Gary Kjellgren

Askari Metals is preparing its backhoe for trenching across four LCT pegmatites in a bid to reveal more battery minerals potential at its flagship Uis lithium project within Namibia’s Uis-Cape Cross pegmatite belt. The company will dig 111 trenches to try and deepen its knowledge of the surface expression and mineralisation of the highly-fractionated pegmatites within the anomalous corridor that hosts Andrada Mining’s tin mine.

Buru Energy has moved to fast-track the phase-one small LNG plant development at its Rafael gas-condensate project in Western Australia’s Kimberley region by launching a pre-front end engineering design (FEED) study. Part of a multi-pronged strategy to monetise the asset, it is expected to be completed in the first half of next year, with the final FEED to follow soon after.

Toro Energy has kicked off its Lake Maitland extension study, which will also include uranium-vanadium ore from its Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede deposits that sit some 30km south-east of Wiluna in Western Australia. The company’s new assessment is aimed at adding considerable value to its original scoping study that forecast an annual EBITDA of $101 million during a 17.5-year mine life.

Middle Island Resources has prioritised exploration targets for iron oxide-copper-gold mineralisation and sediment-hosted base metals of copper-zinc-lead-silver at its Barkly project near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. The company says one of its company’s application areas has two high-priority shallow targets based on historic data that reveal a pathway copper-gold indicator of silver showing 87 grams per tonne.

Lycaon Resources has intersected more than 45m of 1 to 5 per cent visual nickel-copper sulphides from 330m after thrusting a second diamond drillhole into its Bow River project near Argyle in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. The company says the sulphides show a strong correlation with the upper limit of a gravity anomaly that is open along strike in excess of 1km.

Lycaon Resources has struck a key land agreement with traditional owners, allowing it to start exploring for niobium and rare earths in highly-prospective carbonatites at West Arunta in far north-eastern Western Australia. The land access agreement with the Parna Ngururrpa people is the final hurdle before the company plunges the drillbit for the first time into tantalising magnetic anomalies within its tenements.

Aruma Resources is chasing more gold with a multi-hole diamond drilling program at its Salmon Gums project in Western Australia following previous campaigns where the company discovered bonanza grades of up to 224 grams per tonne of gold. The project is in the same stratigraphy and 30km south of Pantoro’s Scotia project, which has a mineral resource of 1 million ounces of gold.

Empire Energy Group has lit up with increased gas flow rates from its fracture-stimulated Velkerri shale gas horizontal well, known as “Carpentaria-3H”, in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin. The company says it has reaffirmed its optimised extended production test strategy. The results replicate post-soaking improvements seen in its other horizontal well, Carpentaria-2H, auguring well for the planned gas pilot project to service existing gas pipelines.

Lycaon Resources says it has intersected more than 13m of visual nickel-copper sulphides from 364m after plunging a maiden diamond drillhole into its Bow River project near Argyle in Western Australia. The company says it signals the potential for a deep and prolific economic accumulation. A second hole is planned to test the keel position of the ultramafic intrusive, where massive sulphide accumulations could exist.