Doug Bright

Buru Energy’s interpretation of 3D seismic data from its wholly-owned conventional Rafael condensate-rich wet gas discovery has thrown up a new shallow resource in its exploration permit in the Canning Basin. The new target zone, which it has designated Rafael Shallow, consists of two clastic reservoirs sitting at less than 1200m depth, with one stacked about 130m to 170m above the other.

The door has been kicked open for Lycaon Resources to start exploring its Stansmore niobium-rare earths project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region after it secured consent from Mines Minister, David Michael. The company says the approval will allow it to start exploration programs, including heritage and gravity surveys and drilling campaigns, on a site designated for the use and benefit of its Aboriginal inhabitants.

American West Metals has vowed to uncover new zones of copper mineralisation at its Storm project on Canada’s Somerset Island after kicking off this year’s exploration and resource definition drilling program. The initial RC campaign will also further explore the resource potential at the company’s Thunder prospect where last year’s drilling jagged a 48.6m copper intercept going 3 per cent copper.

Galan Lithium has lifted the resource estimate for its 100 per cent-owned Argentine Hombre Muerto West lithium project to 8.6 million tonnes contained lithium carbonate equivalent at 859 mg/l lithium. The significant increase, the fourth since March 2020, amounts to an 18 per cent uplift in tonnes alongside another uptick in grade improving what was already one of the highest grade brine estimates in the country.

White Cliff Minerals’ review of historic datasets for its Radium Point project in Canada has highlighted multiple high-grade uranium-copper-gold-silver targets including 14.15 per cent uranium oxide. The project forms the northern half of the approximately 2,900 sq km licence area held by the company which says results exceed its expectations and that the targets will be assessed in the upcoming 2024 field program.

Askari Metals is preparing for a flood of results from a major trenching campaign after submitting 2000 samples for analysis at its Namibian Uis lithium project. The company says it has now completed mapping and sampling of priority pegmatites on its north-easternmost exploration permit at Uis where it targeted four key pegmatites with 135 trenches for a total of 7269m of trenching. It is now working to generate additional targets.

Gold Mountain says it has identified widespread granitoid and related rock types known to possess a strong potential to host rare earths minerals throughout its Down Under project in Brazil. The company says it has found many examples of leucogranites and charnockite rocks in five of its new tenements within the project where it is undertaking exploration stream geochemistry and other sampling.

Larvotto Resources is closing in on an international financing package worth US$8 million (AU$12.1 million) to help develop its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales. The company has signed a non-binding term sheet with Xcelsior Capital and Wogen that will provide it with a pre-payment loan for the life of the Hillgrove mine and a working capital loan.

Buxton Resources is engaged in a fourth Aboriginal heritage survey at its Graphite Bull project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region in a bid to further expand the area covered by its previous agreements to about 3 square kilometres. The company undertook similar surveys in 2013, 2014 and 2022 as exploration of the area around its original 2014 inferred 4-million-tonne graphite resource has expanded.

Aurum Resources has expanded the golden footprint at its Boundiali gold project in the West African country of Côte D’Ivoire after snapping up an adjoining tenement that features an advanced exploration permit area. The 167.34sq km Boundiali South ground, now formerly owned by Turaco Gold, has previously thrown up solid gold hits including 20m at 10.45g/t from 38m.

Larvotto Resources says it has turned up abundant coarse grains of visible gold in its first diamond-core drilling at the Hillside gold-antimony project in New South Wales, with assays expected next month. The 2036m of drilling at the historic Bakers Creek Mine at Hillside chased extensions of previously-reported high-grade gold-antimony mineralisation of up to 525g/t gold from the project’s Little Reef lode.

The potential for one of Radiopharm Theranostics’ treatments to fight cancer while protecting a patient’s kidneys from excessive radiation has been showcased to the world’s leading image science specialists in Portugal. A symposium was told that adding a succinylated gelatin to radiotherapeutics, such as the company’s “RAD 301” and “RAD 302” treatments, could better protect kidneys against the negative effects of accumulated radioactivity.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining says a review of its Kirgella Gift and Providence gold prospects has revealed similarities to Ramelius Resources’ 1.4-million-ounce Rebecca project, suggesting shallow open pit potential. The project analogy has led to the modified modelling of potential ore zones to distinguish lower-grade, but important gold envelopes enclosing shallow, high-grade zones, with the goal of adding ounces and enabling simpler bulk mining.

The Environmental Protection Authority has given Image Resources conditional approval to push ahead with the development proposal for its Atlas mineral sands project in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin. The company says that while the recommendation for its 100 per cent-owned project will now undergo a three-week review period, it believes it is now a matter of “when”, not “if” Atlas will proceed.

Infinity Lithium has secured a new 35-year lease on land that now expands the footprint of its San José project in Spain, following a new deal struck by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies. The company says its second major acquisition of rights and access to land that will be home to its processing facility is a milestone that provides long-term leasehold over 11 hectares.

Aurumin has bolstered its financial position at its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, with a refreshed “drill-for-equity” agreement coming hot on the heels of it closing out on a convertible note. The company’s rekindled deal with drilling contractor Topdrill will give management crucial choice and flexibility to increase drilling while preserving its cash.

