Matt Birney

Dateline Resources has kicked the door in as the latest entrant to the million-ounce gold club on the ASX having just tabled a 1.1 million-ounce resource last month at its Colosseum gold and rare earths project near Las Vegas running 1.26g/t gold. Notably, the company says the resource still has plenty of legs, but it is also showing early signs of rare earths in a region that is revered for the scale and grade of its rare earths.

ASX-listed Toro Energy has revealed proposals to spin out its portfolio of non-core nickel, gold, and base metal assets in Western Australia to focus solely on uranium. Projects flagged for the spin out into a new IPO include Toro’s wholly owned Dusty Nickel Project 50km east of the town of Wiluna and the Yandal Gold and Base Metal Project.

Middle Island Resources is onto several new iron-oxide-copper-gold and sediment-hosted base metals targets from gravity survey data at its Barkly project close to Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Modelling of detailed geophysical data collected in 2023 over eight priority targets has detected several density anomalies with shapes and sizes that may represent sizeable mineral deposits.

The Northern Territory’s onshore Beetaloo basin is thought to be harbouring almost biblical-scale gas deposits and ASX-listed Empire Energy is in the vanguard of those seeking to prove its commercial viability. The company is now teeteringly close to pushing the button on an investment decision to start flowing gas commercially out of the basin – a move that could revolutionise the Australian gas industry.

The fight over AVZ Minerals’ mega-lithium deposit in the DRC conjures up images of the whacky Cantina bar scene in Star Wars where all the characters have two heads or three arms and an armoury of weapons to wield. A recent court ruling, however, has reset the playing field in AVZ’s favour as the dominoes start to fall against the dark forces seeking to spirit away its extraordinary lithium deposit.

American West has kicked off a maiden drill program at its Copper Warrior project, following up favourable geophysical IP anomalies and outcrop samples returning up to 3.3 per cent copper. The project is located nearby the historical Big Indian Copper Mine and along strike from Utah’s second largest operating copper mine with the current program to include 10 RC holes with initial assay results expected in 4-6 weeks.

Horizon Minerals has managed to get its foot on two lithium prospect areas with exquisite proximity to Greenbushes – the biggest hard-rock lithium mine in the world. The company says it paid just $225,000 in cash and shares to a private operator to get within about 10km of and along strike from Greenbushes, which has long been revered as the best lithium mine in the world.

Everest Metals has a nice problem – there is too much visible nuggetty gold in the reefs at its Revere gold project and it will turn to a bulk sampling program to get a better handle on tonnes and grade. Everest says it might be able to mine Revere courtesy of a simple mobile “Gekko” mining plant and has wrapped an exploration target around the project.

WA-based oil producer Triangle Energy has banked $10 million through a binding farmout agreement with New Zealand Oil & Gas for 25 per cent of its L7 production licence and EP 437 exploration permit. Following the separate sale to Talon Energy in December last year of another 25 per cent slice of its permits, Triangle retains a 50 per cent stake of its original tenure.

Neometals is in the crosshairs of the European Investment Bank for cornerstone debt funding of its vanadium recycling project in Finland. The EIB is the lending arm of the EU and one of the biggest providers of climate-related finance. While it does not tend to lend 100 per cent of required funding for projects, its approval could see other commercial banks come to the table.

Multi-commodity explorer Meeka Metals continues to rack up high-grade gold hits at its Circle Valley project near the WA town of Esperance, where it expects to soon deliver a maiden rare earths mineral resource. The intriguing intercepts appear to be evolving into a significant gold footprint covering several kilometres at its underexplored tenure. The head grade came in a 4m core showing 3.89 g/t.

Infinity Mining has a renewed optimism in its search for more lithium-bearing pegmatites and rare earths after positive results in the latest field program at its South Tambourah project in WA’s Pilbara region. The return of eight rock chip samples collected late last year confirm lithium mineralisation of up to 3.86 per cent lithium, 338.5 parts-per-million caesium, 174ppm niobium, 233.7ppm tantalum and 3013.5ppm rubidium.

Classic Minerals has joined the ranks of WA gold miners after hauling the first ore from its wholly-owned Kat Gap gold mine, which sits 170km south of Southern Cross in the State’s Central Wheatbelt. Initial haulage is focused on 6500 tonnes of ore recovered from the bulk sample pit. Kat Gap has a healthy grade of 2.96 g/t gold with near-surface mineralisation.

Surefire Resources has the drill bit spinning again at its promising Yidby gold project in the Murchison district of WA’s Mid West, targeting extensions to gold mineralised intercepts of discovery holes at the project’s three main prospects. The program will also test structural targets generated from magnetic and gravity data and will comprise 24 RC holes for a total of 2800m.

EMU NL has confirmed the presence of both magnetic and heavy rare earths at its Condingup project near Esperance after rock samples returned results of up to 2124 parts-per-million total rare earth oxides. A total of eight samples were collected from a reconnaissance program late last year including three rocks from the Booanya granite complex that all returned results above 1000ppm TREO.

A high-resolution aeromagnetic survey has identified high-priority drill targets for clay-hosted and fresh rock rare earths mineralisation at Venus Metals’ wholly-owned Marvel Loch East project in WA. Hard rock targets include a 25km long magnetic trend and a 3km zoned magnetic anomaly where previous rock chips up to 4365ppm total rare earths were discovered.

Reach Resources has identified four major targets for lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites within its Critical Elements project in WA’s Gascoyne region after independent analysis from geological experts. The initial phase of the assessment by RSC Consultants focused on Reach’s Morrissey Hill, Camel Hill and Wabli Creek projects that form part of the greater Critical Elements operation.

