Announcements

Shares in Kalgoorlie gold explorer Zuleika Gold more than doubled in intraday trading after wily WA “prospector” Mark Creasy produced a $3m cheque to back the company’s gold exploration efforts near Kalgoorlie. Zuleika shares touched 4.7c after closing at 2c the day before when the market learned that the man with the Midas touch saw something he liked at Zuleika.

ASX-Listed kaolin and gold explorer Kula Gold has restarted drilling at its 100 per cent owned Boomerang Kaolin prospect to finish a previously planned 62-hole program before adding a further 18 RC drillholes. Logging to date has displayed an average kaolin vertical thickness of 29 metres with an average depth of 5.7m below surface. The gold potential is also being tested in the bedrock beneath.

Blackstone Minerals has made a lightning bolt strategic investment in laterite nickel by rolling A$2.75m into NICO Resources’ IPO to gain a 15.11 per cent interest in the battery minerals hopeful that last year picked up Metals X’ massive Central Musgrave Project that spans both WA and South Australia. With a serious nickel metal endowment of some 1.95m tonnes, Blackstone says it is likely one of the largest undeveloped nickel resources globally.

Budding gold developer Calidus Resources is joining forces with Haoma Mining under the guise of new company, Pirra Lithium to unlock the lithium potential of more than 1,000 square kilometres of prime Pilbara real estate. The Pilbara Craton is shaping up to be one of the world’s major lithium and tantalum provinces housing the behemoth Wodgina and Pilgangoora lithium projects alongside Global Lithium’s evolving Archer deposit.

Manganese producer Element 25 Limited has tabled a solid set of financials following a recent scoping study for the construction and operation of its planned high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate plant. The financial metrics also showed a solid 20-year life for its Butcherbird manganese project in WA that is highly leveraged towards the emerging electric vehicle industry.

Alaska-focused oil explorer 88 Energy has tipped a February spud date for its Merlin-2 well in the American state of Alaska, after announcing it has commissioned a rig, is building a snow road and is close to regulatory approval for the 8000-foot follow-up to 2021’s Merlin-1 oil discovery.

Great Southern Mining has hit high grade gold at the Southern end of its Amy Clarke prospect in WA. Drilling intersections correlate with gold in soil anomalies and set the scene for a renewed hunt for grade at the Southern end of the prospect. The company says the fact that the high grade intersections were in bedrock suggests the source of the gold may be close by.

DiscovEx Resources and JV partner Carnaby Resources are continuing to spin the money wheel at their remarkable Greater Duchess copper discovery in Queensland that has already led to a tripling of Discovex’ share price and a nine fold increase for Canaby. The JV partners recently unveiled another slew of strong results from half a dozen holes drilled across the Lady Fanny and Burke & Wills prospects.

Askari Metals has snapped up over 1700 square kilometres of potentially prospective lithium ground in Western Australia‘s Pilbara region. The company has lodged a series of exploration licence applications that will see it step up its hunt for coveted battery metals such as lithium in an area known for housing some of the world’s largest lithium deposits.

ASX-listed explorer White Cliff Minerals has kicked off its first pass drilling program at the company’s Cracker Jack prospect, which is part of its Reedy South gold project in the lucrative Meekatharra-Cue goldfields of WA. The work is part of a 74 hole, 4,440 metre shallow RC drilling campaign across both the Cracker Jack and McCaskill Hill prospects.

Congolese focused battery metals explorer, AVZ Minerals, is now a dual listed company after its shares commenced trading on the United States OTCQX financial market. The company says the listing will help it capitalise on growing US interest in its majority-owned Manono lithium and tin project. OTCQX is the world’s largest market for over-the-counter securities.

Junior gold explorer, Torian Resources looks set to add rare-earth metals to its arsenal with the discovery of a significant yttrium anomaly at its Mt Stirling project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. A broad one kilometre anomaly has been uncovered at the project with peak values up to 521 parts per million of yttrium. The critically listed rare earth metal is used in renewable technologies including electric vehicles.

Copper developer Hot Chili continues to pump out some stellar drill results from its Cortadera copper-gold porphyry deposit in Chile as the company expands the shallow resources at its Cuerpo 1 and Cuerpo 2 deposits. Recent assay results include a massive 156 metre hit grading 0.4 per cent copper equivalent from surface that corresponds to 0.4 per cent copper and 0.1 grams per tonne gold.

West Australian-based explorer Kairos Minerals has unveiled a promising new greenfields gold target at its wholly owned 873,500oz Mt York gold project in WA’s Pilbara region. Following on from a recent 15,000m drilling blitz at Mt York, Kairos continues to probe the prospectivity of its extensive Pilbara tenure with results from the latest surface geochemical program throwing out values up to 4.6 g/t gold.

ASX-listed Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has begun assessing drill targets over its highly prospective but vastly under-explored Pinjin and Ninga Mia gold projects in Western Australia’s Goldfields. The Pinjin project occupies prime real estate along strike from Ramelius Resources’ Lake Rebecca project and Ninga Mia is no slouch either sitting adjacent to Kalgoorlie’s revered super pit.

Perth based Askari Metals has tabled a series of high-grade copper and gold results from a second round of rock chip sampling at its Horry copper project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Results from the recent sampling include a surface rock chip grading an impressive 8.5 per cent copper with 0.71 grams per tonne gold and 42 grams per tonne silver.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has launched a second RC drill campaign to follow up its initial successes achieved at the company’s La Mascotte and Great Ophir prospects within its Bulong Taurus project just 35kms east of Kalgoorlie. Encouraging results in the initial six hole drill campaign include a 7m hit going 14.87 grams per tonne gold from surface.

