Matt Birney

A strategic drilling expenditure increase by Great Southern Mining at it’s under-explored Cox’s Find gold project in WA has paid off in spades with ounce plus hits regularly spinning up out of the depths this year pointing to a potential deep continuation of the lodes well below the old historical mine workings. The company has also been awarded $150,000 from the Western Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme.

Existing Middle Island Resources shareholders and renowned mining investor, Stephen Copulos, have corner-stoned a $2.35 million capital raise that will see the aspiring gold miner turbocharge its WA Sandstone project. The company will now look to substantially boost its mineral resources, which already houses a mothballed mill that could be prodded back into life if a solid mineral reserve can be eeked out.

Vonex is in the final stages of the development of its new technology that looks set to disrupt the internet-based telecommunications market. The company is looking to launch its new “Oper8tor” APP that will provide a singular platform for seamless communications between multiple different messaging, video, voice and conferencing online platforms. There are currently 3.26 billion users worldwide accessing over 100 different social media sites.

Mining heavyweight, Mineral Resources, is now lurking purposefully at 19.9% on the Norwest Energy share register after the JV partners upped their theoretical chances of hitting paydirt at the Perth Basin, Lockyer Deep-1 onshore gas prospect in the Perth Basin from 29% to 38%. Mineral Resources, which already has an 80% interest in Lockyer Deep-1, will need to launch a takeover bid to secure any more significant lines of Norwest stock.

AMA Group remains on track to produce some serious cash flows during the next couple of years on the back of its strategic acquisition strategy which includes its recent $440 million purchase of the Capital S.M.A.R.T panel repair business and ACM Parts. The company expects its three recent acquisitions, Smash Care, Diplocks and All Transport (trucks) to bolster its EBITDA line by $2.5m.

Image Resources has added another dimension to its zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands mine in WA after it significantly boosted the heavy minerals grade at the project, capping off an uber-successful year for the Perth miner. Recent work has seen the grade jump from 7.2% to 8.9% and the company also increased both the project’s zircon content from 22.7% to 27.5% and its in-situ zircon grade from 1.6% to 2.4%.

Canning Basin focussed hydrocarbon producer and explorer, Buru Energy, has a number of balls in the air for next year as it seeks to develop its range of gas and liquid hydrocarbon plays in the Canning Basin. Buru is sitting on 5.5 million acres of development and exploration permits and it is already turning out 1,400 barrels of oil per day at its flagship Ungani oilfield near Broome.

Horizon Minerals and mega gold miner, Northern Star Resources, have put the final ink on an agreement for a straight swap of mining and exploration tenements, which will strengthen Horizon’s gold project holdings near Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie in the WA Goldfields region. Horizon will secure three gold projects near Coolgardie and four projects near Kalgoorlie, including Golden Ridge which has produced over 253,000 ounces of gold.

Solar window glass innovator, ClearVue Technologies, has broadened its presence in China after securing an original equipment manufacturing agreement with China’s Jiangsu YY Windows and Curtain Wall System Company. Under the terms of the agreement, YY Windows will be able to manufacture and sell ClearVue’s solar-powered insulated glass units either under its own name or through licensed distributors.

Novo Resources is rapidly getting the full picture of its nuggety conglomerate Pilbara gold deposit after tabling some positive results that will assist the TSX-listed company to squeeze every last skerrick of gold from the ground. The company has identified new areas of gold-bearing terraces at the South Egina and Paradise targets and it is rapidly gaining an understanding of the nuggety gold distribution in the conglomerate-hosted ores.

Big River Gold is on the verge of establishing a highly profitable, decade-long gold mining operation in north eastern Brazil that looks set to pay for itself within just two and a half years. A definitive feasibility study for the Borborema project shows the Perth company sitting on a stand-alone gold mine that will yield at least 729,000 gold ounces over an initial 10.2-year mine life.

ASX listed medical cannabis player, MGC Pharmaceuticals, will receive the first bulk shipment of its “CogniCann” product that will see the start of its phase IIb clinical trials to treat dementia and Alzheimer’s patients kick off. CogniCann is a GMP certified, pharmaceutical grade, medicinal cannabis product specifically developed for the treatment of dementia symptoms to improve specific cognitive functions.

Classic Minerals has just given one of its deposit resources at the Forrestania gold project a boost of nearly 40%, courtesy of a systematic drilling program that consistently hit the sweet spots. The updated resource for Lady Magdalene now stands at 5.92 million tonnes grading 1.32 grams per tonne gold for 251,350 ounces – taking the project’s total resource up to 270,100 ounces of gold.

Hot Chili is on fire at its Cortadera project in Chile, finishing off the year in style with a suite of impressive copper and gold hits for the second time in as many weeks. The Cupero 2 prospect has again delivered, with an 80m drill hit going 0.8% copper, 0.3g/t gold and 3.8g/t silver, right from surface. This includes 26m @ 1.7% copper and 0.7g/t gold from 54 metres depth.

Lindian’s Gaoual bauxite project in Guinea will soon be peppered with drill holes courtesy of an auger drill program that will target the Bouba and Mamaya prospects that are thought to be the more lucrative, conglomerate hosted deposits. Surface samples from Gaoual recently returned an impressive 53.57% alumina and a two-pronged drilling program is now being planned to assess the overall grade, thickness and scale of the deposit.

Listed mining software company K2fly has been racking and stacking a solid slew of major mining companies into its client base, inking yet another long-term contract, this one with serious mining player, Westgold. Westgold’s new contract with K2fly holds an initial total contract value of over $580,000 with the two companies also looking to collaborate on future working enhancements to the existing software system.

