Public Company News

AVZ Minerals is moving to lock in a binding offtake agreement with Yibin Tianyi after the Chinese lithium chemical player tipped an initial $1m into AVZ whilst the Foreign Investment Review Board runs the ruler over Yibin Tianyi’s intention to plough over $14m into AVZ. Tibin Tianyi is a star-studded Chinese partnership that involves some of the biggest industrial names in China.

Blackstone Minerals has racked up more long nickel sulphide intercepts at its King Cobra discovery in Vietnam with two near surface results returning 39m at 1.1per cent nickel and 28m grading 1.2 per cent nickel from its Ta Khoa Nickel-PGE project. One drill hole at King Cobra also intersected a 0.55m thick massive sulphide vein within a broader 58m intersection of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation.

After dusting off old maps and records from the Mines Department, Kingwest Resources has put together a lucrative looking exploration target at its Menzies gold project in WA that will be backed up with around 8,300 metres worth of drilling. Kingwest’s exploration targets have been developed at the Princess May, Lady Shenton and First Hit deposits and extrapolate out to a range of between 930K and 1.03M ounces of gold.

In what looks like a herculean effort, Anglo Australian has locked in $5.5m from investors in the worst market conditions for years. Investors shook off Monday’s “flash crash” this week to back Anglo’s vision of developing its Mandilla gold project near Kalgoorlie, underscoring the project’s potential prospectivity. Putting his money where his mouth is, new Anglo MD, Marc Ducler, led the way with a $250k personal commitment to the raise.

Heavy rare earths developer, Northern Minerals has hit more solid heavy rare earths intersections at its Dazzler deposit in WA, with one hole returning 15m grading 2.72 per cent TREO from 20m at its Browns Range Project in the East Kimberley region. The ASX listed company continues to build the case for a full-scale plant with its ongoing success with the drill bit.

Norwest Energy has stripped down and is fit to fight without the burden of debt as it looks to drill out its Lockyer Deep-1 exploration well that is only 15kms north of Strike Resources’ huge West Erregulla gas discovery. Norwest said it has discharged a $1m convertible note facility by repaying $750,000 and issuing 100m shares to noteholder Sundowner International after receiving shareholder approval.

Calidus Resources said it remains on track to deliver a definitive feasibility study for its 1.25Moz Warrawoona gold project near Marble Bar in the Pilbara during the December quarter of this year. The company said it is targeting the commencement of development in the first half of 2021 after its pre-feasibility study demonstrated a robust project based on 100,000oz per annum of gold production.

Buru Energy said it remains on track for its March oil delivery despite having to shut in its Ungani oil field for several days due to seasonal flooding in the region. Buru said production has now resumed at a rate of 1,500 barrels of oil per day after the passing of a deep tropical low and the next delivery from the port of Wyndham was due shortly.

ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals has teamed up with the University of Notre Dame in Perth to undertake a new clinical trial for its “CogniCann” phytocannabinoid-derived medicine, after the first bulk shipment of the medicine arrived in Australia. Management said CogniCann was developed with the specific aim to treat symptoms associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and it is already available under prescription in Australia.

Altech Chemicals is close to enlisting financial heavyweight, Macquarie, to provide USD$90m worth of mezzanine debt for its Malaysian HPA plant, potentially avoiding issuing a large slab of stock to get its project into production. In a London meeting held recently, Macquarie re-affirmed its interest in potentially providing the mezzanine debt for Altech’s project that could spit out over AUD$100m a year in free cash, according to the company.

Ardiden Limited has pegged a large number of new land claims along a 100km stretch of the gold-rich greenstone belt that hosts its Pickle Lake gold project and other historical mines in Ontario, Canada. The freshly staked claims take Ardiden’s total land holdings in the region to more than 500 square kilometres and add exploration targets to its existing inferred resource of 110,000 ounces of gold at Pickle Lake.

ASX-listed oiler 88 Energy has successfully commenced drilling at its Charlie-1 appraisal well on Alaska’s prospective Central North Slope. The company is aiming to intersect several prospective targets that it says could hold up to a staggering 1.6 billion barrels of gross mean prospective resources. The Perth-based company is partnering with UK oil outfit, Premier Oil on the promising looking project, who is funding the cost of the well up to US $23 million.