St George Mining has kicked off a diamond drill program at its Mt Alexander nickel-copper-platinum group element project in WA with the first of several high-priority seismic targets in its crosshairs. Confidence in the Mt Alexander area has been strengthened by a recent St George and CSIRO research project that indicates the rocks hosting nickel mineralisation at the nearby Cathedrals belt are associated with Mt Alexander.

Meeka Gold has launched a 7,000 metre aircore and RC drilling campaign at its Circle Valley gold project in the Albany-Fraser Mobile Belt in WA following up multiple gold hits intersected in 2021 drilling. Drill targeting will chase up a mineralised area defined through previous drilling and soil sampling that spans 1.2 kilometres by 400m and produced some solid results.

Globe Metals & Mining has appointed a full time Africa-based CEO to develop its Kanyika Project in Malawi, promoting Grant Hudson from General Manager - Corporate Services to run the aspiring niobium and tantalum miner. Long serving managing director Alistair Stephens will become a senior adviser to the Board and Executive Management Team that Globe said would allow for a smooth transfer of responsibilities.

Aldoro Resources is set to sink over 60 holes totalling 3730 metres across its Niobe East, Niobe Southeast and Breakaway pegmatites in WA after a RC drill rig was delivered to the site. The program follows a recently wrapped up exploration campaign that saw the company bag up around 50 rock chip samples with elevated lithium pathfinder minerals.

West Cobar Metals has mobilised a diamond drill rig to its Mount Jack copper-gold project in New South Wales with an initial 500 metre hole planned to test a bullseye ‘Cobar style’ anomaly. Historical drilling in the area showed geochemical indications of copper and gold mineralisation in the cover rocks but failed to reach the modelled magnetic target interpreted to sit at approximately 200m depth.

Aspiring silver and base metals producer Adriatic Metals has completed the finance for its Vares silver project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, bedding down US$142.5 million of debt finance and putting it in line to be Europe’s next miner. Last month Adriatic reported more high-grade silver and zinc hits from step-out holes near its cornerstone Rupice multi-commodity deposit, part of the larger Vares project.

Middle Island Resources has defined multiple drill targets considered prospective for “IOCG” style copper-gold mineralisation at its Crosswinds project within the emerging Tennant Creek mineral hub in the NT. An induced polarisation geophysical survey identified the deep-seated targets below previously defined surface copper mineralisation. A recent cash injection has the company well-funded with plans now being drawn up to commence an aggressive drilling campaign of the area.

DiscovEx Resources looks to have scored more runs in Queensland after its JV partner, Carnaby Resources unveiled a 60.3m strike going 0.9 per cent copper at the Greater Duchess project where DiscovEx holds a ‘free carried’ 17.5 per cent stake. Carnaby Resources, which owns the majority rights to the project near Mt Isa, says the hit confirms the continuity of the high-grade breccia shoot.

Buru Energy is nearing completion of its Ungani 8H horizontal development well in the Canning Basin oil field of Western Australia, with the company reporting the drilling program has surpassed the 2,000 metre mark en route to its intended depth of 2560m. Buru’s latest drive is the eighth well it has sunk into the Basin, designed to further increase production levels.

Torian Resources has unveiled another string of shallow gold hits from drilling at its flagship Mt Stirling project, some 40 kilometres north-west of Leonora in WA. The latest results include a 4 metre intersection grading 6.67 grams per tonne from 52m downhole and 8m at 1.21 g/t gold from 70m including a 1m section going 2.47 g/t gold from 72m.

Todd River Resources has re-commenced RC drilling at its Berkshire Valley nickel, copper and platinum group elements project following the recent Christmas break to chase up some sulphide occurrences and previously identified geochemical nickel-copper-PGE anomalies. Additionally, a moving loop electromagnetic survey is set to commence next week targeting conductors at depth in a newly identified area in the far north of the Berkshire Valley project.

Element 25 has roared back to life with record daily production after repair and modification works of the processing plant were completed at its Butcherbird manganese project in WA. The processing plant modifications, which were undertaken following a shaft failure late last year, delivered improved production volumes averaging 934 tonnes per day since kicking the plant back into action on 23 December 2021.

Troy resources is seeking shareholder approval for a series of agreements that would convert current debt into equity and raise funds to pursue its Smarts Underground project at its Karouni gold mine in Guyana and restart trading on the ASX. The company plans to convert approximately $18.7 million of debt to equity and issue shares at $0.022 to raise approximately $7.2 million to progress its South American mining operations.

Meeka Gold has made a promising start for the year intersecting thick gold mineralisation at its Turnberry South prospect, part of the larger Turnberry deposit in the Murchison region of WA. The company says its latest results add weight to its belief that it could have its hands on a sizeable mineralised system that extends over 5 kilometres.

Hot Chili, which took 100 per cent ownership of Cortadera last year - one of the two largest global copper discoveries since 2016 - has completed its journey to becoming a dual-listed company after its shares commenced trading on the Canadian TSXV this week. The C$30 million raised will underwrite 18-months of drilling and development works at its multi-deposit Costa Fuego copper-gold porphyry project in Chile.