Public Company News

The bright lights of a future Saudi Arabia are enticing Australian companies such as Surefire Resources to the Arabian Peninsula – and the company is looking to supply the minerals needed to build the Kingdom’s pipeline of significant projects planned for the coming decades. The super-wealthy country has openly acknowledged it needs help from “experienced mining heads” to help develop its fledgling industry.

A comprehensive analysis study by Askari Metals has identified seven new lithium pegmatite targets at the company’s Uis project in Namibia, with a detailed mapping and rock sampling campaign already underway. Management says its recently-discovered K10 pegmatite has an interpreted strike length of 3.1km, the GP target has an estimated length of 2.4km and its Tawny prospect extends for 2.2km.

Novo Resources has jagged some solid gold numbers from a six-hole, 2529m diamond drilling program at its Belltopper project in Victoria, with a highlight hit of 2m going 15.18 grams per tonne gold from 185m. The intersection flagged a previously undiscovered gold-bearing reef, while 430m further south, a second hole shows 4.25m going 5.88g/t gold from 274.75m with 2m running 11.15g/t from 277m.

Lithium Universe says it is making significant progress in definitive feasibility study work for its proposed Bécancour lithium refinery in Canada, with process flow sheets and stream tables already finalised. The company has plans for a 16,000 tonnes per annum battery-grade lithium carbonate refinery in the North American nation, with heavyweight engineering firm Hatch commissioned to undertake a comprehensive study for the refinery’s design.

ABx Group has confirmed that its “Alcore” technology has delivered its best fluorine recovery result to date, returning 93 per cent in testwork at its Technology Centre on the NSW Central Coast – increasing the company’s confidence in the commercial viability of the process. Management says detailed experimental work and an in-depth knowledge of the relevant process underpinned the impressive result.

88 Energy says its maiden net mean prospective resource estimate for its Leonis project on the North Slope of Alaska shows 381 million barrels (MMbbls) of recoverable oil from the Upper Schrader Bluff formation. The prospective estimate indicates an unrisked (3U) net high of 671MMbbls, a 2U best estimate of 338MMbbls and a 1U low of 167MMbbls.

Neometals has taken a first-hand look at the extraction of high-value metals palladium and gold from metallurgical testwork at the United State-based Precious Metals Recovery pilot plant as it considers taking an 80 per cent stake in the high-tech operation. A second trial has also now begun in a bid to replicate the success when using the preferred feedstock and re-agents process.

King River Resources has completed 11 reverse-circulation drillholes for 1824m at two of the company’s Langrenus gold targets within its Tennant Creek project in the Northern Territory and has sent some 1300 samples away for assay. Management now plans to move the rig to its Commitment deposit, then back to Langrenus to test the orientation of a new quartz-haematite target.

A four-stage plan has allowed Reach Resources to consolidate its share position, negotiate a farm-in deal, raise cash and focus its attention on multiple targets at its Wabli project in WA’s Gascoyne region. The strategic repositioning comes hot on the heels of the company identifying a magnetic intrusive it believes may be linked to the source of niobium, yttrium and rare earths at Wabli Creek.

St George Mining is planning to launch a grid-spaced gravity survey next month at its intriguing C1 rare earths prospect at the company’s Destiny project, about 100km south-west of the Western Australian mining town of Kambalda. The company will conduct a grid-spaced 200m-by-200m gravity survey that has been designed to home in on discrete targets within the prominent magnetic and gravity-high core of C1.

Perth-based explorer Thunderbird Resources is beefing up its bank balance to the tune of $4.1 million ahead of a 2400m drilling blitz targeting high-grade uranium at its flagship Hidden Bay project in the globally-renowned Athabasca Basin in Canada. Fieldwork programs are already underway, with the company’s drill-testing of multiple targets at the operation expected to kick off in August.

Red Metal has delivered a boost to its Sybella rare earths discovery in Queensland, with metallurgical testwork enhancing the prospects of a low-cost and low-capital heap leach processing operation. Management believes the results could pave the way for a process route that lifts revenue and lowers processing costs in a future mine at the project.