Mark Irving

European-focused Altech Batteries has unveiled its preliminary specifications for two products aimed at the burgeoning grid power storage battery market, in a move it predicts will kickstart discussions with potential buyers. The storage batteries, which the Subiaco-based company says outperforms lithium-ion batteries on many levels, will be built in Germany in a joint venture with its partner, Fraunhofer IKTS.

The Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet in Western Australia’s Murchison region has coughed up more high-grade results to bolster the confidence of Venus Metals and its joint venture (JV) partner Rox Resources in upgrading the project’s mineral resource estimate. New highlights include 6.38m going 4.45 grams per tonne gold from 381.84m, including 2.56m at 8.26g/t gold from 381.84m.

Surefire Resources is eyeing a November delivery of the prefeasibility study for its Victory Bore vanadium play, clearing the way for the next step in commercialising the project’s massive deposit in Western Australia’s Mid West region. Surefire is also making preliminary plans for further drilling to enable its measured resources to be converted into a JORC-compliant reserve.

Reproductive biotechnology company Memphasys has received a boost for its flagship Felix system, with the first global study of its kind rating the novel technology as “best available” for recovering high-quality sperm for IVF following the sperm’s cryopreservation. The study found that from the three sperm-semen separation systems examined, only Felix exhibited significantly lower levels of DNA damage.

Cell therapy cancer-fighter Chimeric Therapeutics is wasting no time on its mission to commercialise its novel potential treatment for glioblastoma. The ASX-listed company was given approval in April for a phase-1B clinical trial of the treatment, which employs the venom of the deathstalker scorpion. The first of multiple sites to enrol patients in the trial has now been revealed in the United States.

Geochemical sampling has confirmed massive nickel-sulphides at ASX-listed Toro Energy’s Jumping Jack discovery, which is part of its wholly-owned Dusty nickel project in Western Australia’s northern Goldfields. Toro’s 10,000m drilling program has continued this year at Dusty, which now boasts four massive nickel-sulphides discoveries and sits just 50km east of BHP’s world-class Mt Keith open-pit nickel operation.

WA-based mineral explorer Lindian Resources has released the highest assay grades to date from its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, with headline figures including 293.4m at 3.66 per cent TREO from 4m to end of hole. The company says the “spectacular” results mean Kangankunde is emerging “as one of the world’s greatest rare earths assets”.

Lindian Resources says the second phase of its depth-extension drill program at its promising Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi is on track – and it has whetted the appetite of investors by flagging the return next week of more assay results from its phase-one work. The critical minerals company expects to release a maiden mineral resource estimate by the end of next month.

Godolphin Resources is planning a drilling program to follow up fieldwork at its Yeoval East prospect and further expand its resource footprint in NSW’s rich Lachlan Fold Belt. Soil and rock-chip program results identified a 150ppm copper zone about 600m long and 200m wide. Copper results ran up to 0.14 per cent from soil samples and 0.28 per cent copper from rock chips.

WA-based minerals explorer Terrain Minerals has uncovered a 600m-long induced polarisation anomaly at its Smokebush gold-lithium project in WA’s Mid West. The company had already planned to start an RC campaign to search for gold and lithium at the project next month, but reviews of historic drilling has presented new targets – including the newly-discovered anomaly.

Diversified metals explorer Venture Minerals has wasted no time in kick-starting its new JV project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, signing a contract with drillers for a maiden drill program to test the extent of the clay-hosted rare earths mineralisation at its Iron Duke deposit. The program will complement a drill program organised for another recent rare earths acquisition, Brothers.

Strickland Metals says a maiden diamond drilling program at its Iroquois project in outback Western Australia has produced “fantastic” zinc results, providing a timely boost after being unable to access its site due to bad weather. It is reporting high-grade zinc mineralisation hits, with a headline figure of 4.3m going 27 per cent. Unsurprisingly, a follow-up drill program is planned.

Western Australian-based minerals explorer Terrain Minerals is priming its drills at its Smokebush project in the State’s Mid West region after gold and copper-nickel anomalies were discovered in a “highly-successful” field program. The discoveries were made at the company’s Larin’s Lane target where a maiden exploration program unearthed a new 700m-by-250m gold anomaly that management says is ready for air-core drilling.

Buru Energy has been buoyed by the return to operations at its Ungani oilfield, which was closed last summer as a result of the widespread devastation wreaked by Tropical Cyclone Ellie. Turning the oil tap back on means the company’s first revenue of the year from its sole producing asset will soon roll into its coffers, with its first oil shipment slotted for Q3.

The third and final batch of assay results from ChemX Materials’ 2023 drilling campaign at its Jamieson Tank manganese deposit on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula have landed, including a headline 16m hit going 17.9 per cent manganese from 17m. The results will help bolster a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Perth-based high-purity critical materials company.

Subiaco-based Altech Batteries has fast-tracked the final prototype of its unique battery pack that uses ordinary table variety salt instead of expensive and scarce minerals. The company’s ABS60 battery pack, that it is planning to manufacture in Germany, is aimed at the burgeoning renewable energy and grid storage markets. Altech says it has the potential to be a “game-changer”.

