Andrew Todd

A world-first survey using the effects of lightning strikes to test electrical conductivity in rocks at Estrella Resources’ Carr Boyd project in WA has earned the company a Federal Government grant. The cutting-edge heliborne survey initially conducted by Expert Geophysics in August last year, harnesses traditional electromagnetic pulse data in conjunction with lightning strike pulses triggered by storms constantly raging over the Equator.

Significant copper-antimony assays from Aruma Resources’ Fiery Creek project near Mount Isa in Queensland have sent the company’s share price flying on the back of its biggest-ever intraday trading volumes. A surface sampling program at the project has revealed high-grade copper assays alongside significant grades of up to 1 per cent antimony, which is currently a hot commodity on the ASX.

Ora Banda Mining has unveiled a fresh haul of strong gold drilling results from its Riverina underground mine just outside of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. More than 100 holes have returned 10-gram metres of gold, including a 2.7m hit at a juicy 65.9g/t, while the company has also launched into its second underground operation at Sand King to the south.

Aguia Resources is charging towards production at its Santa Barbara gold project in the Columbian State of Bolivar following key project procurements ahead of underground developments slated for later this year. The company believes that for relatively little capital expenditure, it can be producing first gold at the high-grade, low-tonnage operation by as soon as next year’s first quarter.

Ardea Resources has hit a major milestone in the development of its Goongarrie Hub nickel-cobalt project in Western Australia after executing a binding agreement with a giant Japanese consortium. It now locks away a 50:50 joint venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsubishi Corporation in a deal where the consortium has committed to funding a $98.5 million definitive feasibility study to earn into the project.

St George Mining has added yet another highly-credentialled local advisor for its new niobium-rich Araxá rare earths project in Brazil by locking in the country’s former Minister of Mines, Adolfo Sachsida. The well-known business leader will join two other recent in-country niobium industry expert additions as St George completes its acquisition of the Araxá project that sits in the State of Minas Gerais.

White Cliff Minerals has unveiled extraordinary silver grades in rock-chip samples from its Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada, with assays reaching as high as a lab-shaking 75,439 grams per tonne – or 7.54 per cent. The company’s managing director Troy Whittaker probably put it best when he said, “Well, this is not something you see every day”.

Surefire Resources has inked an agreement with DRA Global for a full-service engineering package to develop its 100 per cent-owned Victory Bore vanadium-iron project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The signed heads of agreement charges DRA with taking the Victory Bore project from feasibility to construction and finally, into planned dual-country operations in Australia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Allup Silica has secured the services of a leading international mining consultant to conduct a prefeasibility study on its at-surface McLaren heavy minerals project outside of Norseman in Western Australia. The company has engaged IHC Mining for the work less than a month after it acquired the advanced-stage project that boasts an impressive 280 million-tonne resource grading 4.8 per cent heavy minerals.

Radiopharm Theranostics has boosted its stake in a US-based joint venture with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to 75 per cent after promising preclinical results in a wide range of tumour therapies. The company says it has increased its hold in “Radiopharm Ventures” from 51 per cent by committing an additional US$4 million (AU$5.9 million) towards future preclinical and clinical trial expenses.

ASX-listed Lithium Universe has joined forces with the traditional landowners of the site near Québec City in Canada where the company is planning to construct its Bécancour Lithium Refinery. Management has formed a joint committee with the W8banaki Nation’s tribal council to assist with site impact assessment and the construction of the facility while it completes a definitive feasibility study for the project.

Thunderbird Resources has kicked off its maiden drilling campaign for uranium in Canada’s world-renowned Athabasca Basin. The initial 2400m program will test five high-priority basement-hosted targets at the company’s flagship Hidden Bay project. Hidden Bay sits within 40km of two of the Athabasca’s – and consequently the world’s – most successful uranium mines, Cigar Lake and Rabbit Lake.

Oil and gas explorer 88 Energy is expecting imminent results on oil samples from the Hickory-1 discovery well at its flagship Phoenix project in Alaska, with a contingent resource estimate expected before year’s end. The oil sample tests are expected to help the company’s commercialisation planning at Phoenix and results are expected to be returned this financial quarter.

Buru Energy and Sabre Energy have kicked off oil well pad construction at their Rafael Shallow 1 joint venture in Western Australia’s Canning Basin. The launch of the civil works for the project, which will be completed ahead of well spudding in late September, follows the receipt of heritage and environmental approvals and Sabre’s recent $6 million commitment to drilling and testing costs.

A first batch of rock chip samples revealing an eye-watering 42.6 per cent copper and an impressive 38.2 grams per tonne gold at White Cliff Minerals’ newly-named Phoenix district, within its Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada, has management convinced it could be on the precipice of not one, but two major, high-grade copper discoveries in the near-term.

