Public Company News

Aspiring mineral producer Lithium Universe has snapped up the global rights to an innovative microwave technology designed by Macquarie University in Sydney, to simplify the separation of silicon and valuable metals in solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels. The company has entered a binding agreement to acquire Macquarie-owned New Age Minerals, which holds the exclusive licensing agreement to use and commercialise the new-age recycling technology.

Horizon Minerals has opened the cash floodgates from mining and processing gold-bearing ore from the company’s two cash-generating mines, under separate toll treating arrangements in WA’s renowned Goldfields region. Under its watchful eye, Horizon has witnessed a stream of cash pouring through its doors as the hauling and processing of ore achieves a continuous steady state.

Estrella Resources has deployed the heavy-duty diamond rig to build on a recent high-grade massive manganese discovery at its Ira Miri prospect in Timor-Leste. The company says it has uncovered further significant new supergene manganese outcrop at the project some 350m north of its discovery hole and believes it to be a direct continuation of the discovery.

Empire Energy Group – under its new name Beetaloo Energy Australia - has kick-started hydraulic stimulation activities at the company’s 3.3km-long Carpentaria-5H horizontal well in the Northern Territory’s massive Beetaloo Basin. The company plans to run more than 60 stimulation stages along the longest horizontal well in the Beetaloo sub-basin and expects the program to take four weeks.

The takeover battle for ASX and Toronto-listed Xanadu Mines has intensified after Chinese giant Zijin Mining, a 15.7 per cent shareholder and JV partner in the company’s Mongolian Kharmagtai copper and gold project, accepted Bastion Mining’s 8c-a-share offer. Zijin’s backing has boosted Bastion’s stake in Xanadu to 29.67 per cent, combining its existing 12.5 per cent holding with recent acceptances and puts it in a strong position to take control.

Aguia Resources has locked in a $4 million loan from a government-owned Brazilian bank to refurbish its leased processing plant and kick-start mining operations at the company’s Tres Estradas phosphate project. The 20-year loan will cover an initial $118,000 capital expenditure required to kick-off mining activities and fund the estimated $1.97M needed to bring the plant up to speed to process an expected 100,000 tonnes annually.

Aurum Resources’ Boundiali gold project in Cote d'Ivoire keeps on keeping on, with its latest results including a 66m run assaying 1.07g/t gold from 33m at its BDT1 deposit on the key gold trend in its BD ground. That intercept includes 21.73m assaying 1.01g/t gold from 39m and 29m going 1.46g/t gold from 69m. The latest holes have some exceptionally long runs showing persistent gold traces.

Javelin Minerals has zeroed in on a suite of highly prospective, undercover gold and copper targets at its Coogee West project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, setting the stage for high-impact drilling in the September quarter. The company’s latest geophysical review, run by Core Geophysics, has peeled back the layers at Coogee West to reveal a compelling treasure map of five high-priority anomalies lurking beneath shallow alluvial cover.

Octava Minerals has received promising early-stage results from CSIRO tests of a low-cost bioleaching process of ore samples from its Byro rare earths and lithium project in WA’s Gascoyne region. The stage one testwork focused on identifying, enriching and adapting microorganisms that can process the Byro ore. Stage two tests are underway to see which adapted cultures best extract critical and battery metals from the project’s polymetallic samples.

Aguia Resources has kicked off drilling at its Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia, with early results revealing mineralised quartz veins just 40m below existing workings. Its first hole hit a 0.7m thick quartz vein at 107.4m depth, showing visible sulphides, including pyrite, sphalerite and galena – all typically linked to gold. The company’s geological model is holding up, and assays are now pending.

Latitude 66 has uncovered a 2.5km gold-cobalt-copper corridor at its K6 prospect in Finland, extending south from its 650,000-ounce K1 gold deposit. A maiden reverse circulation program delivered 12 holes for 315m, hitting broad mineralised zones, including 2m at 0.27g/t gold, 0.13% cobalt and 0.35% copper from 4m. The results suggest K6 may sit on the edge of a much larger system.

Middle Island Resources’ review of data from its fully owned Ridgelands project in Queensland has produced a walk-up target area where 1980s exploration revealed enticing rock sample assays to 14.6g/t gold. The old data also reveals soil-gold anomalism above 0.05 parts per million to a peak of 5.66g/t gold, while shallow reverse circulation drilling attained a best intercept of 10m at 1.15g/t gold.