Venture Minerals has continued its recent splurge on rare earths by signing a joint venture agreement designed to deliver the diversified metals explorer a majority stake in Sentinel Exploration’s Iron Duke project. Iron Duke is Venture’s third acquisition in Western Australia’s Mid West region in the past month. The company says it will get the drill bits spinning later this month.

DiscovEx is hunting an “enigmatic” gold source at its Edjudina project north-east of Kalgoorlie after recent drilling assays confirmed bedrock gold at all three prospects tested and ratified the continuity of mineralisation at the transition between weathered and fresh rock. All three targets displayed elevated gold results close to the bottom of hole and scale potential. The company’s chase for the source continues.

Octava Minerals is putting boots on the ground at its Yallalong nickel-gold project, 220km north-east of Geraldton – and the CSIRO has jumped in with funding to help lessen the impact of the imprint. The “green energy” metals explorer has snared exploration funding from the CSIRO’s Kick-Start program and will employ the agency’s leading-edge technology to optimise sample collection, while simultaneously reducing on-ground activity.

ABx Group has boosted the mineral resource estimate at its rare earths project in northern Tasmania by 50 per cent, to pass the 20 million tonnes milestone on the back of a 30-hole drill program. The company believes “not all clays are created equal” and says its deposit is different to most others because the process of extraction would be cheaper and cleaner.

WA explorer Terrain Minerals has extended an induced polarisation survey at its Smokebush project in the State’s Mid West region after its initial scrutiny picked up a third hidden target that has more than whetted its interest. Key permits have already been granted, with drill rig quotes also received, and Terrain hopes to get the drill bit spinning by the end of next month.

Surefire Resources has commissioned METS Engineering to undertake vital metallurgical testwork at its Victory Bore project in Western Australia’s Mid West region to help further its bid to impact Australasia’s emerging vanadium battery sector. Management hopes the move will boost the project’s value by finding a streamlined separation process to extract vanadium from its magnetite hosts.

American West Metals has revealed immediate RC drill program success at its Storm copper project in Canada’s far north … with the promise of more to come. The North American-focused company says the first four holes completed at its 4100N prospect all intersected thick visual copper sulphide intervals, confirmed to contain copper based on portable XRF analysis.

ASX-listed Estrella Resources has run the rule over a promising 5A nickel target at its Spargoville project, 20km south-west of Kambalda in WA’s Goldfields, and has opted for an underground decline operation over open-pit mining. The company will now press full-steam ahead towards restarting the historic mining at Spargoville of nickel – now a much-needed battery metal.

First-pass shallow RC drilling at Venus Metals’ Youanmi lithium project in Western Australia’s Murchison region has unearthed pegmatite-hosted LCT mineralisation that the company says remains open at depth and along strike. Lepidolite-bearing pegmatite with up to 2m at 0.33 per cent lithium oxide from 9m was intersected in one hole at the Beryl prospect and Venus has flagged more follow-up drilling.

Venture Minerals is keen to get its drill bits spinning in search of rare earths elements in WA after adding two new Mid West projects to its portfolio and identifying two new targets at its existing Kulin deposit, south-east of Perth. The diversified minerals explorer has developed a strategy to expand its exposure in the rare earths space with a bias for clay-hosted mineralisation.

Buru Energy is pressing the pedal to the metal on its Rafael gas discovery in the Kimberley following a tick of approval on introducing a floating liquified natural gas (FLNG) facility into the processing chain. But Buru believes the value of its prefeasibility study extends wider than just a nod to the FLNG, claiming an innovative partnership could bring Rafael to reality.

ASX-listed biotech Radiopharm Theranostics has secured the supply of a valuable isotope that will enable the company to soon kick off a human trial of a treatment designed to tackle brain cancer. Management says the isotope, Therbium-161, boasts great promise in helping to expand treatment options for patients living with cancer – but it is in short supply.

Chimeric Therapeutics will showcase its cutting-edge cell therapy work before the world’s leading cancer specialists in the United States in June, joining a select cohort picked from more than 6500 entries. The Melbourne biotech will outline its new clinical trial, designed to test its potential treatment for brain cancer, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Buru Energy is forging ahead in its bid to unlock the massive potential of its Rafael 1 well, east of Broome in WA’s Canning Basin, by taking another important step on its pathway to production. Buru has lodged a declaration of location application with the State Government – a move described as a key step towards the commercialisation and monetisation of its gas and condensate resource.

Diversified explorer Askari Metals has backed its bold claim to be leading the charge for lithium out of Namibia by grabbing the final 10 per cent of an exclusive prospective lease at its Uis project. The news comes just days after the company revealed it had acquired an 80 per cent interest in an adjoining tenement for about $1.8 million.

A women’s hospital in India has delivered good news for reproductive biotechnology innovator Memphasys, reporting the first successful birth for the company’s “Felix” sperm separation system. Memphasys has also scored a separate win with its first commercial sales in another key market – Japan. India offers Memphasys a $50 million opportunity, while Japan is twice that size.