James Pearson

Altech Batteries is cleaning up its corporate structure by offering to buy the remaining minority stakes in its CERENERGY and Silumina Anodes projects from German-listed subsidiary Altech Advanced Materials. The $23.3m all-scrip deal increases Altech’s ownership to 75 per cent of CERENERGY and all of Silumina Anodes, strengthening its control over the company’s advanced salt battery technology

Thunderbird Resources has completed a review of historical exploration data uncovering high-grade assay samples up to 49.8 grams per tonne gold and 4.1 per cent antimony at its newly acquired Rockvale and Kookabookra projects near Armidale in New South Wales. Four of the tenements, covering 358 square kilometres, form the Rockvale project and are strategically positioned near Larvotto Resources’ exciting Hillgrove gold-antimony project.

Estrella Resources has jagged a rich deposit of transported alluvial manganese at its Soru prospect within the company’s Lautém manganese project in Timor-Leste, with visual grades running as high as 95pc. The manganese may have leached from the surrounding hills due to erosion to form a supergene deposit before breaking up and creating a tertiary deposit of boulders and rock fragments across the hillside and in the local creek systems.

Suvo Strategic Minerals’ low-carbon concrete joint venture with PERMAcast has scored its first binding MOU with a WA-based wind farm developer. It plans to construct and install 3GW onshore and 2GW offshore capacity, deploying up to 500 turbines that each require more than 1000 cubic metres of concrete. The JV partners have a right to first refusal on the supply deal subject to a successful pilot program.

Assays from metallurgical drilling at Octava Minerals’ Byro rare earth elements and lithium project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region have backed up previously defined high-grade mineralisation. A hit from two 100-metre holes reached as high as 500ppm total rare earth oxides, 375ppm lithium oxide and 523ppm vanadium pentoxide over a 50m intercept.

Aguia Resources has nailed down a 10-year binding lease agreement to process organic phosphate from its Três Estradas project near Caçapava do Sul in southern Brazil’s agricultural heartland. Aguia will operate the plant at a monthly cost of BRL$163,000 (A$43,000) and a BRL$5m (A$1.4m) one-off payment to the owners. Aguia has an option to extend the lease for a further 10 years. First production is slated for later this year.

Aurum Resources has struck more high-grade gold at its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire, with hits of up to 8m at 8.23g/t gold outside the known resource. Results from 3079m of drilling across 12 holes at Target 3 have extended mineralisation by 380m, pushing the strike to 1.9km - well beyond the 950m already included in the 1.59-million-ounce global resource.

Image Resources has landed first production of heavy mineral concentrate at its Atlas project, 170 km north of Perth, marking a key step in the company’s plan to expand its mineral sands footprint and achieve planned revenue growth by mid-2025. The mine achieved its first production during early-stage commissioning this month. Despite bushfire evacuations last year, accelerated construction has since kept the project on schedule with initial forecasts.

Strickland Metals has boosted its Serbian Rogozna project’s mineral resource by 23pc, reaching 6.69m gold equivalent ounces. A key driver is the maiden resource at Medenovac, contributing 1.28m gold equivalent ounces from a resource of 21mt grading 1.9g/t gold equivalent. The polymetallic deposit - rich in gold, copper, zinc, lead and silver – has lifted Rogozna’s portfolio, reinforcing its status as a major gold and base metals asset.

Great Southern Mining and Gold Fields Limited have identified a second large-scale induced polarisation (IP) target at their Edinburgh Park gold and copper project in northern Queensland. The newly discovered Mt Dillon target follows a previous IP anomaly at Leichhardt Creek, located 10km northwest. The latest find reinforces the potential for significant mineralization within the jointly owned exploration area.

McLaren Minerals has launched an air core drilling campaign at the company’s flagship McLaren titanium sands project in Western Australia’s Eucla Basin. The program aims to refine resource estimates, expand high-grade titanium mineralisation and enhance confidence in the 280-million-tonne resource. A key priority will be to collect 5 tonnes of sample material for metallurgical testing at IHC Mining’s laboratory in Queensland.

Javelin Minerals is about to launch a 2500-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at its newly acquired Eureka gold project, 50km north of Kalgoorlie in WA. The company has a program of works submitted and an RC rig secured through a drill-for-equity deal with TopDrill. The program, to target high-grade lodes, is expected to begin in early March and will take about three weeks.

Larvotto Resources’ plans to run a dry tailings stacking process at its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales have been approved by the NSW planning and infrastructure department. The company decided to move away from a conventional wet slurry tailings dam because the dry storage solution offered significant low-cost design and eco-friendly benefits given Hillgrove’s nature, scale and current infrastructure.

King River Resources has revealed a set of eye-catching assay results up to 26 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from shallow drilling at its Kurundi gold project near Tennent Creek in the Northern Territory. The phase 2 drilling program at Kurundi consisted of 36 RC holes for 2,472m designed to look for new mineralised structures and extensions up to 1.5km from the main workings at Kurundi.

Suvo Strategic Minerals has locked away a game-changing five-year renewal of its key hydrous kaolin offtake agreement with Chaozhou Chengcheng Industrial Co, doubling sales to the Chinese industrial powerhouse. The take-or-pay agreement, valued at $6.56 million before delivery costs, has increased volumes from 4275t of the company’s hydrous kaolin in the previous three-year agreement to 8750t under the new deal.

