Doug Bright

BMG Resources has kicked off a 30-hole reverse circulation drilling program for a planned 3000 metres at its Bullabulling North gold project near Coolgardie. The program will follow-up high-grade gold results from earlier scout drilling, which include 2m assaying an impressive 18.1g/t gold from 34m, 12m at 2.3g/t gold from 53m and 4m going 10.12g/t gold from 32m. Credit: File

88 Energy has secured a 12-month extension for the company’s onshore Owambo Basin petroleum exploration licence in Namibia that will extend its first renewal exploration period until October 2026. The company has introduced a new stage 1 works program targeting pre-drill de-risking. The program includes an airborne gravity and magnetic survey to run later this year.

In a Red Letter Day, Meeka Metals yesterday poured the first gold from the company’s Murchison gold project on schedule, within 12 months of breaking ground at its new Murchison Goldfield venture. With plant commissioning completed, management reports that production is ramping up smoothly. Meeka plans to process about 80,000 ounces of gold per year.

Aurum Resources has launched a 30,000-metre diamond drilling campaign at its 0.87-million-ounce Napié project, about 110 kilometres southeast of the company’s flagship Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire. The two-rig program aims to expand the current Napié resource, drill other thinly tested targets and deliver an updated mineral resource estimate for the project by the end of the year.

Neometals has delivered a 250,000-tonne mineral resource estimate averaging 1.6g/t gold for mineralisation near historical underground workings at its Ironclad deposit in the company’s Barrambie project near Sandstone. The inaugural inferred estimate of 13,000 ounces gold for Ironclad was completed to confirm historical non-JORC compliant estimates and is based mainly on shallow reverse circulation and rotary air blast holes drilled mostly to less than 75 metres deep.

GreenTech Metals’ recent exploration target model for its Whundo massive sulphide base metals project points to a resource potential from 15 million tonnes to 23Mt, with between 0.9% and 1.4% copper. The model for the company’s project, near Karratha in WA’s Pilbara region, also indicates a zinc resource potential for the same tonnage within a grade range of 0.2% to 0.4% zinc.

St George Mining will start a reverse circulation drilling program within days at its Araxa niobium-rare earths project in Brazil, as the company builds local community and government support to develop Araxa into a globally significant project. The RC program will be followed by a 10,000m, 16-week diamond drilling campaign in July.

Novo Resources has given its high-grade Pilbara gold and gold-antimony prospects a solid nudge, including at Sherlock Crossing, where it defined a 1.5km-long soil antimony anomaly with coincident gold. The better than 15ppm anomaly, which peaked at 48.3ppm antimony, was identified in extended sampling south of Novo’s initial grid around the historic Clarke Mine, with peak gold of 85 parts per billion.

On the cusp of pouring its first gravity gold this month. Meeka Metals has also put together a $60 million share placement to expand its Murchison project operations in WA’s Mid West region. The company intends to combine proceeds from the placement with cash reserves to expand and accelerate its open pit operations by mobilising a third mining fleet and picking up the pace on its underground drilling.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Sunshine Metals’ one-ounce-per-tonne gold hit from 41m, which included 2m at 3.9 ounces per tonne gold. Other interesting drill hits from last week were reported from Variscan Mines’ Udias lead-zinc mine in northern Spain and PVW Resources’ Capao Bonito rare earths project in Brazil.

Meeka Metals continues to expand its shallow high-grade oxide gold zones immediately south of its stage one Turnberry Central open pit at its Murchison gold project, 50km north of Meekatharra. The company’s best intercept of 30m assaying 1.09g/t gold from 29m, including 9m at 2.45g/t gold, follows a 10m run at 5.2g/t gold from 37m, including 2m going 23.23g/t gold reported last month.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining will run high-resolution geophysics across about 9.5 square kilometres enclosing prospective sites at its Pinjin gold project, 140 kilometres north-northeast of Kalgoorlie. The company plans to launch the sub-audio magnetic survey in mid-June to better define sub-surface geological structures and mineralised zones mainly under extensive surface cover.

Encouraged by a surging gold price, GreenTech Metals has identified significant gold associated with the copper in a review of more than 50,000 historical samples from its Whundo copper-zinc project in WA’s West Pilbara. The review of more than 1195 holes has uncovered a best intercept of 1m at 64.7g/t gold from 47m at the south end of a 2km-long mineralised trend. The findings could open the door to near-term production.

Dual-listed Dateline Resources’ share price has gone ballistic in the US, after the company’s latest modelling showed its Colosseum gold project in California is surrounded by a huge felsite-breccia pipe complex. The company will run new geophysical surveys in June to stack up evidence for new drilling targets for gold resource growth and to potentially delineate a rare earths ore body for the project.

