 has been submitted with approval expected in July.

Okapi Resources continues to zero in on gold drill targets at its Mount Day prospect in Western Australia. Infill soil sampling has confirmed the presence of a 1,500m-long, cohesive gold trend that is consistently returning anomalous precious metal values and the company is now preparing to drill test the target in the latter half of this year.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has returned evidence of oil from down hole sampling of the recently drilled Merlin-1 well at its Peregrine project in Alaska. Observations of fluorescence on side-wall cores under UV light have also identified multiple horizons showing the presence of oil. Peregrine lies along trend to recent nearby discoveries in the Nanushuk formation.

WA manganese producer, Element 25 has nailed down a multi-user access agreement with the Pilbara Port Authority that allows the company to ship manganese concentrate from its Butcherbird mining and beneficiation operation through Port Hedland’s Utah Point bulk handling and loading facility. Element 25 has been commissioning a new processing plant at Butcherbird and recently produced its first concentrate.

Surefire Resources will test a potential intrusive-related mineral system near old silver and lead workings at Kooline in the central Pilbara region with deep drilling after securing WA government co-funding and finishing a successful review of previously generated geophysical data. The ASX junior says re-processing and interpretation of VTEM survey results pointed to a large target and series of conductors just west of Kooline.

Venus Metals has jumped into drilling at its Vidure South prospect in Western Australia as it targets a pair of electromagnetic anomalies south-west of the Youanmi gold mine. The Vidure nickel-PGE targets were identified on the back of historical drill results and a recent high-powered, ground electromagnetic survey, which lit up the potential sulphide bodies.

CZR Resources has launched a 5,000m reverse circulation drilling campaign at the Buddadoo gold project in the Mid West region of WA. Seven priority gold targets are set to be tested along the Gullewa Greenstone Belt that hosts the Deflector mine with more than one million ounces in gold resources in an adjacent permit.

Infinity Lithium has cited high-level European Commission and Spanish national government support for ambitious EU electric vehicle and battery supply chain expansion targets that support development of significant domestic raw material sources such as its San Jose lithium project in Spain. Last week’s European Battery Alliance Day spotlight on San Jose followed the recent cancellation of Infinity’s investigation permit by a regional Spanish government.

Godolphin Resources has continued to eke out tantalising polymetallic intersections from an initial round of resource definition drilling at its Lewis Ponds project in the fertile Lachlan Fold Belt province in NSW. The pick of the new assays from Lewis Ponds was 5.2m going 0.36 g/t gold, 38 g/t silver, 2.05 per cent zinc and lead combined or 2.22 g/t gold-equivalent from 466.2m depth.