Announcements

Novo Resources is closing out its year with a flurry, revealing it has formed a new joint venture partnership with private company Liatam Mining for its Quartz Hill project in Western Australia’s East Pilbara region. Subject to TSX approval, Liatam has also agreed to invest $1.8 million for 9 million Novo shares at 20c each to increase its shareholding to about 6 per cent.

GreenTech Metals has wrapped up what it says has been a “transformative” year for the company after finishing a maiden diamond drilling program for both its Osborne JV and Ruth Well projects in the West Pilbara region of WA. The program involved four holes for a total of 1611m and was designed to assess stratigraphic and structural aspects of the lithium-rich pegmatites in both areas.

Galan Lithium is on track to install the first pond of its Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in Argentina before the end of the year, with 85 per cent of the construction process now complete. The initial filling of the pond is expected by the first quarter of next year and the project remains on track for maiden production in the first half of 2025.

Aurum Resources has completed its acquisition of PlusOr Global and now officially owns ground in Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire, where historic drill hits have run as high as 1m at a massive 30.8g/t gold from 42m. The company says diamond drilling at the project is underway and 29 holes have been completed across three targets for 4592m of core, with assays due back next month.

Altech Batteries has forecast a stunning project life EBITDA of more than €3.08 billion (AU$5 billion) for its 8000 tonnes per annum Silumina Anodes project in Germany following the completion of a definitive feasibility study. The facility will produce patented alumina-coated silicon battery anode materials known as Silumina Anodes to meet high demand in the European and US electric vehicle and grid storage battery markets.

Legend Mining says seismic reprocessing and machine learning have boosted the exploration potential of its Rockford project within Western Australia’s rugged Fraser Range, about 250km east of Kalgoorlie. The new geophysical datasets suggest a depth extension of the Mawson nickel-copper-cobalt deposit that already has an indicated resource of 860,000 tonnes at 1.34 per cent nickel, 0.88 per cent copper and 0.08 per cent cobalt.

Strickland Metals is finishing off a prosperous 2023 in style, today revealing new assay results from air-core drilling at its Horse Well prospect in Western Australia’s Mid West region, that include a highlight hit of 36m at 1.2g/t gold from 24m, with 16m going 2.5g/t gold from 32m. The company says the intercept highlights new mineralisation potential between its Filly SW and Warmblood resources.

The addition of fluorine to the Australian Government’s list of critical minerals has put ABx Group in prime position to impact global supply after it successfully pilot tested its new fluorine reactor process. The batch-scale testing that involved the processing of waste bath was recently carried out by the company’s 83 per cent-owned subsidiary, Alcore.

An independent life-cycle assessment into Neometals’ Primobius lithium-ion battery recycling plants has shown the potential for its strategy to produce key battery materials with an exceptionally low carbon footprint. The assessment, conducted by environmental impact mitigation company Minviro, confirmed Primobius’ integrated hydrometallurgical refining process had a significantly lower footprint in terms of global warming potential.

AVZ Minerals has laid claim to having the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium deposit after pumping up the resource at its Manono play in the DRC to a whopping 574 million tonnes at 1.63 per cent lithium oxide. It comes on the back of tabling a maiden resource for its Carrière de L’Este pegmatite of 173 million tonnes at 1.58 per cent lithium oxide.

Terrain Minerals has identified traces of sulphides and alteration in samples in a maiden drilling program at the company’s Larin’s Lane deposit in Western Australia’s Mid West region after plunging 101 drill holes for 6611m. The company says the campaign within its 100 per cent-owned Smokebush project was aimed at testing the bedrock under previously-defined copper, nickel and gold anomalies at the prospect.

The first look at Buru Energy’s Rafael well three-dimensional (3D) seismic cube shows data quality improvement and confirms the structure as a significant gas and condensate resource – with step-out prospectivity. Management says it can already see the reservoir and top-seal intervals in a structure similar to that mapped on historic two-dimensional data. The final volume is due by the end of February.

Si6 Metals has added further impetus to its highly-prospective Botswana precious and base metals play, with its latest drill program striking high-grade silver and copper and exciting visual nickel sulphides. The company’s three projects in the southern African country provide a compelling mix of in-demand metals that are all expected to play a big role in the future clean-energy transition.

Lithium Universe says a study into its lithium carbonate refinery at its burgeoning Québec processing hub suggests it should produce a final lithium carbonate product grading between 99.5 and 99.9 per cent. The refinery is rated to 16,000 tonnes per annum, with an assumed feed grade of 5.5 per cent lithium oxide. Hatch has completed the study and a construction site has been selected.

Novo Resources will join forces with SQM Australia after the latter agreed to pay $10 million for a 75 per cent interest in five of the former’s lithium-nickel tenements in Western Australia’s West Pilbara region. The two companies will create the “Harding Battery Metals” joint venture, with the deal also including an option over additional tenements held by Novo in the Pilbara.

ASX-listed Larvotto Resources is looking at a major transitional change from mineral explorer to producer after confirming it had picked up the Hillgrove gold-antimony project in NSW for a song. The company acquired the 1.4-million-ounce gold equivalent operation after entering into a binding term sheet with the administrators of former owner Red River Resources for a purchase price of less than $6 per ounce.

