Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Hot on the heels of this week’s earlier announcement that Glencore has agreed to pump A$14.4m into Hot Chili in return for a 9.99 per cent equity stake, Hot Chili has surprised the market with further news that it plans to raise $40 million to move to full ownership of its massive Cortadera copper-gold deposit. Hot Chili stock soared immediately by almost 20 per cent on the news.

King River Resources says it has uncovered new, potentially gold-bearing quartz veins following an initial rock chip sampling program across its Mt Remarkable regional tenement holdings in WA. The company says the epithermal quartz veining with indications of gold mineralisation – such as adularia, malachite and oxidised sulphides – was identified in five different areas on the back of 88 rock chip grab samples collected during the first-phase helicopter reconnaissance work.

Novo Resources continues to churn out record production numbers at its Nullagine gold operations in Western Australia’s Pilbara, posting a massive 46 per cent increase above the June result. Revenue also surged 50 per cent over the previous month with 8,589 ounces of gold pumped out from the mill generating $19.2 million revenue. During the month the company also appointed Michael Spreadborough as its new executive co-chairman.

Barton Gold has put the latest phase of development work at its Tarcoola project to bed, with exploration work across the South Australian gold target including reverse circulation drilling and ground penetrating radar now wrapped up. The work program is partially funded by a grant from the South Australian government and paves the way for an accelerated development program across the historical goldfield in the months ahead.

ASX-listed Buru Energy says wireline logging at its Currajong 1 exploration oil well in the Canning Basin in the north of WA has revealed porous zones with interpreted oil saturations in one section of the well and a second section that has potential oil-bearing zones. Natural hydrogen gas has also been detected in the well that is targeting 28 million barrels of conventional oil.

Valor Resources looks to be on a roll in Canada with the budding explorer identifying a wealth of new uranium anomalies across the company’s burgeoning ground holdings in Canada’s famed Athabasca Basin. A recent radiometric survey at Hook Lake has highlighted several target zones in the northwest of the company’s tenure, alongside various new targets outside the recognised historical prospects.

ASX listed Aldoro Resources has hit paydirt with its maiden drill hole at its VC1 geophysical target within the company’s flagship Narndee Igneous Complex project. Approximately 2m of complex nickel-copper massive sulphides have been recovered and significantly, the maiden hole is also the first hole drilled in the area in nearly a decade.

ASX-listed junior explorer Oar Resources says it now has boots on the ground at its Crown nickel-copper-PGE project in the emerging Julimar province about 70km north-east of Perth in WA. The Perth-based company wasted no time kicking off its first-pass exploration phase at Crown after being granted an exploration licence covering the project area in the previous quarter.

ASX newcomer Askari Metals hopes to get cracking on a reconnaissance exploration program at its “heavily under-explored” Springdale copper-gold project in NSW during the current quarter after receiving formal approval of its exploration licence application. The Perth-based company is looking to start mapping and sampling soon and shortly get an induced polarisation survey under way that is aimed at pinpointing potential copper-gold drill targets.

Against a backdrop of increasing prices and market appetite for rare earth elements, Australian Bauxite is looking to build on a recent discovery of rare earth elements accumulations within its DL130 bauxite project in Tasmania. The company says the discovery appears to increase in grade in an arc from west to north-east with the latest hole drilled in the arc yielding an eye-catching grade of 301ppm neodymium oxide.

Aldoro Resources continues to expand its strategic ground-holding across the Windimurra-Narndee terrane east of Paynes Find after the company put its foot on additional prospective lithium tenure adjacent to its existing permits in the region. Aldoro has signed a heads of agreement with privateer Mining Equities to acquire exploration licence E 58/571 which sits next to the company’s Wyemandoo and Windimurra permits.

ASX-listed 88 Energy appears to have detected additional upside at its Umiat oil field on the North Slope of Alaska, immediately south of its Project Peregrine where it recently spudded the Merlin-1 well. The company says that analysis of Umiat 3D seismic data, together with post-well testing of Merlin-1, has revealed potential for additional reservoir sands at Umiat.

Zuleika Gold has continued its high-grade run of drill hits north-west of Kalgoorlie, with exploration at its Credo project notching up a string of eye-catching drill intercepts. Reverse circulation drilling over the Credo gold structure has returned results as high as 7 metres at 5.22 grams per tonne gold including 2m at an impressive 14.92 g/t gold from 89m down-hole.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia’s wholly owned subsidiary VSPC has been granted an Australian patent for its proprietary nanotechnology process of manufacturing phosphate-based battery cathode materials for use in lithium-ion batteries. Perth-based Lithium Australia says the cost of producing nickel-free and cobalt-free battery cathode powders can potentially be significantly reduced by using VSPC’s technology.

Barton Gold has landed a $300,000 grant from the South Australian government to ramp up exploration at the company’s Tarcoola gold project. The funding further validates Barton’s strategic position in the Gawler craton where the state government is looking to reinvigorate exploration across the fertile mineral terrane. The company says the funding will be used to expedite additional geophysical surveying and drilling.

Strickland Metals is set to kick off reverse circulation and aircore drilling programs this month at a keystone deposit and an emerging prospect at its Horse Well gold project in WA. The company says its recently launched gravity geophysical surveying work has turned up several “look-alike” targets near the anchor Dusk Til Dawn deposit that it intends probing with a round of RC drilling.

