Public Company News

Lindian Resources has signed a milestone works contract for an access road and civil works at its Kangankunde rare earths project, saying the deal shows the strength of the Malawi-based project. The US$1.3m contract is the first to be awarded to advance the project and includes primary highway access, internal access and other site works.

Aurumin Ltd and potential joint-venture partner Newcam Minerals have kicked off drilling for iron ore at the Central Sandstone project in WA's Mid West. The two companies sealed a deal last October providing Newcam with a six-month option on the iron ore rights at the site. The companies will jointly fund the costs of the drill program.

Neometals Ltd has launched a maiden drilling campaign at its Barrambie project in WA's Barrambie Greenstone Belt, where records indicate more than 27,000 ounces of gold were produced at an average grade of 27.8 grams per tonne. From reviews of multiple historic mine records, Neometals estimates an initial project exploration target of between 8 million tonnes at 1.3g/t and 10.5mt at 2.3g/t for 335,000 and 775,000 ounces of gold respectively.

Strickland Metals has scored another home run after delivering a stellar set of high-grade intercepts at its Gradina prospect, which is part of the Rogozna gold and base metals project in Serbia. Among the standout results is an impressive 14.3m hit grading 8g/t gold from 517m, including a 2m section peaking as high as 17.6g/t.

Aurumin Ltd has sunk its teeth into the company's Plum Pudding gold deposit, revealing a 33 per cent rise in its resource after a recent drilling program at its Central Sandstone gold project, 520km northeast of Perth. The additional 4600 ounces of gold resources boosted its overall tally to 951,000 ounces, edging closer to a magical million ounces.

St George Mining has engaged one of the world's leading authorities in niobium ore processing, Ricardo Maximo Nardi, to its high-grade niobium-rare earths Araxá project in Brazil's Minas Gerais region. Nardi comes to the project with more than 30 years of experience in processing high-purity niobium oxide and its typical by-products, including barite, magnetite, phosphate and rare earth elements.

Bulls N' Bears Big Hits this week examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Antipa Mineral's single WA hole that jagged up to 0.55m at 90.7g/t gold. Battery Age Minerals had some interesting high-grade hits at its Falcon Lake lithium project in Canada, and Centaurus Metals intercepted high-grade copper at its Nelore prospect in northern Brazil.

Meeka Metals is making rapid progress at its Murchison gold project, 60km north of Mt Magnet, in Western Australia, with open-pit mining set to begin shortly. Key infrastructure is nearly complete and the mining fleet is mobilising. Earthworks and utilities for the Turnberry administration buildings are finished, clearing the way for trucks, loaders and earthmovers to arrive in early February ahead of first mining in March.

This week's ASX Bulls N' Bears Runner of the Week is… Bio-Gene Technology. The company's shares leapt after revealing it scored a slice of two United States defence grants. Alterity Therapeutics unveiled successful phase two clinical trial results, Aston Minerals' plans for a merger with a fellow goldie won market support and Canterbury Resources discovered a new copper zone.

88 Energy could be sitting on an estimated 283 million barrels of oil recoverable from its Canning prospect at the company's Project Leonis in Alaska, according to its just released maiden, total net mean, unrisked prospective resource estimate. The unrisked net entitlement to the estimated prospective oil resource comprises 3U (High) 469MMbbls, 2U (Best) 259MMbbls and 1U (Low) 136MMbbls.

Aurum Resources' drilling of two targets at its Boundiali BM tenement has returned multiple high-grade gold intercepts, including a top hit of 1m at 150.5g/t gold in a 3m intercept going 50.56g/t gold from 124m. Drilling of 17 diamond holes for 4550m at its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire also produced 2m at 63.55g/t gold from 111m, including 1m assaying 110.95g/t gold and 23m at 2.04g/t gold from 118m.

Six months after picking up the once-dormant high-grade Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia through a takeover of Andean Mining, Aguia Resources has triggered a gold rush with a maiden pour of the yellow metal. The initial pour kicked off much needed cashflow at a critical time for Aguia as it pushes forward with expansion plans to shortly increase its processing capacity to 50tpd.