Announcements

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining says a review of its Kirgella Gift and Providence gold prospects has revealed similarities to Ramelius Resources’ 1.4-million-ounce Rebecca project, suggesting shallow open pit potential. The project analogy has led to the modified modelling of potential ore zones to distinguish lower-grade, but important gold envelopes enclosing shallow, high-grade zones, with the goal of adding ounces and enabling simpler bulk mining.

The Environmental Protection Authority has given Image Resources conditional approval to push ahead with the development proposal for its Atlas mineral sands project in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin. The company says that while the recommendation for its 100 per cent-owned project will now undergo a three-week review period, it believes it is now a matter of “when”, not “if” Atlas will proceed.

Infinity Lithium has secured a new 35-year lease on land that now expands the footprint of its San José project in Spain, following a new deal struck by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies. The company says its second major acquisition of rights and access to land that will be home to its processing facility is a milestone that provides long-term leasehold over 11 hectares.

ABx Group has expanded the rare earths zone at its Deep Leads-Rubble Mound project in northern Tasmania, with new drill hits showing mineralisation enriched in the valuable heavy rare earths, dysprosium and terbium. The company says its latest drilling proves that the site west of Launceston retains the highest proportion of the two elements of any clay-hosted rare earths resource In Australia.

St George Mining says it is now one of the biggest landholders in Western Australia’s Ravensthorpe region after it was granted an additional two exploration licenses to increase the size of its Myuna Rocks project by 273sq km. The company has identified a slew of new lithium targets in a more than 50km prospective corridor along strike from Allkem’s Mt Cattlin mine.

Aurumin has bolstered its financial position at its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, with a refreshed “drill-for-equity” agreement coming hot on the heels of it closing out on a convertible note. The company’s rekindled deal with drilling contractor Topdrill will give management crucial choice and flexibility to increase drilling while preserving its cash.

Larvotto Resources has identified multiple new copper-gold-cobalt drill targets following a recent induced-polarisation geophysical survey at its Mt Isa project, adjacent to the historic town of the same name in north-west Queensland. The company is now planning reverse-circulation and diamond drilling at three main targets in the tough and hilly terrain across its prospective project area.

A recent share price hike for White Cliff Minerals has triggered a cash bonanza for the company after it today confirmed $4.33 million worth of options had been exercised on the back of its rally from recent lows. Touching as low as 0.9c to start the new year of trading, the share price rose to as high as 1.9c after it grabbed new Canadian ground.

Strickland Metals says ongoing re-evaluation work at its Horse Well project in the Western Australian desert shows its Palomino and Clydesdale prospects could be part of the same system and could even extend into its Marwari deposit – just 250m east of Palomino. The company says Palomino and Clydesdale exhibit shallow, high-oxide grades in initial drilling, but are untested along strike, down-dip and down-plunge.

Shares in Aurum Resources jumped more than 30 per cent this morning after it recorded a whopping 73m intercept going 2.15g/t gold from 172m at its Boundiali project in the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire. The impressive drill hit contained several high-grade sections, with highlights showing a 4m segment grading 18.63g/t gold from 185m including 1m at a staggering 72.11g/t from 188m.

Oil explorer 88 Energy has officially kicked off operations at its Hickory-1 well in Alaska, with bore preparations complete ahead of perforation and flow-testing, which is expected to be completed this month. Management says that data will provide the crucial first steps on the path to development for its greater Phoenix project that sits on the onshore oil section of Alaska’s north slope.

Buxton Resources says samples from its Sun Devil and Aztecs prospects in Arizona have revealed geochemical signatures indicating the sites lie above the main copper molybdenum-enriched zone of a typical porphyry system. The 87 rock chip samples yielded results of up to 3.08 per cent copper, 156ppm molybdenum and 9.34g/t silver, strongly indicating the potential for a copper-porphyry target to exist at depth.

Reach Resources has linked up with emerging developer Delta Lithium, signing an earn-in and JV agreement on its Morrissey Hill and Camel Hill projects in Western Australia’s prospective Gascoyne region. Delta will pay Reach a non-refundable $3.2 million and can earn an initial 51 per cent interest by spending $3 million on exploration within the first two years.

Terrain Minerals has unveiled what it believes are the early signs of a significant rare earths discovery, with high-grade gallium as an added bonus, at its Larin’s Lane project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company says the first results from its drilling at the project last December include gallium oxide grades of up to 57 grams per tonne.

Galan Lithium has expanded its holdings near the world-class Greenbushes mine to 315 square kilometres after it received an exploration licence for a new tenement less than 30km south of the Western Australian lithium operation. Adding more than 40sq km to its current Greenbushes South project, the company says its latest acquisition contains historical tin workings associated with lithium-bearing pegmatites.