Everest Metals has achieved exceptional gold recoveries from independent gravity separation test work from its Revere gold project 90km northeast of Meekatharra. Coarse gold hand-picked from the 305 g/t gold bulk quartz vein sample accounted for 47 per cent of the recovered gold and gravity separation recovered 97 per cent of the remaining gold. The company is now planning further bulk testing and resource drilling.

Asra Minerals’ Mt Stirling project near Leonora in WA’s Goldfields has thrown up traces of highly sought-after “heavy” rare earths in addition to lucrative scandium that stretches from only 2m below surface to the bottom of 40m drill holes. Headline drill numbers include 48m at 90 parts per million scandium oxide from 3m and 7m at 669ppm total rare earths and yttrium oxide from 5m.

Xanadu Mines has wrapped up the next two phases of its strategic partnership with Chinese copper goliath Zijin Mining, giving it access to funding for the exploration and evaluation of its Kharmagtai copper-gold project all the way up to a decision to mine. The deal will see US$35 million invested directly into the project and a 50-50 joint venture created between the parties.

88 Energy has spudded its Hickory-1 well at the company’s Phoenix project in Alaska, testing a sweet spot of seismic anomalies in a region that has enjoyed recent drilling success. The Hickory-1 well is permitted to a total depth 3.81 km and designed to appraise up to six conventional oil reservoir targets with a net entitlement prospective resource of 647 mean million barrels of oil.

ASX and Frankfurt-listed Altech Batteries has received A$5.12 million as the first of two deferred instalment payments from Frankfurt-listed Altech Advanced Materials for the purchase of 25 per cent of Aletch Batteries subsidiary Altech Industries Germany GmbH. The final instalment of 1.583 million euros or approximately A$2.5 million is payable in December 2023 completing the deal done in December 2020.

ASX-listed Classic Minerals is making steady progress on its ambitions to become a gold producer and has begun installing a processing plant on foundations at the company’s flagship Kat Gap project in the WA Goldfields. The heaviest parts of the Australian-made Gekko plant are being secured to foundations and work is beginning on ancillary structures, electrical and plumbing scopes.

Meeka Metals’ latest diamond drilling has confirmed high-grade gold at its St Anne’s deposit as part of the company’s flagship Murchison gold project. Headline results include 12.8m at 5.21 grams per tonne gold from 54.3m. The company says it remains on target to release a maiden mineral resource for the deposit later this month with further drilling also to kick off in coming weeks.

Aurum Resources has commenced an induced polarisation gradient array geophysical survey at its Penny South project that is planned to cover an area of 5.2 square kilometres. The main target for the IP survey is ultramafic schist units that Aurum believes are possibly more extensive than previously interpreted and may host nickel-copper mineralisation. The Penny South project is located 126 kms south-east of Mt Magnet in WA.

TSX-listed Novo Resources has highlighted a number of high-priority targets at its Becher gold project in the Pilbara after receiving the results from the company’s 2022 air-core drill campaign at the operation. Becher forms part of Novo’s 10,500 square kilometre Pilbara tenement package and sits within its greater Egina gold camp and between De Grey Mining’s Mallina and Hemi gold projects.

Chimeric Therapeutics has successfully secured the manufacturing of a key tool for cell therapy targeting gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine tumours as the company gets set for a clinical trial. Management says by securing the supply of “viral vectors” it has successfully navigated one of the most critical and challenging components of the manufacture of its “CAR T” cell therapy Chimeric is now focused on advancing its treatment to a first phase clinical trial.

Infinity Mining has landed strong gold results over a 200m strike from the first five RC drill holes in its latest campaign. Assays from the first five RC drill holes at the company’s Victor Bore project include 7m at 1.96 g/t gold from 32m, 6m going 1.4 g/t gold from 25m with best individual 1m intersections of 8.67 g/t from 34m and 7.33g/t gold from 29m. Infinity wrapped up 37 RC drill holes at five historical gold mine prospects on its ground near Leonora in the Central Goldfields of WA.

Lindian Resources continues to pull impressive assays from its Kangankunde project in Malawi with the latest drill results highlighting a 3m hit at a whopping 15.6 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 69m. The high-grade intercept is contained within a larger 26m section grading 6.15 per cent TREO from 58m and includes a 1m segment at a head-turning 18.76 per cent TREO from 71m.

ASX-listed Neometals’ latest feasibility study into its Vanadium Recovery Project in Finland has shown a significant increase to the operation’s net present value compared to its preliminary investigations. The latest figures show a 40 per cent increase to pre-tax net present value up to $US323 million compared to $US230 million identified in the prefeasibility study completed in May 2021.

Strickland Metals will commence drilling at its Iriquois base metals project in WA’s Earaheedy Basin with a minimum of three diamond holes after the company developed a new geological model for the site. The campaign will target the site’s currently untested “feeder structure” to the zinc-lead mineralisation that the company believes could be enriched with silver and copper. Strickland’s latest modelling for the system suggests the potential for a much larger copper-zinc-silver-lead mineralisation than previously estimated.

Askari Metals has kicked off phase 2 drilling at a key tenement that forms part of its Uis lithium project in Namibia after an ongoing mapping and sampling program highlighted untested pegmatites at the site. The campaign began late last month and aims to investigate a number of recently discovered pegmatites reported to have visible lithium mineralisation at surface. Askari says the latest RC drill program will cover a minimum of 4000m with four holes already completed and assay results from phase 1 drilling expected in coming weeks.