Meeka Metals expects to pour its first gold in the coming weeks, having recently passed key plant pre-commissioning milestones at the company’s expanded Murchison gold project. Meeka now has an energised and refurbished processing plant after it commissioned an onsite power station and has expanded its accommodation village so that its open pit and underground mines can work concurrently.

Meeka Metals continues its indomitable run of high-grade, shallow, open-pittable gold numbers from its flagship Murchison gold project near Meekatharra in Western Australia, with 10m at 5.20g/t gold, including 2m at 23.23g/t. That headline hit began at 37m downhole depth in Meeka’s latest resource expansion drilling program, south of its Turnberry Central stage one oxide pit design.

Terrain Minerals’ Larin’s Lane gallium-rare earths project is fast advancing, with studies now underway as part of a WA industry and government-funded research project that ultimately aims to develop a reliable supply of REEs in the state. The Larin’s Lane collaboration will also offer insights into the economics of emerging REE extraction techniques and the potential for strategic mineral by-products, which could benefit WA.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examines some notable drill intercepts recently revealed on the ASX, including White Cliff Minerals’ 58m hit of 3.08% copper and 13.3g/t silver at its Canadian Rae project. Other interesting drill hits were reported from Benz Mining Corporation’s Glenburgh project in Western Australia’s northwest and from Koonenberry Gold’s Enmore gold project in New South Wales.

Aurum Resources has added two new contiguous permit applications to the southern part of the company’s extensive tenement holdings, which make up its 1.6-million-ounce Boundiali gold project in Cote d'Ivoire. The strategic acquisition, covering 316 square kilometres, extends the overall width of Aurum’s current southern targets to about 52km and could help the company further expand its rapidly growing existing mineral resource.

Titanium explorer McLaren Minerals has completed a phase one drilling program of 192 air core holes for 4067 metres, targeting its high-value McLaren titanium sands project in Western Australia’s Eucla Basin. The program identified extensions of prospective sediments outside the limits of historic resources in three key zones. The biggest southern zone measures about 2600m wide and averages 10m thick, up to 15m maximum.

Aurumin Limited has bagged high-grade hits in its first drilling program since 2013 at its Johnson Range project in the WA Goldfields, with a top hit of 6m grading 16.5g/t gold from 65m. The result includes 3m assaying 32.1g/t gold, with 1m at 76.1g/t gold, putting a shine on the company’s infill and validation program at its current 64,700-ounce Gwendolyn resource.

Aurum Resources continues its stellar run of quality gold intercepts from its Boundiali project in Cote d'Ivoire, nailing a best hit in the latest results of 34 metres assaying 2.32 grams per tonne gold. The hit, from 56m depth in the company’s BDT1 target, includes 9m at an average grade of 5.44g/t gold. A second-best result delivered 48m going 1.27g/t gold from 73m, including 8m running 3.11g/t gold.

In a significant step for the company, lab tests have confirmed Green360 Technology’s new high-reactivity metakaolin is well suited for producing low-carbon cement and low-carbon, high-performance structural concrete. The company produced metakaolin samples from its kaolin resources and deposits that exceed the quality benchmarks of other metakaolin products currently available in Australia.

Larvotto Resources has discovered tungsten lurking in its already economic Hillgrove gold and antimony project in NSW, setting the scene for another payable by-product from the project that is already showing big numbers based on gold and antimony alone. Larvotto has delivered an initial mineral resource estimate for tungsten of 8.77 million tonnes at 0.05% tungsten trioxide at the project for 4774 contained tonnes.

Strickland Metals is picking up the pace at its south Serbian Rogozna gold and base metals project which includes a further 20,000m of drilling at its Gradina target and a slew of new middle managers that are capable of guiding it into production. The company’s pre-development programs have expanded to include environmental baseline surveys, the opening of a local office, well-advanced metallurgical studies and ongoing drilling by six rigs across three targets.

Reach Resources has punched out another 5,800 ounces of shallow gold at its Murchison South project near Paynes Find. The new resource at the company’s Pansy Pit was confirmed by independent consultant Mining Plus and adds to the 61,300 ounces already banked at the Blue Heaven deposit at the project. The combined 67,000 ounces now make a compelling case for toll treating.

Aurum Resources has nailed a series of additional high grades gold hits at its Boundiali Project in Côte d'Ivoire, including 1m at 73.10 grams per tonne from Target 3 in its eastern BM licence, ahead of an expected upgrade to its mineral resource. The company is also working towards a pre-feasibility study at the site which it expects to complete before year’s end.

King River Resources has acquired a new exploration licence, which encloses its Kurundi gold prospect in the Northern Territory and includes possible north-westward extensions from the Kurundi targ