Latitude 66 is gearing up for an innovative exploration initiative at its flagship Kuusamo Schist Belt gold-cobalt project in Finland, with plans to deploy reverse circulation drilling for the first time in the region. The company has locked in an agreement to trial the RC technique this March at its K6 prospects, which lie just 1km south of its existing 650,000-ounce gold and 5840t cobalt mineral resource.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining will fast-track a follow-up reverse circulation drilling program after earlier this week revealing the impressive Lighthorse gold discovery at its Pinjin project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. An RC rig will target deeper host rock after earlier air core drilling hit a rich supergene zone. The latest drilling is set to begin in early March.

Carnaby Resources hit shallow, high-grade copper of up to 4.9pc and gold grading as high as 2.8g/t from just 22m depth at its Burke and Wills prospect, part of the Greater Duchess JV with ASX-listed Latitude 66 in Queensland. All 10 drill holes intersected mineralisation, helping to define deposit geometry and test extensions. Latitude holds a 17.5pc free-carried interest in the project.

Horizon Minerals has launched its second gold mine, kicking off ore processing at its Phillips Find project, 45km northwest of Coolgardie in WA. Mining at the Newminster and Newhaven pits is well underway, with more than 800,000 cubic metres of material now shifted to the ROM pad. The first 40,000t have been trucked to FMR Investments' Greenfields mill, where processing will begin next week on a two-week turnaround.

Lithium Universe has inked a non-binding memorandum of understanding to exclusively supply a key cement additive to Canada’s biggest cement manufacturer, Lafarge Canada. Aluminosilicate is made up of silica, aluminium oxide and ferric oxide and will be a secondary byproduct from the lithium carbonate production circuit at Lithium Universe’s planned Bécancour refinery in Quebec.

Javelin Minerals has struck high-grade gold and copper in a maiden drilling program at its Coogee project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, 20km northeast of Kambalda, hitting grades of up to 65 grams per tonne gold and 8.5 per cent copper. The 2921m drilling program has extended the strike beyond one kilometre, expanding the resource northward and at depth.

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has given the much-anticipated $30 million scheme of arrangement between Kalgoorlie-based Horizon Minerals and Poseidon Nickel the final tick of approval. The deal paves the way for Horizon to pick up Poseidon's 422,000-tonne contained nickel resource and its mothballed Black Swan nickel processing plant 40km east of Kalgoorlie which the company says would cost $150 million to replace.

Toro Energy has tweaked the planned pit design at its Lake Maitland uranium and vanadium project near Wiluna in Western Australia. After recently updating its resource, the company is pushing full steam ahead with plans to complete a scoping study update aimed at justifying the deposit as a standalone mining operation.

Strickland Metals has scored another home run after delivering a stellar set of high-grade intercepts at its Gradina prospect, which is part of the Rogozna gold and base metals project in Serbia. Among the standout results is an impressive 14.3m hit grading 8g/t gold from 517m, including a 2m section peaking as high as 17.6g/t.

Meeka Metals is making rapid progress at its Murchison gold project, 60km north of Mt Magnet, in Western Australia, with open-pit mining set to begin shortly. Key infrastructure is nearly complete and the mining fleet is mobilising. Earthworks and utilities for the Turnberry administration buildings are finished, clearing the way for trucks, loaders and earthmovers to arrive in early February ahead of first mining in March.

Six months after picking up the once-dormant high-grade Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia through a takeover of Andean Mining, Aguia Resources has triggered a gold rush with a maiden pour of the yellow metal. The initial pour kicked off much needed cashflow at a critical time for Aguia as it pushes forward with expansion plans to shortly increase its processing capacity to 50tpd.

McLaren Minerals is gearing up for a six-week infill drilling program to gather metallurgical samples, explore for extensions and strengthen its resource at the company’s existing McLaren titanium sands project in Western Australia’s Eucla Basin. Designed by ERM Australia Consultants and kicking off in two weeks, the campaign is expected to cover 6000 metres of air core drilling.

Great Southern Mining has kicked off an RC drilling campaign at its Duketon gold project, which spans 178 square kilometres within 13 virtually contiguous leases in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. The program has been designed to unlock the full potential of its promising Golden Boulder prospect which previously produced some impressive results before the rig is moved onto several other high-priority targets.

Buru Energy is putting an updated game plan into play to focus on its flagship Rafael gas project in Western Australia’s Canning Basin. It has wasted no time selling off non-core assets by inking a deal to offload its 50 per cent stake in the Barbwire Terrace base metal project to joint venture partner Sipa Resources in exchange for a royalty over future production.

Altech Batteries has been awarded “Dark Green” certification, the highest rating offered by global ratings agency S&P, for its salt battery project, opening the door to funding from the massive green bond market. The company believes the accolade has underscored the project’s potential to redefine battery technology and shines a light on what it says is possibly the greenest battery technology available today.

Buru Energy has rolled out a bold plan to focus attention and capital on its flagship Rafael gas and liquids project in WA's Canning Basin, set to begin production in 2027. To ensure Rafael’s success as a future cash cow, the company has kicked off a $3 million cost-cutting program and the sell-down of non-core assets, directing capital where it matters most.

Strickland Metals has launched into 2025 with a bang, revealing strong vertical extensions at its Shanac gold-copper skarn deposit in Serbia. The new results, which came from a single hole targeting the underexplored southern extent of the prospect, included an 80.2m intercept at 1.9g/t gold equivalent from 501.9m, featuring 11.7m at 4.3g/t gold equivalent and a 30.1m section grading 1.6g/t gold equivalent from 438.9m.