Announcements

Drilling by Javelin Minerals at its Coogee project 55 kilometres southeast of Kalgoorlie has delivered lower grade copper-gold hits over 40 metres wide and some shorter but very high-grade copper hits including two metres at 8.34 per cent copper. Another 19m intersection came in at 1.28 g/t gold and 0.15 per cent copper from 202m and included 9m at 1.75 g/t gold and 0.20 per cent copper from 202m.

Coda Minerals looks to be riding a winner at its Emmie Bluff Deeps IOCG-style copper discovery in South Australia after eyeing around 60 metres of chalcopyrite mineralisation in a recently completed step-out hole. The company says the cracking intercept has extended the strike length of the known mineralisation by nearly 60 per cent to 550m.

Calidus Resources has cleared its final construction hurdle on time and on budget, with commissioning now underway of its 100 per cent owned Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara region of WA. The company says it expects crushing and milling operations to start within the next eight weeks with first gold set to be poured approximately two weeks later.

Development of ASX-listed Adriatic Metals’ Vares high-grade silver project in Bosnia is accelerating with construction starting on time as the company firmly eyes production by the second quarter of 2023. Adriatic is in the throes of appointing mining contractors, engineering consultants and key personnel as it finalises test work and orders mechanical equipment.

Tambourah Metals is eyeing extensions to the known mineralisation at its Pilbara namesake project after recent soil sampling returned up to 3.05 grams per tonne gold. The project, located 85 kilometres southwest of Marble Bar, yielded plenty of other positive samples too with 177 of the 259 samples collected providing potential evidence of an extension to the existing mineralised zones.

Blackstone Minerals has tabled a stunning pre-feasibility study for its vertically integrated nickel mine and refinery project in Vietnam that shows a post-tax net present value as high as $3.57 billion at today’s nickel prices. Almost inexplicably the company says the US$854 million CAPEX required to build the project could be paid down in just 1.8 years from first production. It will churn out over half a billion US dollars a year in operating cashflows.

Aldoro Resources has uncovered a string of high-grade rubidium from a pegmatite rock chip sampling program at its Wyemandoo project approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Mount Magnet in WA. According to the company, the assay results pointed to “exceptional” grades of up to 1.24 per cent in individual samples and says lithium and tantalum were also present.

Soil assays from Strickland Metals’ Iroquois discovery show copper highs that map an interpreted feeder zone structure for zinc-lead mineralisation. The recent zinc-lead discovery is located on the western edge of the greater than 1.5km long feeder zone, creating excitement for the next round of drilling targeting the structure. Iroquois is in the Earaheedy Basin, WA’s newest base metals hotspot.

Meeka Gold has unveiled some strong rare earths numbers grading up to 2,563 parts per million total rare earth oxides after analysing historical drilling that had been testing for three of the 15 rare earth elements at its Cascade rare earth project in WA. 4,426 metres of reconnaissance drilling completed between 2012-2015 has been reviewed with the final metre of each drill hole previously assayed for only 3 of 15 rare earths.

ABx Group has signed a joint venture agreement with Alumin to develop its Sunrise bauxite mine and port project. The mine is expected to have a 20-year life and provide 50 direct local jobs. Situated 115km from Bundaberg Port in Queensland it is anticipated the mine will initially export 500,000 tonnes per year of metallurgical grade bauxite, scaling up to 2 million tonnes per year.

After months of Covid-impacted labour shortages, Buru Energy has begun the process of well testing at its Rafael 1 oil and gas well in WA’s Canning Basin. The company has started the clean up process in anticipation of turning the taps on, opening up the valves and finally ascertaining definitive flow rates from November’s ‘wet gas’ discovery. A robust result could lead to Buru’s second major development in the area.

Canadian listed gold producer Novo Resources Corporation has struck high grade gold up to a serious 91 grams per tonne, or nearly 3 ounces to the tonne, through rock chip sampling at the historic Pilgrims Rest gold mine within the company’s Station peak prospect in Western Australia. Other notable high grade rock chips were 30 g/t gold, 13 g/t gold and 12 g/t gold.

Tambourah has captured 17 priority targets in its battery metals search after a detailed data analysis of the Wongan Hills South project in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The targets were generated using available geophysics and the project’s database. The Wongan Hills South project is part of Tambourah’s larger Julimar North project in what is fast emerging as Australia’s most exciting PGE-nickel-copper-cobalt mineral field.

Cyclone Metals has acquired six exploration projects in New Zealand covering gold, copper, nickel and platinum group elements. Highlights include the Muirs project containing 222,000 ounces of gold near the 45 million ounce Hauraki goldfield. At the Mareburn project drill hits include 10m at 2.4 g/t gold and it is only 8km from the 10-million-ounce Macraes gold mine.

CZR Resources has received assays from the first 55 holes of a larger drill campaign that indicate the potential for a massive upgrade to direct shipping iron ore resources at Robe Mesa in the Pilbara. Resource increases are anticipated from extensive mineralized hits outside current resource blocks and from the lower ore horizon below existing pit designs.

Trigg Mining is set to directly benefit from $678 million in government funding earmarked to upgrade “The Outback Way” linking Laverton in WA to Winton in Queensland. The funding will be used to seal the road extending from 40km east of Laverton to the WA-NT border, passing through Trigg’s tenure connecting the company’s developing Lake Throssel potash project with key domestic and international export markets.

