Public Company News

In a major step toward its clean energy pivot, Pilot Energy has secured $5 million via a heavily oversubscribed placement priced at an impressive 100 per cent premium to its last trade. Pilot will use $4.5M to shore up the acquisition of a remaining 82 per cent stake in the Cliff Head oil project from Triangle Energy.

Ardea Resources has secured a pivotal $4.6 million strategic placement from Japanese joint venture partner Sumitomo Metal Mining to progress the company’s mammoth Kalgoorlie Nickel project in Western Australia. The cash injection will primarily fuel working capital, ensuring Ardea’s expert team continues to drive the ongoing $98.5M definitive feasibility study, which Sumitomo will pay for.

Aurum Resources has smashed out another big gold hit in West Africa, striking a massive 89 metres at 2.42g/t gold from 213m at its Boundiali gold project in Cote d’Ivoire. The standout hit came from its BDT1 deposit, which makes up part of Aurum’s 1.59-million-ounce gold JORC resource. The drill bit also picked up sections of 7m at 14.46g/t gold and 6m at 9.01g/t gold in the hole.

Askari Metals’ recent trawl through a historical exploration database at its Uis project in Namibia has identified significant tin, tantalite and rubidium mineralisation within its licence area. The review reveals “exceptionally high” tin, tantalum and rubidium responses from a 492-sample rock chip database, with assays including 3.17% tin oxide, 5226ppm tantalum pentoxide and 0.87% rubidium oxide.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has struck gold up to 9m grading 3.52 grams per tonne from 58m in fresh rock at its Lighthorse project near Pinjin, 140km northeast of Kalgoorlie. The company says the first-pass reverse circulation drill program appears to have cracked the code by confirming high-grade primary mineralisation exists below a shallow supergene blanket that was discovered two months ago.

St George Mining plans to start a maiden drill program within weeks focussing on expanding a 40.64Mt rare earths resource estimate from early April for its Araxá project in Brazil. The company’s mineral resource estimate for the venture came in at 41.2Mt and 0.68 per cent niobium pentoxide and 40.6Mt and 4.13 per cent total rare earths oxides.

Strickland Metals has hit top gear at its monster 7.4-million-ounce gold equivalent Rogozna project in Serbia by mobilising a sixth diamond rig to fuel what the company says is the biggest drilling campaign in the project’s history. The fresh rig is hard at work at the gold-rich Gradina deposit as part of Strickland’s effort to deliver a maiden resource at the prospect by the end of the year.

Aurumin Limited has wrapped up its latest RC drill program at the company’s Johnson Range project, which is part of its wider Central Sandstone gold project in the WA Goldfields, as it aims to ramp up its existing 64,700-ounce resource. The project is on a granted mining lease and near multiple processing centres, potentially enabling near-term development and mining opportunities to cash in on a roaring gold price.

Triangle Energy has started drilling its hotly anticipated Becos-1 oil exploration well in Western Australia’s Perth Basin. The rods for the conventional well started spinning two days ago to target a fault-trapped rock layer called the Bookara Sandstone from the Triassic period. The company estimates there could be 1-21MMbbl in the pay zone, with a best guess of 5MMbbl.

Javelin Minerals has kicked off its maiden drill program at the company’s recently acquired Eureka gold project, 50km north of Kalgoorlie, targeting extensions to mineralisation outside its existing 112,000 gold-ounce resource. The company has hit the ground running and has already completed four holes at the southern end of the Eureka pit and plans to test several high-grade targets to the pit’s north.

Ardea Resources has completed a 287-hole infill reverse circulation drilling program to support potential resource classification upgrades at its vast Goongarrie Hub nickel project, 5km south of Menzies. The company drilled 186 holes at its Big Four prospect for 10,238m, while 101 holes were put in at Scotia Dam for 6332m. Ardea has sampled a total of 16,570m of vertical holes at 2m intervals over their full depths.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Osteopore Ltd after its 3D-printed bone regrowth implants were approved by the European Union for distribution. Leeuwin Metals’ historical gold results unveiled extensive shallow high-grade mineralisation over 3km at its new Marda project in WA, Golden Horse Minerals returned stellar gold extensions at its WA project and Pivotal Metals ran up on no news other than renewed interest in its Canadian copper project with a sizeable resource.