Announcements

Image Resources has confirmed it has received the final approvals it needs to kick off the long-awaited onsite construction of its Atlas heavy mineral sands project in Western Australia’s Perth Basin. The company says it has now secured the vital go-ahead from the Federal Government after it satisfied proposed conditions relating to the Atlas development under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Terragen, a company aiming to fatten up global livestock while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Its stock jumped more 115 per cent on the back of sheep feed improvements. Other companies that saw their respective share prices run hard included HighCom, East 33 and Heavy Minerals.

In tough recent times for many junior mining companies on the ASX, luring a financially-powerful “big dog” onto the share register to provide some much-needed muscle has become a common boardroom pursuit. Bulls N’ Bears takes look at some of those companies which have received both a timely cash injection and a share price boost up to recent highs.

Aruma Resources has acquired three new projects featuring copper and uranium in South Australia and Queensland, adding to the company’s three-project rare earths and lithium portfolio in Western Australia. The new projects include the Wilan iron oxide-copper-gold-uranium project on SA’s Olympic Dam doorstep and the Queensland-based Fiery Creek copper play and Bortala copper operation that both sit within the State’s Mt Isa region.

Aurum Resources has launched a scoping study to assess the development potential of its Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire after locking in metallurgical experts in a push to deliver a resource estimate by year’s end. After a recent raft of high-grade hits and strong metallurgical test results, the appointments also signal the next step in pushing the project quickly towards a prefeasibility study.

ABx Group says it has uncovered the potential for resource extension at its Deep Leads rare earths prospect in Tasmania after receiving the first 316 assays from its 37-hole maiden air-core drilling sortie. The company’s latest assay suite not only revealed thicker rare earths intercepts than usual, but also a high 4.3 per cent proportion of the high-value dysprosium and terbium elements.

Horizon Minerals is wasting no time getting the diggers to work at its Phillips Find gold project near Coolgardie in WA following a recent merger with Greenstone Resources. A joint venture agreement has been finalised with BML Ventures to mine 200,000 of ore, which will be toll treated at the nearby Greenfields Mill during the next 11 months to produce almost 15,000 ounces of gold.

Reach Resources says geophysics, geochemistry and rock microscopy have confirmed a 4.5-square-kilometre oval body as an alkaline intrusive and the likely source of big rare earths-niobium hits at its Wabli Creek project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. Wabli Creek is one of two exploration licences held by Reach in the highly-prospective Yinnetharra area that is well-known for its often unusual, but critical mineral assemblages.

St George Mining has swooped on the niobium-rich Araxá rare earths project in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, picking it up for US$21 million (AU$33 million) from Toronto-listed fertiliser specialist, Itafos. Sitting 5km south of the town of Araxá and 1000km north-west of Rio de Janeiro, the project boundary adjoins the high-grade CBMM mine that produces 80 per cent of the world’s niobium.

Buru Energy has locked in a local drilling company to drill two oil wells in Western Australia’s onshore Canning Basin that form the centrepiece of the company’s farm-in joint venture with Sabre Energy. The campaign is set to test the promising Rafael Shallow and Mars exploration wells and binding drill rig hire agreements are to be executed shortly to enable drilling to kick off in September-October.

Radiopharm Theranostics has banked US$2 million from American medical giant Lantheus for the sale of two preclinical antibody assets that target and help to diagnose aggressive cancers. Lantheus is also set to tip in a further US$5 million via a placement at 5c a share – a 42 per cent premium to today’s price – with an option for another US$5 million investment within six months.

Sabre Energy has agreed to stump up $6 million in drilling and testing costs at Buru Energy’s Rafael Shallow oil well in Western Australia’s onshore Canning Basin to earn 50 per cent of any commercial discovery and production. If the drilling leads to a commercial discovery, Sabre will also compensate Buru for its prior Rafael exploration expenses with a further payment of $1.5 million.

Terrain Minerals plans to test its promising Wildflower gold project in Western Australia later this month, with an air-core drill program for 41 holes comprising about 2100m. Drilling will test the company’s two priority targets, Wildflower and Cota, where previous drilling and soil sampling produced encouraging results that management is keen to pursue at the project that sits within WA’s Murchison gold province.

A Latitude 66 geophysics survey has identified strong conductors at the company’s K9 prospect in Finland that correlate with multiple conductors down-plunge from known gold-cobalt mineralisation and local shear zone orientation. The significance of the downhole electromagnetic results from two adjacent holes is that they confirm continuity of K9 mineralisation towards the south-west and north-east and also down-dip and down-plunge.

Allup Silica has nabbed a prized at-surface heavy mineral sands project next to the Eyre Highway at Western Australia’s Eucla Basin in a bid to take advantage of a looming titanium shortage. The McLaren project, which has excellent road and rail access to the Port of Esperance, boasts a 2022 JORC-compliant resource of 280 million tonnes at 4.8 per cent heavy minerals.

A compelling prefeasibility study (PFS) for Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove gold-antimony project in New South Wales shows the operation will spit out an EBITDA of $652 million during a seven-year mine life. Using conservative pricing estimates, the company also revealed a post-tax NPV of $157 million, a post-tax IRR of 50 per cent and a maiden ore reserve of 606,000 ounces at 6g/t gold-equivalent.