Strickland Metals says ongoing re-evaluation work at its Horse Well project in the Western Australian desert shows its Palomino and Clydesdale prospects could be part of the same system and could even extend into its Marwari deposit – just 250m east of Palomino. The company says Palomino and Clydesdale exhibit shallow, high-oxide grades in initial drilling, but are untested along strike, down-dip and down-plunge.

Buxton Resources says samples from its Sun Devil and Aztecs prospects in Arizona have revealed geochemical signatures indicating the sites lie above the main copper molybdenum-enriched zone of a typical porphyry system. The 87 rock chip samples yielded results of up to 3.08 per cent copper, 156ppm molybdenum and 9.34g/t silver, strongly indicating the potential for a copper-porphyry target to exist at depth.

Terrain Minerals has unveiled what it believes are the early signs of a significant rare earths discovery, with high-grade gallium as an added bonus, at its Larin’s Lane project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company says the first results from its drilling at the project last December include gallium oxide grades of up to 57 grams per tonne.

King River Resources has revealed promising geochemical anomalism at its Providence target that lies along strike from a highly-regarded copper operation in the heart of Australia’s Northern Territory. The company says the anomalism could be related to the style of Tennant Minerals’ Bluebird-Perseverance deposit that has thrown up results including 61.8m at a grade of 2.3 per cent copper.

St George Mining has launched a new drilling mission designed to better define the rare earths footprint at its Destiny project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields, where it has previously jagged up to 5125ppm TREO. Maiden drilling results at Destiny showed rare earths mineralisation in near-surface clay zones up to 42m thick throughout a 7km-long zone that remains open in all directions.

BMG Resources has applied for two additional exploration licences adjoining its granted Dragon project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region – an emerging world-class niobium-rare earths district. It says data reviews have identified several areas where strong magnetic features are located next to major faults, which can be interpreted as being highly-prospective for potential carbonatites and represents priority niobium-rare earths exploration targets.

Strickland Metals says it has connected its Bronco and Konik gold prospects to form one big structure at its Horse Well play near Wiluna, making a bulk-tonnage target with a high-grade surface oxide zone. The company says it has made the crucial interpretation on the back of re-evaluating historic Bronco data in conjunction with its own geological information following its Konik discovery.

Radiopharm Theranostics says a new six-patient study shows its terbium-based treatment has superior potential to tackle prostate cancer than lutetium following a head-to-head assessment of the rare earths metals in its therapies. Management says the results from tests on patients with metastatic “castrate-resistant” cancer vindicate its development of next-generation, terbium-based radiotherapies for the treatment of the often deadly condition and other advanced cancers.

Chariot Corporation says it has significantly expanded its flagship Black Mountain tenure in Wyoming, adding 218 contiguous new claims to mark a whopping 206 per cent increase for its lithium project area. The company’s new “BMX” claims almost enclose its original holdings, adding a strategic margin of between 1200m and 1600m around all but a 1500m-long section of State land on its north-west boundary.

Infinity Mining has topped up its total gold resource inventory to 63,000 ounces with the addition of a maiden 2700-ounce gold resource estimate from its Great Northern project at Leonora in Western Australia. The company has 10 mineral tenements in the Leonora district and is developing a portfolio of gold resources, with its eye on an initial 500,000-ounce target.

After selling the Millrose gold project for $61 million last year, Strickland Metals says its latest gold drill hits at its Celia South prospect out in the WA desert show geological potential for a similar operation. The company says results from maiden reconnaissance air-core drilling at the Warburton Mineral Field site include grades of up to 8.6 grams per tonne gold.

With uranium prices soaring globally, Toro Energy has reconfirmed its commitment to constructing its Lake Maitland pilot plant to test ores from three uranium-vanadium deposits within a radius of 110km south-west of Wiluna in Western Australia. The company says its recently-commissioned pilot plant will test improved beneficiation and hydrometallurgical circuits that it has developed from its bench-scale research.

Gold Mountain says it has put its foot on a big chunk of ground it believes to be prospective for rare earths and niobium in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, with 20 new tenements covering 388sq km. The tenure comprises four groups disposed across a tract of country surrounding and within an 80km radius of the world’s biggest niobium mine in the Araxá region.

Some old-fashioned detective work has set Terrain Minerals on a pathway to try and emulate Sirius Resources’ 2012 discovery of the hulking Nova-Bollinger deposit in WA’s Fraser Range. Terrain says its search through old geophysical records identified an intriguing “eye-shaped” feature near its ground similar to the one that led to the Nova-Bollinger base metals discovery – just 300km to the north on the same geological structure.

Askari Metals has capped off its hunt for new exploration ground by staking a claim for the 260-square-kilometre Matemanga uranium project in Tanzania as the heavy metal's price surges on clean energy demand. The company’s decision to pounce on the ground comes after its extensive geotechnical reviews that identified the area as a hot uranium target with significant potential.

Valor Resources has ticked off a second item from its targeted triad of lithium targets in Canada’s booming Thunder Bay area in Ontario after completing its acquisition of the Jesaulenko project. Valor’s 100 per cent acquisition of Jesaulenko comes just days after it also grabbed the nearby Frazer Lake lithium project and an 80 per cent share of the Hook Lake uranium play in Saskatchewan.