ASX-listed Metal Hawk has lit up a string of bedrock conductors, potentially pointing to the presence of massive nickel sulphides following a ground electromagnetic survey at its Berehaven project located some 20km southeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Several of the identified conductors lie along strike from the company’s exciting massive nickel-sulphide Commodore discovery which has returned assays up to 5.89 per cent nickel.

Godolphin Resources has dated the mineralisation at its Turrawonga prospect within its Copper Hill East project in NSW which it says is remarkably similar to the massive Cadia and Boda copper-gold discoveries in the region. The company believes its porphyry intrusions date back to the Ordovician age, the same age as many major discoveries that hug the lucrative Molong Volcanic Belt in NSW.

Strickland Metals is hitting its Millrose gold project in WA hard with three drill rigs to remain on site for much of 2022. Drilling is currently focused on laterite hosted gold near surface and strike and depth extensions are key targets in a big push to add to the existing 603,000-ounce gold resource ahead of the development of a mining plan.

Surefire Resources may be poised to unwrap a parcel of polymetallic treasures after a high−resolution aeromagnetic survey and first-pass exploration work at its Kadji Project in the West Yilgarn region of WA confirmed the presence of nickeliferous ultramafic lithologies. The project is considered highly prospective for nickel, copper and platinum group elements and is in the same province as Chalice Mining’s Julimar Gonneville discovery.

Infill drilling by ASX-listed PolarX at its Caribou Dome copper deposit in Alaska has returned assays hitting an eye-watering 15 per cent copper underscoring the uber high-grade potential at the project. One notable intercept returned 19.09 metres at 7 per cent copper from 45m downhole and contained a high-grade interval of 3.98m going a staggering 14.8 per cent copper.

ASX-listed Okapi Resources has expanded its US uranium portfolio after staking more than 460 claims covering 3,600 hectares to acquire the high-grade Maybell Uranium project in Colorado. According to the company, the tenements boast historical production figures of 5.3 million pounds of uranium trioxide with a cracking average grade of around 1,300 parts per million.

Junior nickel explorer St George Mining has identified a strong off-hole conductor through down hole electromagnetic surveying nearby another at its Mt Alexander nickel-copper project in WA it believes may be a potential 70m long conductive horizon. The company says the off-hole conductivity readings are interpreted to be consistent with massive nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation and could represent an exploration breakthrough at the project.

Empire Energy’s exploration grants, rescinded by the Federal Court of Australia in late 2021, have been reinstated by the Federal Government providing almost $20 million in funding to Beetaloo Basin exploration. The package will cover 25 per cent of the cost of seismic data acquisition in addition to the drilling, fracture stimulation and flow testing of three horizontal appraisal wells.

ASX-listed junior explorer Askari Metals has capped off the second phase of drilling at its prospective Burracoppin gold project in Western Australia’s eastern wheatbelt. The company completed 1,300 metres over 13 reverse circulation holes following on from a number of significant strikes in the first pass. The junior has its eyes on a third round as it keenly awaits assay results.

Newfield Resources has appointed Charl Barnard as General Manager of its Tongo diamond mine in Sierra Leone. The new GM will hold the tiller as Newfield heads for diamond production. The Tongo diamond mine comprises two adjacent mining licenses covering a combined 134 square kilometres in eastern Sierra Leone. It has an indicated and inferred diamond resource estimate of 8.3 million carats.

Venus Metals Corporation, together with joint venture partner Rox Resources has continued its golden run of high tenor drill hits after a fresh set of results from recent work at the company’s flagship Youanmi gold project in WA. Notable results from recent drilling include 3.25 metres grading a formidable 32.22 grams per tonne gold from 282m downhole and 4m going 10.91 g/t gold from 196m downhole.

Mixed metals explorer Kairos Minerals could be onto lithium at its wholly owned Lalla Rookh Project, located in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia. The company has unveiled a suite of lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite targets that it says forms part of an ongoing battery metals hunt aimed at beefing up its new energy portfolio amid a ravenous global market for all things lithium.

Torian Resources has dished up further high-grade gold hits from recent resource and extensional drilling at its flagship Mt Stirling/Viserion project approximately 40km northwest of Leonora in WA that continues to consistently produce high tenor results. Notable recent results include 1 metre grading 5.57 grams per tonne gold from 20m downhole, 5m at 7.79 g/t gold from 194m and 2m going 15.21 g/t gold from 195m.

ASX-listed junior explorer Javelin Minerals has secured a further 72 sq kms of territory at its Mt Ida-Ida Valley project in a region currently under the microscope of other juniors for its multi-element mineralisation. The Mt Ida-Ida Valley project covers approximately 972 square kilometres in total of highly prospective ground about 100 kilometres west of Leonora in WA.

King River Resources will pick up a hefty $452,831 rebate from the federal government for research and development costs spent developing its high purity aluminium precursor compounds for application in the flourishing lithium-ion battery industry. Using the company’s proprietary “ARC” processing technology, three separate trials of a newly commissioned lab scale pilot plant have delivered a “Type 1” precursor aluminium salt at more than 99.999 per cent purity.

Junior explorer Meeka Gold has entered the rare earths game following the acquisition of the Cascade project that boasts a huge 2,068 square kilometre landholding in the emerging province along the Albany-Fraser mobile belt in southwest Western Australia. Neighbouring explorers have had successes in the region with the most notable being Mount Ridley Mines who intersected peak grades up to 10,461 parts per million rare earths.