Matt Birney

The recently released Federal Budget has highlighted the importance of the mining and resources industry to the Australian economy with a particular focus on the critical minerals sector. One of the most important commodities to the current market is lithium due to the importance of the metal to the electric vehicle and battery sector.

Shares in Venture Minerals vaulted over 30 per cent in intraday trading after the company doubled its rare earths portfolio through a new discovery at its Golden Grove North zinc-copper-gold project in WA’s Mid-West. Results from a surface sampling campaign at the operation’s Vulcan prospect graded up to 12.5 per cent total rare earth oxides and follow the recent detection at the company’s Mount Lindsay project in Tasmania.

As it looks to table an updated mineral resource, Australian explorer Godolphin Resources has confirmed rare earths mineralisation in a four-hole diamond drill program completed in July at the company’s Narraburra rare earths project in NSW. All holes in the 285.6m-long campaign intercepted rare earths across the project in both weathered surficial material and in underlying fresh rock with a peak grade of 1027ppm TREO.

Askari Metals has expanded its lithium foothold in WA’s Pilbara region by entering a binding agreement to acquire all of the shares in private company, Greenstone Lithium, in exchange for an upfront consideration of $250,000 in cash and shares. The 65-square-kilometre project is considered prospective for lithium, tin and tantalum mineralisation and is comprised of one granted tenement and one tenement application.

Captivate Energy Alaska, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed oil and gas explorer 88 Energy could soon pick up ten leases spanning over 25,000 acres in Alaska's North Slope. The acquisition follows a formal bidding process in that saw the company win the rights to acquire the tenure that boasts historical hydrocarbon shows and an existing 3D dataset which could expedite future work.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has completed a heritage survey at its Perrinvale gold project about 80km west of Leonora in WA that paves the way for boots on the ground exploration work. Historical campaigns unveiled a suite of anomalous target zones that were not fully examined and the company now plans to double-back and assess the potentially gold-bearing prospects.

Newly listed lithium and gold explorer Octava Minerals has lit up a number of priority targets at the company’s Talga lithium project in WA’s Pilbara region after a preliminary portable XRF machine analysis of over 2000 soil samples. Whilst the company awaits its full laboratory results it already has identified multiple additional pegmatites and marked seven priority target areas for further field assessment.

Toro Energy has unearthed high-grade gold results from geochemical assays of rock chip samples collected to the south of the company’s Golden Ways target that forms part of its Yandal gold project. The company collected a total of 85 specimens in the recently identified New England target area about 2km south of Golden Ways with results returning impressive grades including one sample at 70.4 grams per tonne gold.

Infinity Lithium has sealed a binding memorandum of understanding with Spanish energy firm Enalter to assess a renewable energy project that could drive down costs associated with the explorer’s in-development San José lithium project. As part of the deal the company through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies, will seek to capitalise on the region’s sprawling alternative power prospects through solar, methane and green hydrogen operations.

ASX-listed gold explorer and producer Calidus Resources has enjoyed success with the drill bit in a maiden RC program at Spear Hill in the Pilbara – for lithium, not gold. The discovery was made by Calidus’ part-owned Pirra Lithium. Significant intercepts included 2 metres at 1.11 per cent lithium oxide from 19m and 2m at 1.09 per cent from 5m.

Valor Resources has extended the surface uranium mineralisation of its Surprise Creek project in Canada to a strike length of almost 400m after receiving results from field work conducted last month. The program completed in October revealed five targets with a maximum scintillometer reading of 65,535 counts per second whilst a number of additional areas tested showed results of more than 10,000 cps.

Kairos Minerals has identified significant new lithium soil anomalies at its Roe Hills project in the Eastern Goldfields of WA. The lithium hits are near Kairos’s 2.6km long Black Cat lithium soil anomaly where preparations for drilling are well advanced. The company says Black Cat appears to have the same geology as the nearby Manna deposit, 20 per cent of which sold for $60 million in October.

Meeka Metals has reported strong oxide gold mineralisation from shallow drilling of a new area of its St Anne’s deposit of the company’s Murchison gold project, north-east of Meekatharra in WA. The campaign’s highlights include 16 metres at 3.48 grams per tonne from 48m, including 8m going 6.17 g/t gold and 12m at 2.48 g/t gold from 76m including 8m grading 3.55 g/t gold.

The US federal government has provided the Utah Geological Survey with a US$300,000 grant to study American West Metals' West Desert project near Salt Lake City. The project boasts large resources of commodities critical to the new energy push including zinc and copper and indium and the work is aimed at providing the necessary know-how to sniff out similar deposits.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has completed a first-pass sampling campaign across its Pianto project near Menzies in WA’s Goldfields region that will be tested for multi-elements including gold and lithium. The reconnaissance geochemistry program saw the company collect 315 auger samples that will test the company’s “gold-in-granite” exploration model and identify targets for follow up exploration.

Aruma Resources has intersected multiple pegmatites over a 1500m strike length in its latest drilling at the Mt Deans lithium-rubidium project. RC drilling was conducted over the pegmatite swarm where previous drilling returned grades up to 1.14 per cent lithium and 1.05 per cent rubidium. The company says current drilling intersected visual lithium mineralisation identified as the mineral lepidolite.

