Public Company News

Things are starting to get interesting for junior exploration company, Oar Resources. The company has identified the presence of ultramafic rocks at its polymetallic Crown PGE and gold project containing copper sulphides just 8km west of Chalice Mining's celebrated Julimar discovery in WA. Assay results from 74 rock chip samples collected at the greenfields project are due soon.

Venus Metals has discovered highly anomalous nickel, copper, chromium, platinum and palladium in soils in its Barrabarra North project next door to Chalices' acclaimed and similarly named Barrabarra project. Venus has also applied for two new exploration licences to increase its tenure in the area to over a massive 1000 square kilometres with planned systematic soil sampling and geophysical surveys on these tenements once granted.

Torian Resources has picked up the trail of what looks to be a series of pointers to a potential gold discovery at its Tyrannus prospect within its Mt Stirling project near Leonora in WA. Shallow auger vacuum samples have thrown up some compelling grades that require further teasing out including 1m at 4.64 g/t from 3m and 1m at 8.09 g/t gold from 1m.

King River Resources has taken a big step in its ambitions to build a processing plant for high purity aluminium with the go-ahead for a definitive feasibility study on a facility at Kwinana to produce precursor aluminium compounds to feed the lithium-ion battery market. The project is a reduced version of the original plan for a full-scale HPA plant.

Blackstone Minerals has set in place an agreement for its 90 per cent owned subsidiary, Ban Phuc Nickel Mines to collaborate with the Vietnamese Government to identify new nickel opportunities outside of the company's current Ta Khoa district tenement. First project for the new partnership will be to advance the highly prospective Chim Van nickel target located just 10km from the company's Ban Phuc open pit deposit.

The Victorian Environmental Protection Agency has issued Lithium Australia with a 99-year operating licence that provides the environmental and legal framework for its subsidiary company, Envirostream Australia to continue lithium and other battery recycling activities at its premises in Campbellfield, Victoria. The licence permits Envirostream to process more than 500 tonnes of specified electronic waste annually.

Great Southern Mining experienced a Eureka moment after taking a chance and stepping out 200m from the existing gold deposit at its Duketon project in WA. The company hit a 17m intersection going 7 g/t gold from 11m in its latest campaign at Duketon. An even more impressive 1m at 109 g/t gold was contained within the 17m hit.

Trigg Mining has delivered a robust scoping study evaluating the proposed development of its Lake Throssell “sulphate of potash” fertiliser project in WA. The company says the project could generate $97m a year in EBITDA over a 21-year initial mine life. The project is about 170km north-east of Laverton in WA and Trigg will now launch into a pre-feasibility study to firm up its numbers.

ASX-listed proprietary software provider K2fly has strengthened its partnership with resources giant Rio Tinto, signing a contract to apply its ground disturbance data management system across all of the miner's Pilbara sites in Western Australia. Perth-based K2fly now provides services to Rio Tinto across five of its nine product areas.

ASX-listed Altech Chemicals could be on its way to becoming a key player in the thriving lithium-ion battery industry with its high purity alumina coating technology that the company says may be able to resolve fundamental issues with energy densities and the cost of lithium-ion batteries. The company is undertaking a pre-feasibility study for a proposed 10,000 tonne per annum battery materials coating plant in Saxony, Germany.

ASX-listed junior explorer, Latitude Consolidated has launched a second exploration campaign at its Murchison gold project in Western Australia. Drilling will initially target the high-grade Turnberry gold mineralisation, following up on previously reported thick high-grade intersections before heading on to target the St Annes prospect. Previously reported thick high-grade intersections at Turnberry included 9m at an impressive 10.4 grams per tonne gold from 162m.

ASX newcomer, West Cobar Metals made a solid debut on the market last week after pocketing $5.5m in a strongly backed initial public offering ahead of the listing. The Perth-based explorer's $0.20-a-share IPO hit the boards at the ASX in style on Friday with the stock reaching $0.25 in intraday trading. The company now plans to unleash the rig on its compelling copper and gold targets in NSW.