Public Company News

Altech Chemicals has taken a giant leap towards securing the remaining financing required for its proposed US$280 million HPA processing plant at Johor in Malaysia, with preparations well under way for a US$144 million listed green bond instrument. Altech’s Malaysian subsidiary plans to use US$100 million of the total amount raised as a secondary debt facility for the partial funding of plant construction costs.

Hot Chili expects a VAT tax refund payment of up to $4 million this year against all expenditure associated with its Cortadera copper-gold discovery, the centrepiece of its overarching Costa Fuego porphyry copper-gold project in Chile. Hot Chili says the VAT refund was given the nod by the Chilean Government and the tax refunds will shore up the company’s cash position as it gradually moves to full ownership of Cortadera.

Venture Minerals is poised to ride the crest of the monster iron ore price wave as it counts down to the start of iron ore production at its revived Riley mine in north-west Tasmania. The company has just raised $10 million and has been busy getting its ducks in a row for the main construction phase push at the Riley project development site including the critical wet screening plant.

ASX-listed Eclipse Metals has vectored in on a large circular magnetic anomaly containing multiple conductive exploration targets on its ground just a kilometre or two east of its recently acquired Ivittuut cryolite mine in southern Greenland. Eclipse is targeting cryolite, rare earth elements, high-purity silica and even nickel sulphides as it continues to explore its tenement in the frozen north.

Australian Bauxite appears to have added a second string to its bow with the company encountering intriguing levels of rare earth elements at its Tasmanian and Queensland bauxite projects that it describes as “potentially game changing”. Initial results from exploration undertaken over the past 15 months returned encouraging hits of rare earth elements at the Binjour bauxite deposit within its Sunrise project 115km south-west of the Bundaberg port and at the DL130 prospect in north-east Tasmania.

Comet Resources has rattled the tin and raised a million dollars from sophisticated and institutional investors. The cash injection will largely go towards funding an expansion of exploration activities at its historic Barraba copper project in the New England Fold Belt region of NSW. Recent geochemical sampling results at the project included up to 4.6 per cent copper, 4.0 per cent zinc and 0.7 per cent cobalt.

Indiana Resources has uncovered an historic gold assay that has laid dormant in the annals of the South Australian mineral core library for nearly six years without anybody actioning it. Indiana’s decision to re-examine historic core held by the South Australian Government could lead to a golden pay off after wide mineralised intersections were observed in a historic drill hole.

TNT Mines has nailed its first drill program at the Eureka gold project 50 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie after it hit 34 metres at 1.75 grams per tonne gold in one drill hole. The company has moved quickly to test the potential of the Eureka gold project after it reached an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Warriedar Mining, the previous owner of the project back in October 2020.

ASX-listed Blue Star Helium’s US helium development hopes have been given a massive lift on the back of a 175 per cent increase in combined potential resources to 9.6 billion cubic feet across five prospects at its Las Animas helium project in Colorado. The additional 6.1 billion cubic feet in “2U/P50 unrisked prospective” helium resources came from Blue Star’s newly assessed Galactica, Pegasus and Argo prospects.

Hot Chili is poised to take full ownership of the immense Costa Fuego project in northern Chile, following the early payment of an additional US$10 million to the vendors of the Cortadera discovery, SCM Carola. The company has delivered a total of US$17 million to the private Chilean group, with a final payment of US$15 million now due on or before the middle of July 2022.

Ora Banda Mining has made good on its promise to breathe new life into the old Davyhurst gold operation about 120 kilometres north-west of Kalgoorlie after producing its first gold bar at the new-look operation. Davyhurst is a very different operation with a very different resource profile to the operation that once impaled Eastern Goldfields who slipped into administration with the project.

Si6 Metals has followed up historic drilling at its Maibele Project in Botswana, with new results successfully expanding a sulphide-hosting horizon identified back in 2014 by more than 60 metres. The company has returned to the Maibele after seven years and looks set to write its own chapter in the history of exploration at the project.