Aurum Resources is one step closer to beginning exploration on its Ryans Find gold project north-east of Southern Cross after signing a heritage agreement with the Marlinyu Ghoorlie Native Title Claimant Group. The agreement is the first step in gaining heritage clearance for the site that will allow the company’s planned air-core drilling program to commence. The programme of works for the campaign has already been approved by the WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.

Northern Minerals has secured a $3.9 million refund from the ATO as part of the Federal Government’s research and development tax offset scheme for a suite of activities completed at its Browns Range pilot plant project in the Pilbara. The reimbursement follows ongoing trial beneficiation and hydrometallurgical work that is aiming to further the company’s expertise in the processing of its heavy rare earths.

Mineral Explorer Si6 Metals has wrapped up a 119-hole, 5636m air-core drilling program at its Monument gold project in WA’s Goldfields region where the company is already sitting on a 3.3 million t

Askari Metals has kicked off a soil auger drilling and rock sampling program at the company’s freshly acquired Myrnas Hill lithium project in WA’s Pilbara region to define priority target areas for follow-up exploration. The campaign will collect more than 600 samples in areas of interest marked by a hyperspectral survey and Askari’s own geological target generation.

St George Mining has moved quickly to top up its landholding at its Mt Alexander project near Leonora following the discovery of lithium mineralisation during its maiden drill program adding an exploration licence to its portfolio and lodging an application for a prospecting licence. Both tenements are neighbouring St George’s Jailbreak prospect where the company currently has an aggressive drilling program underway.

Altech Chemicals has unveiled a 60KWh battery that uses garden variety table salt instead of lithium and other critical metals typically found in a lithium battery. The company is looking to muscle into the multi-billion-dollar renewable energy and grid storage market that is currently dominated by the lithium players. The battery is designed to fill the need for middle and long-duration power sources that provide sustained power over long periods.

Preliminary data from a magnetotelluric survey across key targets north of Perth has identified a suite of conductors for Tambourah Metals at its Bolgart East, Yerecoin and Wongan Hill South projects. Early imaging shows the presence of multiple conductors at each project where the company is targeting nickel, copper and platinum group elements amongst other resources about 120km north of Perth in WA.

White Cliff Minerals’ WA projects have thrown up rare earth rock chip results up to 924 parts per million TREO at Yinnetharra in the Gascoyne region of WA and drilling of magnetic and other anomalies is now imminent at the company’s Hines Hill project in search of buried carbonatite hosted rare earths mineralisation.

ASX-listed Carnaby Resources and its joint venture partner DiscovEx Resources have achieved excellent results during metallurgical test work from the JV’s Nil Desperandum prospect within its Greater Duchess copper-gold project at Mt Isa in Queensland. Copper recoveries of up to 99 per cent and high gold recoveries between 80 per cent and 87 per cent were achieved from the prospect.

Strickland Metals has locked onto further gold mineralisation with a round of diamond drilling at a recently discovered lode within the company’s 603,000-ounce Yandal gold project in WA. With a standout intersection of 7.7m at 6.6 grams per tonne gold from 179m, Strickland’s diamond work has confirmed its ‘Wanamaker’ lode as a 300m long high-grade deposit that remains open at depth.

Aruma Resources has wrapped up a 48 RC hole, 4,784m maiden drilling program at its Melrose Gold Project in the Pilbara targeting historic soil and drilling anomalies along trend from the 1.2-million-ounce Paulsens gold deposit which lies some 5km to the south. The first two holes have been submitted to the assay laboratory with results pending.

Fresh assays from phase two diamond drilling at Godolphin Resources and joint venture partner Orange Minerals’ Calarie gold project in New South Wales have validated a suite of compelling hits from a historical probe. The feature strike from the five-hole, 1170m program was a 2.4m intersection at 15.69 grams per tonne gold from 45m, inside of a larger 10.6 section grading 5.63 g/t from 39m.

On-site analysis of assays from St George Mining’s RC drill program at its Mt Alexander project near Leonora has identified visible lithium mineralisation from pegmatites at the company’s Jailbreak prospect. The explorer has struck multiple pegmatite intervals up to 13m thick from surface with lithium-bearing minerals visually identified in drill chips from the current campaign.

ASX-listed Neometals is one step closer to negotiating a binding offtake agreement with potential Chinese partner Jiuxing Titanium Materials after the success of an industrial-scale smelting trial in Western Australia. The emerging battery metal producer received encouraging results from its production of titanium dioxide chloride slag at a grade of more than 90 per cent using mixed gravity concentrate from its Barrambie titanium and vanadium project near Sandstone.

The final batch of assays from a maiden diamond drilling program at American West Metals’ Storm project in Canada has once again highlighted the shallow, high-grade nature of a prospective zone coined “2750N”. Banner results include a 2m section going almost 16 per cent copper from 70m inside a larger 19m parcel at 2.08 per cent from 58m downhole.

Meeka Metals has continued its run of solid hits at its Murchison gold project including a 4m intercept returning high-grade results of more than two ounces to the tonne at the company’s St Anne’s prospect. The 4m section recorded an outstanding 87.5 grams per tonne from 172m and was intercepted 100m below gold oxide results that Meeka reported in August this year.