Announcements

Askari Metals has put the full stop on an extensive field work program after collecting 800 soil samples at its Red Peak project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region in its mission to test anomalous areas of lithium and rare earths. Management says the results of the program will help shape further exploration plans, including a maiden drill campaign.

Brightstar Resources has inked an earn-in agreement with DevEx Resources on two of the former’s Goongarrie project exploration licences. The deal will see Brightstar retain all gold rights, while DevEx can earn up 75 per cent of the non-gold rights by exploring for nickel along the northward extensions of existing and historic deposits within the Highway ultramafic.

The natural hydrogen exploration program run by Buru Energy ’s 100 per cent-owned hydrogen and helium business, 2H Resources, has been substantially boosted by a new research agreement with the CSIRO. Management says the resulting study will focus on developing autonomous monitoring sensors to detect real-time surface occurrences of natural hydrogen in the same way mineral explorers use geochemical sampling.

Strickland Metals has filled its coffers to the tune of about $61 million after officially completing the sale of its Millrose project near Wiluna to neighbouring gold-mining giant Northern Star Resources. Strickland received an initial cash deposit of $2 million before getting an additional $39 million and 1.5 million fully-paid ordinary Northern Star shares upon the completion of the sale.

Ora Banda Mining has hailed a strong finish to the financial year after mining a record 16,700 gold ounces at its Missouri open-pit mine in the June quarter – a 49 per cent increase from the previous period. The company churned through more than 229,000 tonnes at a grade of 2.3g/t gold, with higher volumes after exposing and mining its WMC and Monarch lodes.

ASX-listed mining software provider K2fly has unveiled revenue of $4m for the final quarter of the financial year – a 38 per cent rise from the same period last year and up 18 per cent on the previous quarter. Management says the strong results wrapped up a solid year of growth, which saw revenue grow 28 per cent compared to the previous 12 months.

Perth-based Surefire Resources has unlocked the door to the main stage for global battery and LED markets by confirming 99.99 per cent pure alumina in testwork, using waste rock from its Victory Bore vanadium deposit, about 400km east of the Western Australian port of Geraldton. High-purity alumina is a highly-specialised product and commands a tasty price of about $30,000 to $45,000 a tonne.

Perth-based explorer Emu NL is poised to drill a network of clay-filled, rare earths-prospective channels up to 6km wide and down to 100m in depth at its wholly-owned Condingup project near Esperance on Western Australia’s picturesque south coast. Outcropping source rocks proved fertile and the company plans to drill its clays in September, with assays due in October.

GreenTech Metals has confirmed its discovery of a new southern high-grade lithium pegmatite trend, with solid hits of up to 3.6 per cent lithium oxide in the latest assays reported from its Osborne joint venture. The find could extend the overall scale of pegmatite-hosted lithium mineralisation eastwards from the company’s adjoining Ruth Well project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Galan Lithium says it has produced a premium-quality lithium chloride concentrate from its Hombre Muerto West project pilot plant in Argentina, with samples ready to distribute to potential offtake partners. The company’s concentrate product contains 6 per cent lithium – comparable to 13 per cent lithium oxide or 31.9 per cent lithium carbon equivalent.

White Cliff Minerals has recorded significant extensions to its maiden rare earths discovery at its Hines Hill project near Merredin in Western Australia, in addition to completing a sampling blitz across five other sites. Follow-up air-core drilling shows a 5m hit going 2066ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO) from a relatively shallow depth of 16m that included 434ppm magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO).

Buru Energy has commissioned 200 square kilometres of three-dimensional seismic data over its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas-condensate discovery in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, as the company takes aim at an appraisal drilling campaign. The survey will assist the company in de-risking reservoir factors in a bid to progress its commercial case for its potentially large-scale discovery.

Lithium chaser Gold Mountain plans to use a fresh cash injection of $2.25 million from the company’s latest capital raise to turbocharge its exploration efforts in the mineral’s burgeoning Brazilian hotspot. Management says its exploration to date has identified 250 pegmatites, with multiple soil and rock-chip sample results pending as it eyes a maiden drilling program by years end.

TSX-listed Novo Resources is set to kick off a combined 8000m drill campaign across its key Pilbara prospects and its Belltopper project in Victoria following the company’s success at its Becher gold play. The exploration program will target Novo’s Nunyerry North, Balla Balla and Bamboo-Strattons projects in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, while it also has plans for a diamond drill campaign at Belltopper.

Toro Energy says geochemical analysis of assays from a hole drilled at its Dusty nickel project show two additional zones of nickel sulphides that extend its existing mineralisation closer to the surface. It has reported a 4.6m massive nickel sulphides intercept going 1.61 per cent nickel and 0.22 per cent copper from 194.2m at the base of the Dusty komatiite.

Auric Mining has the first gold pour from its Jeffreys Find gold project near Norseman in Western Australia at its fingertips, with management confirming it had started milling its first batch of ore. The company’s first 30,000 tonnes of ore will be processed at the Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie by end of this month, with another 100,000 tonnes waiting at the mine ready for trucking.