Blackstone Minerals’ drilling program in Vietnam has continued to churn out some impressive nickel and platinum group metal results from its Ta Khoa nickel project, located west of Hanoi in northern Vietnam, with a surprising new discovery at King Cobra. Assays are still pending for this new nickel discovery whilst broad intercepts at the Ban Phuc disseminated sulphide zone continue to entice with 106m @ 0.45% nickel.

As another old goldfield prepares to rise like a phoenix from the ashes, Terrain Minerals has hatched a plan to capture its value as the company elects to proceed with a farm-in agreement with a private vendor for the Smokebush gold project, an exploration play located about 65 kilometres west of Paynes Find in WA. Newly discovered historical numbers include 2 metres grading 11.3 grams per tonne gold from 70 metres downhole.

As Calidus Resources rolls on towards the end of a successful field season at its Warrawoona gold project in the East Pilbara of WA, a suite of exciting assays have come in that may provide a boost to its 1.25 million ounce resource. Drilling up to 200m below the base of the proposed open cut mine hit 1m @ 55.2g/t gold and 1.11m @ 31.2g/t gold – giving the company a hint that an underground operation just might fly.

Green energy innovator, ClearVue Technologies, has consolidated its position in the global sustainable energy sector after securing a lucrative supply agreement with Treasure Engineering Limited in Hong Kong, The deal, which will significantly boost ClearVue’s hopes of full commercialisation of its unique solar window glass technology, will see Treasure Engineering exclusively distribute its product in Hong Kong and Macau.

Neometals is embarking on a collaborative research and development project with the Queensland University of Technology to build a synthetic “zeolite” manufacturing plant that will take waste produced from the lithium refining process and turn it into a potentially lucrative material. The R&D project will be co-funded to the tune of $2.57 million courtesy of the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has expanded the number of patients prescribing for or being processed to receive prescriptions for its medical cannabis-based pharmaceutical products in Australia, the UK, Brazil and Ireland with the company racking up over 1800 prescriptions to-date. Management said the milestone readily demonstrates its strengthening position and momentum in those key markets, with its sales graph continuing to climb month by month.

Bellevue Gold has set a cracking pace this year, turning its namesake project near Leinster in WA back into a living breathing thing after most technocrats had written it off as a mined out deposit. The company’s market cap rocketed to around $300m after catching the market’s attention in 2017 when it went looking for a parallel gold lode adjacent to the historically mined Bellevue mine.

K2fly has reinforced its emerging prominence in the resource’s software space with mining giant, Teck Resources, extending its annual “RCubed” software contract with K2Fly out to three-years. K2fly said it has now locked down total contract values of over $2 million from its RCubed software as a service, or “SaaS”, as clients sign onto three and five year terms. The latest numbers come only weeks after the ASX-listed company signed a five-year software contract with Rio Tinto.

Kingwest Resources’ has rounded out the year at its Menzies gold project with some nice hits including 2.48m @ 23.22g/t that included almost half a metre going a whopping 110g/t – or 3.5 ounces to the tonne gold from the First Hit prospect. First Hit produced the best intercept of the year for Kingwest at 57.6 gram metres from 121.52m downhole, followed by Pericles with 41.5 gram metres.

Azumah Resources’ is weighing up funding options for its share of capital costs for the Wa gold project in Africa with an estimated $75 million in potential equity financing on the cards. Azumah has also appointed Peder Olsen to oversee the development of the Wa gold project. Olsen recently lead Endeavour Mining’s construction of the US$425m gold mine at Ity in Cote d’Ivoire.

Ora Banda Mining should be a leading player in the reinvigoration of WA’s Eastern Goldfields mining region over the next decade. Following a corporate restructuring and a brief period in Administration under previous management, the company has been busy scrubbing up its Davyhurst gold project as it builds a robust ore inventory, finalises its mine approvals and completes the economic modelling necessary for the restart of production.

Troy Resources has hit the ball out of the park with an amazing 17m drill intersection going nearly 5 ounces to the tonne gold in South America. Importantly, the smashingly good intersection was encountered just 37m down hole at the company’s Hicks 1 extension within the Karouni Gold project. As a final curtsy to the crowd, it also included a 4m section grading an eye-watering 623.17g/t gold.

It is difficult to know just how many golden secrets Anglo Australian’s Mandilla Gold project might still be hiding with recent drilling potentially identifying an 800-metre-long new target in the “Western Zone”, with results like 37m @ 1.64g/t gold from 104m. The new Western Zone is just to the west of Anglo’s Mandilla East deposit which is also growing in stature and size.

TNG Ltd has made the final leap towards securing buyers for 100% of its entire forecasted production from its flagship Mount Peake, vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory, after signing the final off-take term sheet with Indian mining conglomerate, Vimson Group, for the iron to be produced from Mt Peake. The last hurdle comes after the company announced just yesterday it had secured offtake agreements for 100% of its vanadium pentoxide products.

Active minerals sands miner, Image Resources, may have found a new, 40 kilometre long shoreline trend running both west of and parallel to its current zircon-rich Boonanarring heavy minerals ore reserves in Western Australia. The company has been busy with the drill rig throughout 2019 as it goes about upgrading Boonanarring’s proven reserves of 9.3 million tonnes at 8.6% heavy metals and its probable reserves of 10.5Mt at 5.9% HM.

PharmAust has expanded its national network of participating veterinary and university institutions who will join the ASX-listed biotech’s anti-cancer crusade for dogs. With the pace of phase II clinical trials for its promising “Monepantel” anti-cancer treatment projected to rise, the company is looking to impact K9 – and possibly even human – cancers. Phase I trials were very positive, with a notable reduction in cancerous tumours and prolonged lifespans.