Matt Birney

Legend Mining continues to build on its success in the Fraser Range with recent drilling extending the footprint of the Mawson nickel discovery yet again. Shallow air core drilling has intersected broad zones of nickel-copper mineralisation, pointing to a deeper sulphide source. Legend has its ears laid back now as it vectors in on the source of its recent success.

Altech Chemicals has been given an official “green” classification for its Malaysian high purity alumina project from an independent research centre, opening the door to the “green bond market” that was valued at nearly USD$250b last year. Green bonds are an environmentally conscious financing instrument used by investors who are looking to invest in environmentally sustainable projects.

Just as it is breaking ground at its gold project near Kalgoorlie, ASX-listed Horizon Minerals has lit up its Nanadie Well copper-gold project near Meekatharra with intercepts like 12m at 2.16 per cent copper and 2.16g/t gold from just 20m down hole. Horizon said that particular drill hole also included 1m at an impressive 3.7 per cent copper and almost an ounce to the tonne gold.

Ora Banda Mining has produced a swag of solid gold intercepts from exploration drilling at multiple sites along the mineralised corridors that make up its Davyhurst gold project located north west of Kalgoorlie. Strong hits include 2m at 19.22g/t, 4m at 10.78g/t and 9m at 5.53g/t gold. Drilling at the underground Golden Eagle mine also did not disappoint with 2.1m grading 12.93g/t gold.

Just 18 months after start up at its Boonanarring mine north of Perth, ASX-listed mineral sands miner, Image Resources, continues to hit its milestones with a third scheduled debt repayment of US$7.7m now bowled over. Image has been delivering strong production numbers that routinely exceed the plant’s design specifications and it has systematically defined multiple new ore horizons around the mine.

Lindian Resources’ has thrown up some pulse quickening, ultra-high-grade alumina numbers at both the Bouba north and Bouba south extensions of the Bouba plateau at its Gaoual conglomerate bauxite project in Guinea, Africa. Three holes from Bouba North returned alumina grades between 50 and 54.4 per cent alumina with four holes at Bouba South grading even higher, between 54.9 and 58.5 per cent alumina.

PolarX has its elephant gun firmly trained on the elephant sized mineral deposits in Alaska with the ASX listed company getting set to undertake follow up drilling of its extraordinary 55m long drill hit that showed 2.8 grams per tonne gold and 0.6% copper. Whilst the Zackly Main Skarn is already showing 213,000 ounces of gold, the real prize appears to be at Zackly East.

Element 25 has delivered an outstanding pre-feasibility study for its Butcherbird manganese project in the Pilbara, revealing that the operation will produce a pre-tax NPV in real terms AUD$283M at an incredible IRR of 223 per cent on project capital costs totaling AUD$14.5M. The project shows an initial mine life of 42 years and annual free cash flows of AUD$24M.

Unlisted private equity backed Barton Gold has received an all-important nod of approval from a South Australian Government authority tasked with approving or rejecting non-military use of its minerals rich military land in South Australia. Barton said this week it had secured Resource Exploration and Production Permits from the Woomera Prohibited Area Coordination Office known as “WPACO”.

Coziron Resources now has a diamond rig operating at its Top Camp prospect in the Pilbara, undertaking a second phase of drilling designed to follow up some exciting previous drill numbers such as 8 metres grading 10.2 grams per tonne gold from 135m down hole. The company said it will drill around three holes to about 200m depth across the 1.5km long, 400m wide prospect.

Despite the current Coronavirus inspired market challenges, ASX-listed Hot Chili has encountered no difficulty in completing a $5m placement to sophisticated and institutional investors to progress its burgeoning Cortadera copper-gold discovery in Chile. Existing shareholders will also get a piece of the action with an additional $3.9m expected to come in from a non-renounceable rights issue.

TSX-listed Novo Resources has uncovered a third, broad, shallow, alluvial gold-bearing channel at its Paradise project in the Pilbara after returning to the field recently. Novo also said assays of alluvial gravels from its nearby Egina mining lease returned a solid 0.84 grams gold per cubic metre from bulk samples that are proving better than traditional drilling in sizing up its conglomerate gold opportunity.

Ora Banda Mining has landed on a final resource estimate of 30,000 ounces of contained gold in the open pit section of its Callion gold deposit in WA’s Goldfields, up 114 per cent on previous estimates and now with a higher grade of 3.5g/t. The company is now working on a design to take the existing open hit from 40m down to a depth of 85m.

ASX-listed Legend Mining continues to fatten up its emerging, massive nickel-copper sulphide discovery at Mawson in Western Australia’s Fraser Range. Assay results tabled last week from diamond drilling returned two intercepts in one hole showing a total of 36.6m of mineralisation with grades increasing significantly at depth. Assay results just in from another hole bring the total mineralisation in that hole to 107.9m.

Buru Energy has received $1.2m in cash for its share of the latest sale of crude oil from its Ungani oil field in Western Australia’s Canning basin. This is the third oil sale for the year and rounds out a solid first half for Buru that was already sitting on a cash pot of $30 million at the end of the March quarter.

Blackstone Minerals’ King Cobra nickel discovery at its Ta Khoa nickel-PGM project in Vietnam looks to have plenty of bite left in it yet after the Perth based ASX-listed company nailed a near 38m intersection going 1.12 per cent nickel right from the surface. Whilst the platinum group element results are still to come, the nickel results are looking lucrative.