Meeka Metals says it has gathered high-grade gold results from 10 infill air-core drillholes at its St Anne’s resource target about 30km north-east of Meekatharra, including a 7m hit at a grade of 3.51g/t gold with 2m going 9.84g/t. The company says the results are supported by other high-grade intercepts in adjacent holes, including 1m at 13.45g/t gold.

King River Resources is set for a big 2024, with 20,000m of drilling planned for 12 priority targets at its Tennant Creek gold project in the Northern Territory after running an extensive geophysics campaign this year. The company has set aside $2.5 million for the program, which includes 17 reverse-circulation (RC) holes already completed for 2790m at its Providence prospect.

A Strickland Metals decision to lock its full focus on its Marwari target at Yandal in Western Australia is paying almost immediate dividends, with new high-grade gold hits including 24m at 7.4g/t from 29m and a second hole yielding 3m at 8.9g/t gold from 71m. The company says the 24m intersection also contained a 5m slice going 28g/t gold.

Aruma Resources has produced its best rare earths grades to date from its Saltwater project near Newman in Western Australia, with rock-chip assays as high as 1777.5ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO) and soils as high as 1092.5ppm. The company says the area continues to reveal a major volcanogenic massive sulphide system hosting multi-commodity enrichment that will be tested by drilling next year.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears profiled ASX runner is … Arrow Minerals. Its shares tripled this week to join fellow movers and shakers Battery Minerals, West Cobar Metals and Sigma Healthcare.

88 Energy has expanded its footprint in Texas after agreeing to pick up an interest in Permian Basin production and development assets with best-estimate reserves of 0.68 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). The ground has nine producing wells that pumped out 6200BOE gross in 2022 – with an estimated net profit for the project of about $300,000.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has grabbed 38.5 square kilometres of highly-prospective new gold ground east of Kalgoorlie in WA – and it sits just 1800m away from shallow gold hits at its Kirgella Gift and Providence targets. The new permit has not been subjected to in-depth historic exploration, but is on a major tectonic feature that also hosts Ramelius Resources’ 1.4-million-ounce Rebecca gold project.

Everest Metals has determined a JORC-compliant rubidium-lithium exploration target at its Mt Edon project in WA’s South Murchison region, but says more work is required to quantify the geological system. The company has today outlined a resource target range of between 3.2 and 4.5 million tonnes, with potential grades going 0.23 to 0.35 per cent rubidium oxide and 0.08 to 0.12 per cent lithium oxide.

Buxton Resources has nailed a massive 405.38m intercept at 0.7 per copper equivalent from 608.38m during its maiden drill program testing porphyry mineralisation at its Copper Wolf project in Arizona. The impressive intersection sits below a previous drillhole that returned 83.76m grading 0.9 per cent copper equivalent from 527.91m, which the company says results in an aggregate section of about 485.85m going 0.73 per cent.

ABx Group says three runs of its new bath reactor under standard process conditions have removed more than 90 per cent of fluorine from test samples and is producing hydrogen fluoride gas from each batch. The company says metal sulphate samples from the process have been sent for analysis to confirm yields, with results expected next month.

Infinity Mining rock-chip sampling has extended the pegmatite strike length of its recently-renamed Woody prospect in WA’s Pilbara region from 1.5km up to 5.7km, with a peak result of 2.9 per cent lithium oxide. The company collected 98 samples from the site, with 12 assays showing results above 1 per cent lithium oxide from outcropping pegmatites and 30 displaying visible spodumene or lepidolite.

Everest Metals is on the hunt for potential ore-grade gold and base metals mineralisation in an area of about 22 square kilometres at its Revere project in Western Australia’s Mid West region following an initial drilling program. The company interprets the results as evidence of proximity to potentially significant styles of mineralisation such as base metal sedimentary exhalative deposits and possible orogenic gold.

American West Metals has pumped up the mineral resource at its West Desert project in Utah with nearly 24 million ounces of indium and 119,000 gold ounces and says it has the only indium deposit in the United States. The updated JORC resource adds to the existing 1.3 million tonnes of zinc, 49,000 tonnes of copper and 10 million ounces of silver at the project.

BMG Resources’ second round of drilling at its Bullabulling project near Coolgardie in Western Australia has nailed high-grade gold hits up to 4m at 10.12g/t in shallow drilling and confirmed stacked, lithium-rich pegmatites with a best slice of 4m at 0.56 per cent lithium oxide. The company says it highlights its discovery potential in a “world-class Australian lithium and gold region”.

ChemX Materials has shifted its focus from its micro-plant operation to the design and delivery of the company’s high-purity alumina pilot plant after achieving 99.996 purity using its “HiPurA” process. It is now on track for first commissioning in next year’s first quarter and with the purity capability consolidated within the design, the next stage of development is the procurement of longer lead items.

Reach Resources says it has seen multiple thick, stacked pegmatites in reverse-circulation (RC) cuttings within the same rock package that hosts Delta Lithium’s Malinda and Jamesons projects to the east and west. The company says it has now completed 57 RC holes for 5282m at its Morrissey Hill lithium project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, with the majority intersecting pegmatites.