A reassessment of exploration data by Askari Metals has revealed a “corridor of interest” about 15km long and 5km wide and with visible lithium mineralisation at the company’s Uis project in Namibia. Management says planning is now underway to focus its exploration activity on the intriguing new area, as the explorer also evaluates recent acquisitions near its project.

Inaugural drilling in three locations at Brightstar Resources’ new Menzies gold project has returned multiple high-grade hits of up to 39g/t gold in initial assays from the first 10 holes of a recently completed 37-hole program, for a total of 4486m. Management says its work confirms high grades typical of the historic underground mines of the Menzies goldfields.

Horizon Minerals has revealed fresh mineral resource estimates for its Golden Ridge North and Monument gold prospects in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, to take its total resource to 23.22 million tonnes at 1.69 grams per tonne gold for 1.26 million ounces. Management says further drilling is now underway at its Monument prospect, while both deposits will soon be the subject of scoping studies.

Xanadu Mines is pushing to enhance the current resource at its Kharmagtai project in Mongolia after a new zone of high-grade copper-gold emerged from infill drilling at the company’s White Hill deposit. Management has four diamond drill rigs focused on infill drilling at the operation, with 27,000m of a planned 30,000m campaign completed at its Stockwork Hill and White Hill deposits.

ASX-listed Classic Minerals has ticked off another key milestone for its Kat Gap gold mine in Western Australia, after using its Butchart table separator to produce gold concentrate that will now be processed into gold dore. Management says smelting its concentrate will generate revenue that will fund stage-one mining at the Kat Gap pit and targeted exploration in an effort to build more ounces.

Infinity Lithium has secured a long-term land lease from local owners for the development of its San José lithium project in Spain, for a minimum of 35 years through its subsidiary, Extramadura New Energies. According to the agreement, the leased land is already zoned industrial, located within a granted exploration permit and includes the San José lithium deposit.

Godolphin Resources has launched a two–hole, 550m diamond-core drilling campaign at its 100 per cent-owned Goodrich-Yeoval porphyry copper-gold project in NSW to test targets below historic drilling that hit the two minerals. The company expects to complete its drilling program later this month, with assay results due to be returned by the end of this quarter.

ABx Group has bumped up its Tasmanian ionic-adsorption clay-hosted rare earths mineral resource estimate by 30 per cent to 27 million tonnes averaging 803ppm TREO. The updated figure comes courtesy of an additional 36 drill holes that have stretched the company’s prospective target area across a 16km strike from the Deep Leads-Rubble Mound deposit through to its recent Windbreak discovery.

Soil sampling by WA-based explorer Alma Metals at its Briggs project in Queensland has expanded its soil copper anomaly out to 2300m long and 1000m wide, with readings of more than 500 parts per million copper. Management says the work has allowed it to revise its target of 480 million tonnes to 880 million tonnes at between 0.20 per cent and 0.30 per cent copper.

Aurumin has acquired two new exploration licence applications next to the company’s 881,000-ounce Sandstone gold project. The new ground encloses similar prospective geology and mineralisation controls to those within Aurumin’s main project area. With only limited exploration to date at the company’s new ground, it offers considerable additional potential to discover previously unknown areas of gold mineralisation.

Middle Island Resources has officially increased its tenure in the Northern Territory and expanded its Barkly site after completing the acquisition of the East Tennant project from Strategic Energy Resources. The purchase covers six exploration licenses, taking its total landholding in the East Tenant region to an impressive 6753 square kilometres, with exploration programs set to be planned to identify new priority targets.

Ardea Resources and Brightstar Resources have agreed to a tenement swap as the former looks to expand its Kalgoorlie nickel project Goongarrie Hub, while the latter builds its Menzies gold-lithium operation. Brightstar will acquire all mineral rights to 10 prospecting licenses immediately adjacent to or along strike at its existing holdings, in addition to gold and lithium rights to another exploration license.

Lindian Resources expects to reveal a maiden rare earths mineral resource for its emerging Kangankunde project in Malawi in just a fortnight, on the back of what it says are some world-leading numbers. The company’s latest drilling results include a standout 58m hit going 4.5 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from just 2m, including 29.2m at 6.6 per cent TREO from 6m.

Having recently pivoted into an emerging lithium hotspot in Brazil, Gold Mountain is promptly exploring its significant package of tenements as it eyes its first drilling program by the year’s end. The company’s exploration to date has identified 250 pegmatites, with multiple soil and rock-chip sample results pending. Gold Mountain is just starting its lithium climb.

K2fly has inked a five-year deal, projected to have a total contract value of $2 million, with the world-class Roy Hill iron ore operation in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The agreement marks the second of two contracts signed with major Pilbara operators for its “ground disturbance” solution in less than a month, having secured a three-year contract extension with BHP in June.

Godolphin Resources has received almost $600,000 in exploration tax credits for this financial year, following a successful application to the Australian Federal Government’s Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI) program. The credits will support exploration across the company’s enviable landholding in the Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW, where it this month increased its rare earths resource grade by 126 per cent at its Narraburra project.