Strickland Metals has hauled in a whopping 89.7m running at 4 grams per tonne gold from 244m at its wholly-owned Rogozna project in Serbia. The spectacular intercept includes 24m averaging an impressive 10.5g/t gold from 296m. The well-funded Western Australian explorer has four rigs working around the clock targeting extensions to the existing 4.6 million-ounce gold equivalent Shanac resource.

Meeka Metals has appointed top-gun mine site executive Matthew O’Hara to lead the construction phase for its 100 per cent-owned flagship Murchison gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company has today confirmed that funding is imminent, site environmental permits have been secured and a bigger-than-planned ball mill will be delivered by September, bringing the project another step closer to production.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Alto Metals, after it revealed high-grade gold rock chips – and then also confirmed a takeover bid by Brightstar Resources. There is obviously a fair bit to unpack there, but we will do just that and also look at other companies that ran hard this week, including African Gold, Appen and Atomos.

Buxton Resources is setting out on the trail of encouraging results gleaned last year from its Dogleg nickel-copper-cobalt project in WA’s Kimberley region as the company kicks off its new field season with up to eight diamond drillholes. Management is also planning to run extensive moving loop electromagnetic surveys to detect conductivity anomalies that could be related to nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide mineralisation away from previous drilling.

White Cliff Minerals has confirmed the locations of historical high-grade results for a suite of valuable minerals at its two key Canadian projects, defining multiple priority targets for early drilling after completing a maiden field work campaign. Field reconnaissance, mapping and sampling has identified four iron oxide-copper-gold targets at its Great Bear project and multiple styles of copper mineralisation at its Rae play.

Estrella Resources is continuing to deliver the goods at its Lautém project in virgin Timor-Leste, with the discovery of new supergene manganese mineralisation exposed from surface at its Sica prospect. The company also received “exceptional” assay results from grab samples taken at several nearby prospects, with grades reaching as high as 57 per cent manganese.

Triangle Energy Global’s hunt for onshore oil and gas in Western Australia has grown white-hot, with the spudding of its Booth-1 exploration well at the Booth prospect marking the launch of a highly-anticipated drilling campaign in the underexplored North Perth Basin. The drilling is targeting a hefty 279 billion cubic feet resource as part of Triangle’s joint venture agreement with Strike Energy and Echelon Resources.

Middle Island Resources has hit the ground running with the completion of the first of three diamond drill holes at its Flintstones-themed Georgina project in the Northern Territory where it is testing for iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) potential. The company recently kicked off its first round of drilling at Georgina and is expecting to drill three diamond drill holes between 600m and 650m deep.

Image Resources is continuing its push towards the construction of its Atlas heavy mineral sands project in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin after sealing State Government approval for its mining proposal. The approval from the WA Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety is another step forward along the development path for the project located 170km north of Perth.

Triangle Energy says its recent $4m capital raise was well supported by financial institutions and sophisticated investors as the company prepares to break out the drill rig for the first time in years in the Perth basin. Triangle is pivoting out of its near depleted Cliff Head offshore oil well and back into exploration with two interesting looking Perth Basin oil and gas plays.

Strickland Metals 40m step out with the drill rig at its Warmblood prospect near Wiluna has paid big dividends after the company nailed the down plunge extension of the higher up mineralisation. Management says it can now track the strike extent of the mineralisation at Warmblood covering a 1.4km trend and notably, the grade appears to be increasing at depth.

Aruma Resources has identified high-grade surface sample assays grading up to 36 per cent copper in data acquired from previous explorers in the company’s Fiery Creek copper project near Mt Isa in Queensland. The results come from surface rock chip sampling programs carried out across multiple prospects by previous explorers at Fiery Creek which include Sumitomo, Anglo American and MIM (now Glencore).

Horizon Minerals says it will bank $30m within 19 months after making a final investment decision to toll mine 45,800 ounces from its Boorara project on the doorstep of Kalgoorlie’s revered Super-Pit. The company will truck its ore 35kms north to the Paddington mill near the historic town of Broad Arrow. Open pit mining will begin in September.

In this edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the notable drill intersections revealed on the ASX this week, including Far East Gold’s 20m intercept at 7.57g/t gold and 8.5g/t silver from 67.5m. We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Vital Metals in Canada and AIC Mines in Queensland.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Delorean – a company mirroring the name of a now banged-up vehicle from the Back to the Future movie series – which threw out some striking financial results during an interesting quarterly reporting period. Other companies that saw their respective share prices run hard included Astute Metals, Hexima, Tissue Repair and E79 Gold Mines.

Buru Energy has significantly increased the contingent resource estimate for its Rafael discovery in Western Australia’s onshore Canning Basin, with a 3D seismic survey boosting the company’s projected gas and condensate volumes. Key findings have revealed that the gross recoverable 1C volumes have risen to 85 billion cubic feet of gas and 1.8 million barrels of condensate, enhancing management’s hopes of pursuing an LNG development.