Announcements

US oilfield services giant Halliburton has been piqued by Strike Energy’s ambitious Southern Cooper Basin project and has penned a MOU with the Adelaide explorer to potentially drill dozens of wells in the area. The deal has emerged less than a week before the ground-breaking Jaws-1 appraisal well kicks off. It will be one of the deepest pure coal seam wells ever drilled, at 2000m.

Plymouth Minerals is pulling out all stops at its San Jose lithium-tin project in Spain, appointing a senior executive to negotiate off-take deals and changing its name to reflect its aspirations for a big future based on lithium. Ryan Parkin has been appointed General Manager Corporate Development, bringing in additional skills to take San Jose from an advanced exploration project to a major supplier of lithium to the European market.

Draig Resources’ punt on a high-grade parallel lode to the famed and now closed Bellevue mine in the Wiluna belt continues to pay off, with a new series of high-grade gold hits at the Tribune Lode. Latest drill results have extended the depth of Bellevue-style quartz sulphide gold and confirmed the continuity, prompting acceleration in drilling activity.

ASX-listed Connected IO has secured a letter of intent from a US-based cyber security company to provide it with customised routers ahead of a proposed deal worth $6.9 million over a three-year period. The deal, which is expected to be finalised in the next week, will see Connected IO supply the US company with its cutting-edge Category 1 internet of things wireless routers .

Calima Energy has received an all-important permit from British Columbia authorities to build the road it hopes will lead to riches by unlocking liquids-rich hydrocarbons at its Canadian Montney Formation play. The company is shifting from acquisition phase to operational mode and will construct the road to give drill rigs and personnel access into one of the most lucrative plays in North America.

Geopacific is toasting the gift that keeps on giving at its Woodlark gold project in Papua New Guinea, which has delivered more high-grade intercepts in assay results from a 22-hole drilling campaign at the Boscalo area. The Perth company is on track to develop a world-class gold mining operation at Woodlark as it targets a revised ore reserve estimate of one million ounces plus by next month.

A young geologist who made several gold discoveries in the Forrestania gold belt 20 years ago has returned to the region at the helm of Classic Minerals to complete some unfinished business. Exciting geological models that went untested years ago because of a 2001 corporate collapse are finally being put to the test and already yielding spectacular results.

Greenland Minerals and Energy is manoeuvring itself to be one of the world’s largest suppliers of rare earth minerals outside of China. The company is looking to ride the clean energy wave with its elephant sized rare earths play in Greenland and it has already managed to lasso a major Chinese rare earths investor with a balance sheet worth around $4.5b.

Sky and Space Global has hit another milestone in its foray into the South American telecommunications market, with the ASX-listed company commencing testing of its nano-satellite based narrow-band communications network with major regional telco Globalsat Group. After testing, the two companies plan to negotiate a deal that will see Sky and Space provide telco services to Globalsat’s pan-South American customer base.

Aspire Mining has welded together a powerful consortium of Chinese players to deliver on its giant coal project in Mongolia. The ASX-listed junior said last week it has now expanded its consortium to include massive Chinese Government contracting firm The Gezhouba Group. The building of the proposed 549km rail will open up a world of opportunities for Aspire to commercialise its globally significant Ovoot coking coal project.

ASX-listed DroneShield has taken another major step with its cutting-edge anti-drone military hardware, winning a Paraguay Government tender for its drone defence products. The tender is a landmark deal for DroneShield, representing its first South American order and comes amid a ramp up in demand for drone-related security products in that country.

Reedy Lagoon Corporation’s innovative lithium brines play in Nevada is about to be put to the test, with the company spudding a big, 1000-metre deep well at its Columbus Salt Marsh project. The well is the first of its kind to be drilled under new regulations in Nevada and will take about 30 days to reach its target depth before testing begins in earnest.

Altech Chemicals has finalised a US$170m debt package guaranteed by the German Government on very favourable terms to cover more than half the cost of their high purity alumina project, based on the Meckering kaolin deposit in W.A. The “extremely attractive” loan is part of a $US190 million debt package subsidised by Germany because the project will use German technology and engineering.

Lithium Australia is set to become a producer of battery grade lithium chemicals and, in the process, establish its breakthrough SiLeach technology as the way of the future for the downstream lithium industry around the globe. The company has committed to build a large-scale pilot plant producing 2,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate per annum, with a view to ramping up to 10 times that production.

Galena Mining is racing towards a prefeasibility study on a high-grade-underground development of the giant Abra lead-silver deposit after completing a maiden drill program with high-grade hits encountered in every hole. Final assays released today completed a perfect run for Galena and have cleared the way for a maiden estimate of a high-grade resource within weeks.

Aerial drone detection and disabling company DroneShield, has released a new drone-combating product known as DroneGun Tactical. The new product has been launched as a complimentary weapon to DroneShield’s DroneGun MKII, both of which are able to force a drone to land or return to base. DroneGun Tactical has a few new features adding versatility to DroneShield’s security arsenal.

