Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Emu NL has wasted no time and hit the ground running across its recently acquired suite of gold and nickel projects in southern WA. The company has put its exploration team in play at the 8 Mile project near the Menzies gold mining centre north of Kalgoorlie, while it makes preparations to commence extensional drilling at the high-grade Gnow’s Nest gold deposit south of Yalgoo.

Entering the final stretch ahead of its much-anticipated ASX listing, Barton Gold is shaping up as a serious player on Australia’s gold exploration scene. The company has lifted the lid on a 73 per cent resource upgrade at Tunkillia and seems destined to join the million-ounce club, unveiling a massive 965,000-ounce resource at the project.

ASX-listed explorer, Impact Minerals, has discovered zones of visual copper-nickel sulphides at the Plat Central prospect within its Broken Hill project in NSW. The company was again guided by its proprietary geochemical ratio exploration tool that it says can vector in on higher-grade base and platinum group metals mineralisation.

St George Mining has come up trumps again at Mt Alexander in WA with two fresh downhole EM conductors turning up in the latest diamond drill hole at its aptly named West End prospect. Less than 1km north-west of known massive sulphides, the prospect presents a tantalising target for the John Prineas-led explorer in an area where there has been no previous drilling.

PolarX has laid out a schedule for when the company expects to be receiving further copper and gold results from its Alaskan discovery at Zackly. It would appear that on top of the challenges posed by exploration in the wilds of the arctic, the current surge in exploration activity across the globe has caught many laboratories by surprise, with delays in reporting being experienced by most mining and exploration companies.

CZR Resources is marching towards completion of a pre-feasibility study on a proposed development of the Robe Mesa iron ore deposit at its 85 per cent-owned Yarraloola project in WA’s Pilbara. The study that is set to be wound up by year’s end will assess a low-CAPEX iron ore mine predicated on using existing road transport infrastructure to truck the Robe Mesa ore to port.

Caeneus Minerals has nailed down a bevy of drill targets across its Mallina tenure in WA’s gold-rich Pilbara region.

Middle Island Resources has increased the global gold resource based on multiple satellite deposits at its historic Sandstone gold project in WA as its massive drilling effort this year continues to pay dividends. A maiden resource estimate for the McIntyre deposit and updated estimates for the Twin Shafts and Goat Farm deposits pushed up the project’s overall contained gold figure by 40,100 ounces to above 732,100 ounces.

Legend Mining continues to light up new nickel sulphide targets at the Mawson nickel discovery in WA’s Fraser Range, with down-hole electromagnetics identifying two new off-hole conductors adjacent to recent drilling. The larger of these two targets appears to extend the Mawson west prospect to the north and demonstrates the nickel mineralisation at the discovery remains unconstrained by the current drill pattern.

Wiluna Mining Corporation is ramping up production and pushing its unit operating costs down at the Wiluna Gold project. The company poured 13,360 ounces of gold during the September quarter, delivering monthly operating cash flows of around $4m. The production figures represent an 18 per cent uplift on the June quarter gold production and a welcome upwards trajectory for the once troubled project.

ASX-listed 3D metal printing developer, Aurora Labs, has successfully completed the first phase print parameter testing of its RMP-1 printer with plans on track to have commercial applications in place by mid next year. Aurora said its latest high power, high density printing results will enable its Rapid Manufacturing Technology to outperform its competitor’s laser bed fusion printers.

Eclipse Metals has discovered previously unknown near-surface high-grade manganese mineralisation at its Amamoor manganese prospect in Queensland. Assay results from the company’s diamond drill samples included some stellar grades as high at 42.14 per cent manganese oxide with every drill hole of this year’s program having hit mineralisation.

Classic Minerals has peeled off a string of high-grade gold hits from a major infill RC drilling campaign at its advanced Kat Gap project about 170km south of Southern Cross in WA. Better results were 15m at 2.97 g/t gold including 1m at 23.20 g/t, 10m at 3.24 g/t including 1m at 18.40 g/t, 4m at 8.97 g/t including 1m at 23.40 g/t, and 2m at 16.57 g/t including 1m at 30.30 g/t.

Godolphin Resources says it has discovered a new copper-gold porphyry-style mineralised system at its Copper Hill East project 35km north of Orange, NSW, in the revered Lachlan Fold Belt following an initial round of deep RC drilling. The most notable intercept from the recent RC holes was 32m at 0.29 g/t gold and 0.13 per cent copper from 210m including 12m going 0.45 g/t gold and 0.22 per cent copper.

88 Energy has increased its interest in the ground around its Charlie-1 test oil well at its Project Icewine on Alaska’s lucrative North Slope. The Perth company says it will table a resource estimate for the project within weeks which should see farm-out discussions on Project Icewine kick into high gear. It is also chasing a year-end close out on a farm-out for its Peregrine project.

Venus Metals Corporation has jumped back into drilling at Youanmi, wasting no time following up on a swag of emerging prospects surrounding the mothballed historic gold operation. The company has kicked off reverse circulation drilling across the Youanmi North, Taylors Reef and Sovereign prospects as it zeroes in on a new batch of discoveries across this fertile gold terrane.