King River Resources has revealed promising geochemical anomalism at its Providence target that lies along strike from a highly-regarded copper operation in the heart of Australia’s Northern Territory. The company says the anomalism could be related to the style of Tennant Minerals’ Bluebird-Perseverance deposit that has thrown up results including 61.8m at a grade of 2.3 per cent copper.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears top ASX runner is… Macro Metals. Its share price rose more than 166 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers Immuron, Sultan Resources and Dynamic Metals.

St George Mining has launched a new drilling mission designed to better define the rare earths footprint at its Destiny project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields, where it has previously jagged up to 5125ppm TREO. Maiden drilling results at Destiny showed rare earths mineralisation in near-surface clay zones up to 42m thick throughout a 7km-long zone that remains open in all directions.

Toro Energy says it has expanded its uranium and vanadium resources at its Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede deposits near Wiluna by lowering the cut-off grade and creating new pit designs in light of the commodity’s booming global prices. The company says it is now using a 100ppm cut-off grade to bring it in line with its peers and to allow the expansion of resource envelopes.

Lindian Resources has delivered more shallow and high-grade hits from drilling at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, including a monster 19m section at 3.77 per cent total rare earth oxides from surface. The company recently completed its third-phase infill campaign at the operation, aiming to define a significant portion of its inferred mineral resource into an indicated category.

Aruma Resources appears to have landed a decent fish after nailing higher-grade rare earths drill hits and samples at its Salmon Gums project, about 200km south of the regional town of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. The company says one surface sample produced the highest recorded rare earths grade to date in the emerging Esperance ionic clay region.

Xanadu Mines says oxide leach testwork on ore from its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia has highlighted the potential to conduct commercialised processing and generate significant early cash. The company says leaching tests on the shallower oxidised portion of the project’s mineral resource delivered positive metallurgical extraction results of up to 93 per cent copper and 46 per cent gold.

Aurumin is primed and ready to get back to the drill rig at its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region after closing out on the final $1.07 million owing on a convertible note. The company says it will immediately exploit its financial freedom with a firm commitment to getting its Sandstone project back to “pouring gold bars”.

Channel sampling at Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove gold-antimony project in NSW has delivered sparkling assays going as high as 63 grams per tonne gold, 13.82g/t silver and more than 30 per cent antimony. Management says the impressive results highlight the high-grade nature of the operation, while samples from the 1.5-million-tonne historical tailings facility recorded gold grades exceeding the average of many operating open pit mines.

BMG Resources has applied for two additional exploration licences adjoining its granted Dragon project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region – an emerging world-class niobium-rare earths district. It says data reviews have identified several areas where strong magnetic features are located next to major faults, which can be interpreted as being highly-prospective for potential carbonatites and represents priority niobium-rare earths exploration targets.

Surefire Resources has strengthened its growing ties with Saudi Arabia after signing a new agreement designed to assist in development and investment for its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA’s Mid West. The non-binding agreement with Saudi-based RASI Investment allows both parties to explore a joint venture or co-developer structure to assist in potential downstream processing facilities for offtake from the project.

Strickland Metals says it has connected its Bronco and Konik gold prospects to form one big structure at its Horse Well play near Wiluna, making a bulk-tonnage target with a high-grade surface oxide zone. The company says it has made the crucial interpretation on the back of re-evaluating historic Bronco data in conjunction with its own geological information following its Konik discovery.

DiscovEx Resources has stretched its Hercules prospect to a whopping 7km of anomalous gold found in soil after a sampling program at its Edjudina project, about 200km north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The extensional program completed north of the Hercules target produced multiple higher-tenor results within the broad anomalous zone, adding to several prospective targets already identified at the project.

Lindian Resources has backed up positive recovery results from testwork on ore from its giant Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi with concentrate grades ranging between 55 per cent and 68 per cent TREO. The company’s latest metallurgical test results confirm achievable recoveries of 70 per cent TREO, in line with results delivered in April last year.

Xanadu Mines says it has recorded early metallurgical recoveries of up to 98 per cent copper and 95 per cent gold from rougher flotation testwork on ore from its Kharmagtai project in Mongolia. Management says the results are in line with or better than previous scoping study assumptions and show a potential value uplift in final prefeasibility study (PFS) recoveries.

Radiopharm Theranostics says a new six-patient study shows its terbium-based treatment has superior potential to tackle prostate cancer than lutetium following a head-to-head assessment of the rare earths metals in its therapies. Management says the results from tests on patients with metastatic “castrate-resistant” cancer vindicate its development of next-generation, terbium-based radiotherapies for the treatment of the often deadly condition and other advanced cancers.

Javelin Minerals has revealed two significant board moves, adding well-known corporate finance executive Brett Mitchell and experienced geologist Pedro Kastellorizos as it prepares for more drilling in New South Wales. The company says Mitchell, who has more than 25 years of experience in the equity and venture capital markets, will take the reins as executive chairman. Kastellorizos will be a non-executive director.