ASX-listed Online screening and verification company CVCheck reported an 11 per cent surge in cash receipts to $2.8 million last quarter on the back of burgeoning demand from corporate clients. Corporate customers now account for almost 60 per cent of total revenue as more and more large companies seek to weed out dodgy job seekers from their interview lists.

After a difficult 2017, Blackham Resources has turned around mining activity at its 100%-owned Wiluna gold project. A strong lift in ounces mined in January continued the positive trend begun late last year and the company expects strong operational cash flows through 2018. Blackham also enters the new year with a strong balance sheet thanks to a fully underwritten capital raising of $36 million that will see it convert resources to reserves.

A revised gas off-take agreement to supply packaging firm Orora has been pushed out to 2020, giving junior explorer Strike Energy the manoeuvrability to fully-focus on its streamlined development strategy in the Southern Cooper Basin Gas Project. The company has welcomed the new deadline for the deal as it prepares to spud its ground breaking Jaws-1 appraisal well, which is potential a game-changer for the oil and gas industry generally.

Calidus Resources has continued last year’s remarkable run with the drill bit with a new series of high-grade gold hits from two prospects within 15kms of its flagship Klondyke deposit in the East Pilbara. The latest results follow a 74% jump in the company’s resource base to more than 700,000 ounces last year and show Calidus is mastering the geology of a significant new gold region.

The final piece of the land jigsaw puzzle has been put in place by Calima Energy as the ASX-listed company completed its core acquisition strategy in the lucrative and liquids-rich sweet spots of the Montney Formation in northeast British Columbia, Canada. The Perth-based explorer is now targeting the next phase culminating in a drilling campaign to take advantage of increasing oil price tailwinds.

New geophysical work by St George Mining at its East Laverton project suggests the Windsor X3 conductor could represent a deeper, larger nickel target than previously modelled which prompted an immediate second drill hole. An electromagnetic survey down the first hole at Windsor X3 suggested a conductor about twice the previous size was lurking further down.

Metallurgical testwork on King River’s giant Speewah vanadium deposit in the Kimberley has shown that it could produce super-high purity titanium dioxide, boosting the economics of the project. The latest leach test on Speewah concentrates produced 99.5% purity titanium dioxide. The high purity levels potentially open up new master allow markets such as the aerospace market for King River.

ASX-listed biotech PharmAust has successfully identified a revamped formulation of its promising anti-cancer drug “Monepantel”. Perth-based PharmAust says that the reformulated Monepantel will improve the drug’s taste and enable the delivery of over 10 times the amount of substance per dose than previously, paving the way for clinical trials ahead of full scale commercialisation.

One of the oil industry’s top analysts has given a very positive report on Strike Energy as it embarks on a drill program with the potential to save the east coast gas market from its supply shortage. Peter Strachan’s new report concludes Strike is worth 66% more than its current share price and that’s before the high-impact Jaws drilling program gets underway in the Cooper Basin.

Sky and Space Global is collaborating with pan-African telco player Paratus Group on a field trial that will see a point-of-sale device connected to a bank via the ASX-listed company’s nano-satellite-based IP network. Sky and Space sees the trial as a way to open the door to the multi-billion-dollar global point-of-sale market, especially in the rapidly expanding African market.

Aquabotix has reported a 22% increase in cash receipts for the December quarter, putting the underwater drone player in a sound financial slipstream as it accelerates towards new growth targets. The Sydney and Massachusetts-based company added 10 new distributors to its global network in the last quarter of the year and has revised sales targets for its automated drones in a number of industries.

BlackEarth Minerals is throwing plenty of expertise at its advanced graphite exploration project in Madagascar, making two key appointments ahead of next month’s commencement of a major drilling operations. The newly listed company has secured an exploration services company with deep experience in Madagascan graphite and a geology manager with a solid graphite CV.

Nzuri Copper’s Kalongwe copper-cobalt project could be set for a mine life extension after exploration drilling just 2.5kms away produced a series of very positive results that may lead to a satellite orebody. Drilling at Monwezi 2 has extended an historic copper-cobalt intercept in three directions and confirmed a new geological interpretation of the target.

ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals has been given the green light by Slovenian authorities, who have given the medical marijuana company’s European medicinal cannabis production facility a tick of approval. The company has now cleared an important regulatory hurdle for the production of its products in Europe, whilst it also steps up the approvals process for the import of medicinal and beauty brands into Australia.

Lithium Australia’s lithium mica Sadisdorf project in Germany has received a boost with news that joint venture partner Tin International has been awarded a highly prospective exploration permit nearby in Saxony’s Ore Mountains region. The Perth-based lithium processing and exploration specialist said the new permit would become part of the joint venture and was thought to have a high likelihood of hosting substantial tin-lithium mineralisation.

Hammer Metals aims to continue its spectacular run of success with the drill bit with the start of a 13-hole RC program at the Jubilee copper gold prospect southeast of Mt Isa. Drilling began last week to follow up last month’s maiden drill program, which produced a stunning 5 metres at 7.35% copper and 3.75 g/t gold from just 35m down-hole. Investors are now eagerly awaiting results from the second RD program.