After raising nearly $1M recently, Classic Minerals has hit the gas on a decent-sized RC drilling program at its Forrestania gold project near Southern Cross having spent the last few months evaluating previous results that saw it book a sizeable resource increase. Classic said the rig will visit the Van Uden West, Matrix and Tangerine Trees prospects, all of which the company says are begging for additional attention.

King River Resources is undertaking further hydrometallurgical test work on the high purity alumina, or “HPA”, that can be produced from its giant Speewah specialty metals project in the East Kimberly. Independent assay results and repeat analysis on the company’s recent breakthrough production of a high value 99.99% “4N HPA” product will be tabled soon.

Perth-based agricultural investment and management company, Alterra, has entered into two contracts to sell 913 hectares of its 1,640Ha “Dambadgee Springs” property near Dandaragan in Western Australia to a local farmer. The total value of the two contracts is $3.1M and the ASX-listed company said it plans to retain $2.0M as working capital with the balance utilised to retire debt.

ASX-listed engineering group, Primero Group has increased its shareholding in unlisted, Gawler Craton-focused Barton Gold with a view to collaborating on enhanced processing opportunities at Barton’s South Australian gold projects when they spring back to life. Primero, Barton’s preferred services provider for the turnkey design, construction and operation of mine processing infrastructure, will focus on the re-start of the Tarcoola mine.

ASX-listed PharmAust Limited has chalked up a remarkable success with its rapidly developing “Monepantel” anti-cancer drug after its latest trial on man’s best friend showed a significant turnaround in the health of dogs suffering from naïve B cell lymphoma. One dog achieved greater than 60 per cent reduction in tumour burden, with one of its tumours regressing completely.

ASX-listed AVZ Minerals has shifted gear into the planning and execution phase of its giant lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is expected to spit out some $600m a year in EBITDA. AVZ’s technical team is now putting effort into seeking tenders from companies identified in the DFS for various work packages required for the construction phase.

Hammer Metals has received results from the first phase of its JOGMEC joint venture exploration program at its Mount Isa Project in Queensland and they have thrown up some pulse quickening numbers from rock chip samples including 6.7 grams per tonne gold and 28.2% copper. The positive results have now triggered the second phase of work.

ASX-listed Horizon Minerals has broken ground at its Boorara gold deposit just 10km east of Kalgoorlie’s super pit with first gold now expected to be produced at the nearby Lakewood mill in July this year. Horizon said it has now bagged up all necessary approvals and permits and has $4 million in capital ready to deploy with Hampton Transport set and on call to haul the ore.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has released its bidders statement in support of its off-market takeover of fellow Alaskan-focused oiler, ASX-listed XCD Energy. Both boards have given unanimous support recommendations to shareholders for the proposed takeover that was announced last week. The offer is 2.4 new 88 Energy shares for each XCD share held and 0.7 new 88 Energy shares for each XCD Energy listed option held.

In a remarkable move, Deep Yellow has managed to convert nearly 100 per cent of one of its world-class uranium resources at the Tumas 3 deposit in Namibia from “inferred” to the higher confidence, “indicated” category, upgrading just over 24 million pounds of eU3O8 grading 313 parts per million. The uranium developer said that the global Tumas 3 mineral resource now stands at 36.8Mlb grading 328ppm eU3O8.

In an extraordinary demonstration of its aim to “close the loop” on the energy-metal cycle, Lithium Australia has tabled its initial results from test work using recovered alkaline battery metal dust to create a micro-nutrient supplement for plant fertilisers. Lithium Australia conducted “glasshouse pot trials”, growing wheat in a variety of controlled scenarios including using the recycled dust.

Adriatic Metals has expanded its footprint in the Balkans by moving to acquire TSX-listed Tethyan Resource Corp and its basket of in-country poly metallic assets ranging from historical mines and established resources to some very compelling exploration ground in Serbia. The deal will expand Adriatic’s land holdings in Europe to over 301km2 across Bosnia and Serbia.

Great Southern Mining has re-stocked its financial armoury with commitments received to raise $3.15M in a placement that will see the ASX-listed company turbo charge its exploration program at its Cox’s Find gold project in Western Australia. Prior notable results from its maiden drilling program include 5 metres grading 14.54g/t gold and 5m grading 31.23g/t

Venus Metals has lodged four new tenement applications about 50 kilometres northwest of Menzies in Western Australia and it has identified some interesting gold and nickel targets by conducting a historical data review at the project. The project is nestled on the boundary between the revered Youanmi and Kalgoorlie Terranes in the central section of the Yilgarn Craton.

For the fourth time in as many weeks, Middle Island Resources has ferreted out another emerging deposit less than a kilometre from its mothballed 600Ktpa processing plant in Sandstone, underlining the company’s intention to restart gold mining in the historic West Australian mining precinct. New results have extended the Plum Pudding deposit to the south and include 3m grading 3.72g/t from 29m and 10m grading 3.08g/t from 41m.

Local heavy rare earths producer, Northern Minerals, has executed a letter of intent with Soluna Australia to develop a renewable energy power plant and battery storage facility at Northern’s Browns Range mine in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Soluna Australia is the energy storage division of ASX-listed Lithium Australia and Chinese joint venture partner, DLG Energy.