Meeka Metals has filled its pockets to the tune of nearly $360,000, after it was awarded a research-and-development Federal Government rebate for rare earths works undertaken at its Circle Valley project near Esperance in Western Australia. The company qualified for the rebate through its metallurgical studies, experimental set-up and leaching of clay-hosted rare earths from the Circle Valley operation.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Terragen, a company aiming to fatten up global livestock while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Its stock jumped more 115 per cent on the back of sheep feed improvements. Other companies that saw their respective share prices run hard included HighCom, East 33 and Heavy Minerals.

Triangle Energy says its recent $4m capital raise was well supported by financial institutions and sophisticated investors as the company prepares to break out the drill rig for the first time in years in the Perth basin. Triangle is pivoting out of its near depleted Cliff Head offshore oil well and back into exploration with two interesting looking Perth Basin oil and gas plays.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Delorean – a company mirroring the name of a now banged-up vehicle from the Back to the Future movie series – which threw out some striking financial results during an interesting quarterly reporting period. Other companies that saw their respective share prices run hard included Astute Metals, Hexima, Tissue Repair and E79 Gold Mines.

Gold Mountain has recorded promising lithium results from a batch of stream sediment samples at its Salinas II project in Brazil’s emerging Lithium Valley. All but one of the 55 samples returned significant lithium anomalism, with the concentrations being found at the company’s Bananal Valley tenements along strike from Latin Resources’ 70 million-tonne Colina deposit.

Aurumin has called in the experts to help it assess newly-found iron ore potential at its flagship Sandstone project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, in what could become a significant add-on to its gold prospects. The company has engaged Southern Geoscience to undertake modelling of the existing geophysical datasets from its past gold exploration activities in a bid to generate iron ore targets.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has tabled a maiden resource of 76,400 ounces at 1 gram per tonne gold from its Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits at its new flagship Pinjin project, 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Management wrapped up its initial resource at Pinjin in little more than 12 months after securing the ground along the prospective Laverton Tectonic Zone in May last year.

88 Energy’s bid to validate new oil targets in the recently-revived Owambo Basin in Namibia has taken a significant step with the completion of a major 203km 2D seismic acquisition program – on time and on budget. The company is now expecting to outline the prospective resource size and quality of the fold structures through data processing before the end of the year.

Toro Energy is closing in on the finalised design of a pilot plant that will allow it to test ores from three uranium-vanadium deposits at its project south-west of the WA town of Wiluna later this year. The plant will test improved beneficiation and hydrometallurgical circuits Toro has developed at near-production scale with an eye to incorporating the design flow sheet upgrade into future feasibility studies.

Ora Banda Mining has increased the gold production and head grade from its Davyhurst mine in Western Australia’s Goldfields region as it ramps up its mission to become a high-grade underground miner. The company today confirmed record gold-ounce production for the past quarter, fuelled by its new Riverina underground development, despite confronting considerable weather delays during the month of June.

Triangle Energy’s payoff for the sale to Pilot Energy of its Cliff Head oil asset off the coast of Western Australia now stacks up to $16 million after adjustments made to offset delays in the deal settlement. The new agreement features an extra $1 million for Triangle, which now plans to focus on its prospective conventional oil and gas activities in the Perth Basin.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … the ASX itself. The ASX 200 hit an all-time high of 8083.7 points, indicating to investors that there may just be green shoots and blue skies ahead. Small-cap companies that ran hard during a promising week included DGR Global, Labyrinth Resources, Miramar Resources and Stelar Metals.

White Cliff Minerals says it has now uncovered four visible iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) systems during the company’s initial field program at its promising Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada. One of the four hydrothermal system discoveries has been dubbed the “Cleaver” target and, according to management, it has a gossanous zone so extensive that it is identifiable via satellite.

Aurumin has unmasked what it says is a “real” high-grade iron ore discovery with the potential for significant scale at its flagship Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company has confirmed high-grade rock chip assays up to 67 per cent iron in banded-iron formations within a discontinuous strike of about 6km at the site.

Red Metal has produced what it says could be a premium saleable rare earths product after its first impurity removal trial using ore from its globally-unique Sybella rare earths project near Mount Isa in Queensland. The company says its low-impurity, magnet rare earth oxides-dominant product is another proof-of-concept step towards Sybella becoming a significant, low-cost rare earths mining operation.

The new combined ASX entity known as Latitude 66 believes it has high-tech electromagnetic data that makes exploration at its flagship KSB gold-cobalt project in Finland as easy as “shooting fish in a barrel”. DiscovEx Resources’ reverse takeover of Latitude 66 Cobalt has put together “a group of like-minded people” after the corporate transaction on the back of a $4 million capital raise.

Ora Banda Mining has beefed up the mineral resources and ore reserves at its Davyhurst gold project in WA, attributing the growth to its underground exploration success and the definition of a new gold lode. The company not only managed to increase its underground ore reserve by 94 per cent, but also sweetened up the gold reserve grade by an extra 17 per cent.