Michael Philipps

Xanadu Mines says oxide leach testwork on ore from its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia has highlighted the potential to conduct commercialised processing and generate significant early cash. The company says leaching tests on the shallower oxidised portion of the project’s mineral resource delivered positive metallurgical extraction results of up to 93 per cent copper and 46 per cent gold.

Surefire Resources has strengthened its growing ties with Saudi Arabia after signing a new agreement designed to assist in development and investment for its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA’s Mid West. The non-binding agreement with Saudi-based RASI Investment allows both parties to explore a joint venture or co-developer structure to assist in potential downstream processing facilities for offtake from the project.

Xanadu Mines says it has recorded early metallurgical recoveries of up to 98 per cent copper and 95 per cent gold from rougher flotation testwork on ore from its Kharmagtai project in Mongolia. Management says the results are in line with or better than previous scoping study assumptions and show a potential value uplift in final prefeasibility study (PFS) recoveries.

Radiopharm Theranostics says it has dosed its first pancreatic cancer patient in the initial phase of a study aimed at providing doctors with an enhanced screening process for the lethal and aggressive disease. The clinical trial is for the company’s patented “RAD301” radiopharmaceutical technology that is designed to detect lesions in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and create better health outcomes.

Classic Minerals has its sights set on production at its Lady Ada and Lady Magdalene gold deposits in Western Australia after tabling a mining lease application for the Forrestania tenements that contain the two projects. Once approved, the licence will allow the company to mine all the gold resources at Lady Ada and Lady Magdalene, which currently hold a combined 311,050 ounces.

White Cliff Minerals has contracted Expert Geophysics to complete an airborne geophysical survey over its entire Coppermine project in the Canadian province of Nunavut as soon as next quarter. The company says the campaign will use mobile magnetotellurics to image subsurface resistivity and it is expected to highlight and define structural trends to optimise future drill targets.

Classic Minerals appears set for a significant financial boost as it pushes towards production at its Kat Gap gold project after executing a binding term sheet with an international fintech for an initial US$10 million. The agreement with Swiss-based AuResources also provides for the advance of a further US$50 million in five tranches of US$10 million each.

Lithium Universe has secured a prime location for its proposed battery-grade lithium carbonate refinery in Canada after executing an option agreement to purchase a commercial property in the province of Quebec. The location for the facility is between Quebec City and Montreal at the Bécancour Industrial Waterfront Hub, with heavyweight engineering firm Hatch to undertake a comprehensive study for the refinery’s design.

Ora Banda Mining is on track to achieve steady-state production at its Riverina underground gold mine near Kalgoorlie in the June quarter, with capital projects complete and first stopes to be mined next month. First ore from the underground operation was processed as a single batch through the company’s nearby Davyhurst processing plant and returned 16,727 tonnes at 2.74g/t to produce 1383 gold ounces.