Public Company News

Emu NL has kicked off its 2021 drilling campaign at the Gnows Nest gold project in WA. The company has commenced a 9,000-metre reverse circulation across the historical mining area which is aimed at validating and building on the existing high-grade resource over the Gnows Nest mine and to begin testing the extensive gold mineralisation at the Monte Cristo prospect to the north.

Lithium Australia has entered into a joint venture with Galan Lithium that sees the latter pick up an 80 per cent stake in the Greenbushes South lithium project from Lithium Australia. As a result of the JV deal, Lithium Australia retains a 20 per cent free carried exposure to the lithium commodity while also freeing up cash to advance its downstream and battery technology projects.

ASX-listed gold and base metals explorer, Middle Island Resources has expanded its ground position surrounding the surface copper oxide mineralisation discovered at its 100 per cent-owned Barkly copper-gold project in the NT’s East Tennant mineral district. The company has broadened its footprint around the recent Crosswinds copper discovery by 26 per cent to a colossal 4,411 square kilometres by applying for two new tenements.

Mako Gold has started the new year with a bevy of more bonanza gold drill hits at the Tchaga prospect as part of its flagship Napie gold project in Côte d’Ivoire. The latest set of assays from the company’s continuing 10,000m RC and diamond drilling program were punctuated by a cracking 41m going 4.51 g/t gold from 17m and 1m at 107 g/t from 71m.

AVZ Minerals has taken another decisive step towards production, with the company’s metallurgical test work successfully generating a high-purity lithium sulphate product for potential use in the production of lithium-ion batteries. The current testing program forms a key part of the development program over its Manono lithium-tin project in the central Africa, which is also assessing the viability of downstream processing at the evolving operation.

Okapi Resources has completed due diligence on the historic Enmore gold project 30 kilometres south-east of Armidale nearby the recently revived Hillgrove gold-antimony mine in north-eastern NSW and decided to press ahead with the staged acquisition of the asset. Enmore boasts a pair of advanced walk-up drill targets that have returned high-grade gold values from rock chip sampling work and drilling undertaken by previous owners.

Comet Resources has kicked an early goal in 2021 with initial field work across its Barraba base-metal project in NSW returning high-grade copper assays. Surface sampling at the historic Murchison mine has unearthed samples grading up to 4.6 per cent copper, 4.0 per cent zinc and 0.7 per cent cobalt, confirming the high-grade nature of the mineralisation across the prospect.

Legend Mining has bounded into the new year releasing its best nickel intercept to date from the company’s Mawson discovery in WA’s Fraser Range. The drill bit has carved out a 31.1 metre string of massive sulphide core which weighs in at an impressive 2.80 per cent nickel and 2.04 per cent copper from 200.7 metres down-hole, pointing to the deeper potential of the ore system.

Calidus Resources has bought out another royalty tied to its developing Warrawoona gold project in WA’s East Pilbara region that it says will help boost cash flows from the new mining and processing operation. The company sewed up the 1.25 per cent profit royalty over the granted mining leases at Warrawoona, leaving one remaining 1.25 per cent profit royalty attached to the same tenements.

ASX-listed Venture Minerals has the drill rods spinning at its Kulin prospect, cutting some diamond core to follow up solid gold assays from trenches dug on its 100 per cent-owned ground, east of the massive Boddington gold mine in WA’s South West region. One trench uncovered 31m at 1.0 g/t gold and a second unearthed 20m at 0.6 g/t gold.

ASX-listed explorer, PolarX has struck a deal that gives it an exclusive option to acquire the historic Humboldt Range gold-silver project in north-western Nevada in the US nearby two producing mines. The Perth-based company says rock chip and grab samples taken at Humboldt Range between 2005 and 2009 maxed out at 3,384 grams per tonne gold and 2,836.6 g/t silver.

88 Energy has added a historic oil project to its armoury of petroleum assets picking up the old Umiat oil discovery that sits immediately south of its Project Peregrine on the North Slope of Alaska where planning is well advanced for the spudding of the Merlin-1 well next month. The undeveloped Umiat project hosts gross 2P reserves independently estimated at 123.69 million barrels of oil.