ASX-listed Blackstone Minerals’ board of directors has given the green light to a definitive feasibility study on a proposed downstream processing refinery and a related downstream pilot plant at its flagship Ta Khoa nickel-copper-PGE project in Vietnam. The move comes after the company tabled a “compelling” pre-feasibility study on hydrometallurgical processing of nickel sulphide concentrate to produce a battery-grade nickel-cobalt-manganese for use in lithium-ion batteries.

ASX-listed PharmAust Ltd subsidiary Epichem OHD has hit a milestone in its development of technology to turn waste into fuel on an industrial scale, after the company completed the build of a benchtop scale reactor that will enable research, development and promotion of its potentially disruptive technology. The reactor turns biomass waste from a wide range of sources into fuels, fertiliser, agricultural growth stimulants and even ethanol.

Bardoc Gold has pivoted towards front-loading gold production and cash flows into the first five years of its proposed Bardoc mining and processing operations in WA. The company says it has kicked off a cash-flow optimisation study that will run the ruler over increasing the projected annual gold production rate, margins and free cash flows across the first five years of Bardoc’s forecast life of mine.

Lithium Australia, through its 90 per cent owned recycling division Envirostream Australia, has filed a patent application related to its alkaline battery separation process used in fertiliser micronutrients, as it looks to secure intellectual property protection for its battery recycling technology. The company recently launched an expanded field trial using the process to generate samples for manganese-deficient soils across four sites in WA and one in SA.

St George Mining appears to be onto a new high-grade nickel trend at its Mt Alexander project in Western Australia. Soil sampling over the Carnac trend, about 14 kilometres north of St George’s nickel sulphide discoveries on the Cathedrals Belt, is producing anomalous nickel and copper along more than 1,600 metres of strike with drilling now scheduled to kick off in the weeks ahead.

Si6 Metals has delivered a 154,000-ounce gold resource for its Korong and Waihi deposits that make up its 100 per cent owned Monument gold project near Laverton in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The update has added more than 100,000 ounces of gold to the previous estimate as the company eyes further resource and exploration drilling at the project.

Bardoc Gold is striking promising returns on two fronts. The ASX-listed company is embarking on a major drilling program at its flagship Zoroastrian deposit north of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in a bid for a substantial expansion of its resource and it has been unearthing significant gold mineralisation in drilling at its North Kanowna Star project. The results are seen as important for the potential size of the reserve and mine life across Bardoc’s operation.

Todd River Resources is growing its suite of nickel-copper-PGE targets in Western Australia’s South West mineral field, with the explorer extending its Eastern trend in the Berkshire Valley to over seven kilometres of strike. Shallow auger drilling shows two distinct target areas along the mineralised trend, with platinum and palladium levels kicking at more than 10 times background levels associated with coincident copper and nickel anomalies.

Estrella Resources has continued to return broad intercepts of nickel sulphide mineralisation from its T5 discovery in Western Australia. The company’s latest results from the prospect include 14.14 metres at 1.05 per cent nickel and 0.58 per copper which includes an impressive 5.41m at 1.45 per cent nickel and 0.88 per cent copper from 408.34m down-hole.

ASX-listed gold producer Ora Banda Mining has rattled off a spate of impressive high-grade gold intersections from drilling at its Riverina underground deposit near its Davyhurst mining and processing operation about 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie in WA. Better assays include 1.3m grading 25.3 g/t gold from 217.8m, 2.8m at 21.2 g/t from 253.7m, 1.4m at 18.1 g/t from 281.6m and 5m at 16.7 g/t from 200m.

Horizon Minerals has kicked off this year’s Diggers & Dealers in Kalgoorlie with a couple of “stunning” thick, high-grade gold drill hits at one of the promising prospects within its Binduli gold project near Kalgoorlie. Best of the intersections from the company’s latest drilling at the Kestrel prospect was 18m grading 4.64 g/t gold from 49m including 1m at a bonanza 56.65 g/t from 64m.

Nine years ago, Hot Chili won the prestigious Emerging Company Award at Diggers & Dealers in Kalgoorlie and this week the company is presenting there again as one of only two companies worldwide to make a major copper discovery since 2016 which has now attracted the interest of mega resource house Glencore. Hot Chili’s rival in the major copper discovery space is Rio Tinto’s Winu discovery in WA.

ASX-listed Great Southern Mining has tabled multiple stellar gold intercepts at its 100 per cent owned Duketon gold project some 45km north of Laverton in the Goldfields of Western Australia. An outstanding 59m hit going 2.1 grams per tonne gold from 53m leads the pack and includes a 9m intersection going at 4.5 g/t and another 16m at 3.2 g/t gold.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have launched a major drilling offensive at their joint ventured “Youanmi Regional” project in WA. An array of gold prospects on the partners’ ground-holdings will be the subject of a serious 22,000m aircore drilling campaign consisting of 540 holes. The JV says the program will target high-grade gold mineralisation along an 18.5km greenstone corridor between the well-known Youanmi and Penny gold deposits.

ASX-listed gold producer Ora Banda Mining has picked up a smattering of gold sniffs from a regional first-pass aircore drilling program probing priority grassroots targets near its flagship multi-deposit Davyhurst gold mine 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie. The Perth-based company put down about 150 holes for an aggregate coverage of more than 16,000m across the stack of gold prospects that have not seen any drilling previously.

ASX-listed Conico Limited has hit more sulphides as its drilling campaign ramps up at the Ryberg project in Greenland. Matrix sulphide mineralisation was intersected over 2.9 metres from 96.8 metres in one drill hole and trace sulphides were encountered from 278 to 280 metres downhole in another. The drill rigs have started two new holes in search of a significant magnetic anomaly interpreted from a downhole survey.