Public Company News

Aguia Resources has locked in a $4 million loan from a government-owned Brazilian bank to refurbish its leased processing plant and kick-start mining operations at the company’s Tres Estradas phosphate project. The 20-year loan will cover an initial $118,000 capital expenditure required to kick-off mining activities and fund the estimated $1.97M needed to bring the plant up to speed to process an expected 100,000 tonnes annually.

Aurum Resources’ Boundiali gold project in Cote d'Ivoire keeps on keeping on, with its latest results including a 66m run assaying 1.07g/t gold from 33m at its BDT1 deposit on the key gold trend in its BD ground. That intercept includes 21.73m assaying 1.01g/t gold from 39m and 29m going 1.46g/t gold from 69m. The latest holes have some exceptionally long runs showing persistent gold traces.

Javelin Minerals has zeroed in on a suite of highly prospective, undercover gold and copper targets at its Coogee West project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, setting the stage for high-impact drilling in the September quarter. The company’s latest geophysical review, run by Core Geophysics, has peeled back the layers at Coogee West to reveal a compelling treasure map of five high-priority anomalies lurking beneath shallow alluvial cover.

Octava Minerals has received promising early-stage results from CSIRO tests of a low-cost bioleaching process of ore samples from its Byro rare earths and lithium project in WA’s Gascoyne region. The stage one testwork focused on identifying, enriching and adapting microorganisms that can process the Byro ore. Stage two tests are underway to see which adapted cultures best extract critical and battery metals from the project’s polymetallic samples.

Aguia Resources has kicked off drilling at its Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia, with early results revealing mineralised quartz veins just 40m below existing workings. Its first hole hit a 0.7m thick quartz vein at 107.4m depth, showing visible sulphides, including pyrite, sphalerite and galena – all typically linked to gold. The company’s geological model is holding up, and assays are now pending.

Latitude 66 has uncovered a 2.5km gold-cobalt-copper corridor at its K6 prospect in Finland, extending south from its 650,000-ounce K1 gold deposit. A maiden reverse circulation program delivered 12 holes for 315m, hitting broad mineralised zones, including 2m at 0.27g/t gold, 0.13% cobalt and 0.35% copper from 4m. The results suggest K6 may sit on the edge of a much larger system.

Middle Island Resources’ review of data from its fully owned Ridgelands project in Queensland has produced a walk-up target area where 1980s exploration revealed enticing rock sample assays to 14.6g/t gold. The old data also reveals soil-gold anomalism above 0.05 parts per million to a peak of 5.66g/t gold, while shallow reverse circulation drilling attained a best intercept of 10m at 1.15g/t gold.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is… Icetana Limited, after the AI solutions provider partnered with global robotics developer SoftBank. Resolution Minerals snapped up a US critical and precious minerals project in Idaho and Highfield Resources bounced back on hopes its mammoth Muga potash project in Spain could soon get developed.

Lindian Resources has topped up its coffers with a double shot of cash totalling just under $1.65 million from the exercise of 10M unlisted options at $0.12 per share for $1.2M and a $448,753 R&D refund. The federal Research and Development Tax Incentive Program refund is for Lindian’s process development and metallurgical testwork conducted to improve beneficiation at its massive Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi.

Larvotto Resources has struck bonanza gold at its Hillgrove project in NSW, with drilling at its Eleanora-Garibaldi prospect delivering up to 111.27g/t gold equivalent. The standout hit came within a 4.1m intercept, grading 28.08g/t gold equivalent from 119m. The results are part of a 9200m diamond drilling blitz across its Eleanora-Garibaldi and Golden Gate prospects as the company pushes to boost resources ahead of plant construction.

American West Metals is charging into exploration season at its flagship Storm copper project in Nunavut, Canada, with the drill bit primed for a bevy of deep, high-grade copper targets at the sprawling project. Drilling is set to kick off shortly as the company simultaneously rolls out a regional mobile magneto-telluric survey to test for deeper copper sulphide targets across the 110km copper belt.

Meeka Metals has kicked off its much-anticipated plant commissioning, navigating a decisive moment when ore is first fed into the plant, paving the way for first gold from its gravity circuit later this month. Meeka’s commissioning team is onsite at the company’s Murchison project, 50km north of Meekatharra, working with the construction and processing crews to ensure everything is fault-free and at or coming up to specification.