Novo Resources is full steam ahead as it hurtles towards gold production in WA’s Pilbara region, with the company’s latest update highlighting rapid progress in the refurbishment of its Golden Eagle mill and development across the emerging Beaton Creek mining area.

Oakdale Resources’ drilling looks to be on target at Lambarson Canyon in the US, with the company having now finished its first diamond drill hole down to nearly 250m below surface. Geological logging indicates that the target stratigraphy has been tested, intersecting a range of potentially auriferous lithologies including quartz breccia’s, multiple porphyry dykes, and quartz-sulphide veining at depth.

ASX-listed medical technology company, Proteomics International Laboratories, has entered into an agreement with Medical Horizons that will see the Italy-based group distribute the easy-to-use immunoassay version of Proteomics’ PromarkerD predictive test for diabetic kidney disease in Italy.

Adriatic Metals has produced a cracking pre-feasibility study on its Vares silver-lead-zinc project in Bosnia and Herzegovina that envisages US$251 million average EBITDA per annum in the first five years of production operations. In addition, the PFS has placed a spectacular after-tax net present value of US$1.04 billion and an internal rate of return of 113 per cent on the project.

Dampier Gold has uncovered a new zone of high-grade gold mineralisation at its Browns Dam prospect, west of Kalgoorlie in WA. Wide-spaced aircore drilling, targeting the auriferous Zuleika Shear has intercepted near surface gold mineralisation in a series of shallow aircore holes, with better results including 5m at 3.1 g/t gold from only 38m down-hole.

Blackstone Minerals has unveiled its much-anticipated scoping study for the Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam, delivering a tantalising set of numbers headlined by a AU$1 billion present-day valuation and net pre-tax cash flows in excess of US$1.2 billion over the projected 8.5-year life of mine. The financials clearly support the case for a revival of its mothballed nickel operation in Vietnam.

As it marches towards production start-up at the rapidly developing $120 million Warrawoona gold mine in WA’s East Pilbara, ASX-listed Calidus Resources has identified a veritable treasure trove of regional gold targets as part of a strategy to accelerate exploration work over the company’s Pilbara tenure in parallel with the project build.

King River Resources program of metallurgical test work has hit upon a simplified purification process to produce a high-purity precursor compound to streamline the manufacture of a 4N HPA end product. The test work forms part of the company’s PFS over its giant Speewah speciality metals project in WA’s Kimberley region.

ASX-listed 3D metal printing group, Aurora Labs, has been granted another patent for a key part of its Multi-Layer Concurrent Printing, or “MCP” technology, this time in Japan. Only last month the Perth-based company locked down a patent in China, while patent applications in other countries, including in the USA and Australia, are also at various stages of their respective approval processes.

ASX-listed InteliCare has achieved a significant milestone in its business-to-consumer strategy to expand its revenue streams in the aged-care and healthcare sectors following the launch of a new online platform and e-commerce marketplace that provides an internet-based mechanism for family members to monitor the wellbeing of their elderly or health-compromised loved ones.

Canadian focused gold explorer, Ardiden Limited, has lit up an array of large-scale structural targets around its New Patricia gold prospect in north-western Ontario following an initial review of its freshly acquired airborne magnetic and radiometric geophysical data. The data includes its Esker prospect which is being likened by Ardiden to Newmont’s 5Moz operating Musselwhite gold mine.

Comet Resources has wasted no time at its Santa Teresa gold project in Mexico, unveiling a high-grade maiden resource for the project, tipping the scales with 369,000 tonnes at an impressive 7.47 g/t gold. This initial estimate perhaps understates the potential of the deposit which hosts a wealth of high-grade intercepts and has only been drilled to 300m depth.

ASX-listed high purity alumina player, Altech Chemicals, has received a commitment for a €7.38 million grant from the state Government of Saxony in Germany towards the potential development of a HPA plant in the east German state. It comes after the company recently signed an option agreement to purchase approximately 10 hectares of industrial land in the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park in the Spreetal municipality of Saxony.

Troy Resources has hit the jackpot with a four-ounce-to-the-tonne gold hit in its latest diamond drill hole at the Smarts Underground deposit at its operating, million-ounce, Karouni gold project in Guyana, South America. In just one of 16 hits in the 449m deep drill hole, the company returned 11m at 131.93 g/t gold from 223m, including 1m at an ‘off-the-chart’ 1,176.99 g/t gold.

ASX-listed K2fly continues to build momentum with the "software-as-a-service" company’s invoicing building to in excess of $1.64m across the first quarter of the financial year, up 15 per cent on the previous corresponding quarter. The company is riding high on the back of a stream of new client signings seeking access to K2fly’s specialised land management and mining software.

Hot Chili has unveiled a massive new resource for its Costa Fuego project in Chile, with the company’s inventory in South America skyrocketing to a headline-grabbing 724 million tonnes at 0.48 per cent copper equivalent. The global resource now hosts an incredible 2.9 million tonnes of copper, 2.7 million ounces of gold and 9.9 million ounces of silver. These numbers are set to grow even further in the coming months as drilling continues across the fertile copper terrane.