Public Company News

ASX-listed 88 Energy has spied evidence of oil in multiple reservoir sandstone samples recovered downhole after logging multiple potential pay zones from its Merlin-1 test well drilled on Alaska’s oil-rich Arctic North Slope. The downhole samples recovered from Merlin-1 show strong evidence of being saturated with oil as the crude oil in the sandstone exhibits fluorescence under ultraviolet light.

Coda Minerals has completed its earn in over the Elizabeth Creek JV in SA after spending over $8.6 million on exploration since the farm-in agreement with Torrens Mining was consummated in 2017. Coda now speaks for 70 per cent of the rapidly developing copper project where it is eyeing an extensive new resource at the Emmie Bluff discovery.

Todd River Resources has kicked off a highly anticipated round of drilling at its Berkshire Valley nickel-PGE find in WA. Aircore drilling has now commenced in earnest at the central project area where Todd River is targeting a series of geophysical anomalies that also exhibit a pronounced nickel, copper and platinum group element anomalism at surface. The anomalism extends along an impressive 5 kilometres of strike.

Sihayo Gold says it has strengthened its case to unearth a “bulk tonnage” gold deposit in Indonesia after its air core scout drilling campaign hit consistent lower grade gold in Sihayo’s attempts to open up a second major project area about 6km south-east of its existing 1.5m ounce gold resource at the Sihayo Starter Pit project. The company also says the Indonesian government has signed off on its DFS for the Sihayo Starter Pit project.

Aspiring Central African lithium developer, AVZ Minerals’ resource drill out has reeled off a further batch of stunning broad pegmatite drill hits from beneath the Roche Dure open-pit floor at its Manono hard-rock lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The company says it has now kicked off an update of the existing mineral resource estimate for the massive Roche Dure deposit.

Torian Resources’ drilling campaign continues to impress with another clutch of encouraging gold hits at its Mt Stirling project in WA. The company says it expects to complete an interim mineral resource update for the project’s Mt Stirling deposit by month’s end. The existing inferred resource estimate for the deposit stands at 727,021 tonnes of ore going 1.45 g/t gold for 33,893 ounces of contained gold.

Buru Energy has completed its first oil lifting for the calendar year with 70,000 barrels of crude oil from its Ungani oil field in WA’s top end leaving the port of Wyndham and netting the debt-free company approximately A$2.5m. Buru said Ungani continues to produce oil in line with predictions despite some disruptions to operations due to seasonal rains in WA’s top end.

Neometals has reported encouraging results from preliminary metallurgical test work done on mineralisation from the Armstrong deposit at its Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project near Kambalda in WA that points to “commercial grade” nickel concentrate. The test work returned a 48.8 per cent recovery for nickel, an enhanced nickel grade of 12.8 per cent, a 55.4 per cent recovery for palladium and a resultant palladium grade of 20.4 g/t.

ASX-listed nickel explorer, Estrella Resources has recently completed an “experimental” seismic survey over the major basal contact at its Carr Boyd nickel project about 80km north-north-east of Kalgoorlie. The Perth-based company described the survey as a necessary de-risking tool it says will increase the success rate of deeper drilling targeting the basal contact for nickel sulphides.

Things are starting to get spicy for Hot Chili in its copper hunt in South America. Already boasting a 724 million tonne resource grading 0.48 per cent copper equivalent across its Costa Fuego suite of tenements in Chile, the company has defined what appears to be a second large porphyry copper system at the newly acquired Santiago Z tenure.

After two successful years of mining, the zircon-rich Boonanarring deposit in the North Perth Basin, mineral sands miner Image Resources has an eye to the future as it looks to bring the 9.5 million tonne Atlas project into production. A mining lease for Atlas has now been granted with transition to the project predicted for the December quarter next year.

ASX-listed clinical-stage oncology company, PharmAust has pocketed $755,594 after the ATO accepted its application for a Research and Development rebate in recognition of the innovations under development by the company’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Epichem and Pitney Pharmaceuticals. PharmAust said it plans to plough the cash straight back into ongoing clinical trials of its therapeutics on humans and animals.