Matt Birney

MGC Pharmaceuticals and Chinese e-commerce marketplace YuShop Global have kicked off a full marketing and sales campaign for MGC’s cannabis-based nutraceuticals following a successful eight-week test campaign. Under the distribution agreement between the two companies, YuShop will sell MGC’s nutraceutical products to consumers via its online platform and network of retail channel partners, which include 1,500 luxury spas.

Geopacific Resources is free to advance the financing stage for the construction of its Woodlark gold project in PNG, after concluding its independent due diligence technical work programs and reporting, which showed no “fatal flaws” to its development. The review was commissioned by a group of potential lenders for the project, who have signed non-binding term sheets to finance operational start-up.

Infinity Lithium has hit a milestone with the successful production of lithium hydroxide using recycled reagents, a feat that the company said proves the viability of its processing flowsheet for the San José project in Spain. The company now expects to finalise the capital and operating costs within the next week, which will lead to the completion and release of the project’s pre-feasibility study.

Coziron Resources is gearing up to start a 12,500m infill and extensional drilling campaign at its exciting Ashburton magnetite iron project in the west Pilbara, WA, after receiving firm commitments for a $3 million placement. The program is aimed at facilitating the development of a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate extending over about 1.5 kilometres of strike.

PolarX has delineated large chargeable anomalies using data from a recent geophysical survey and commenced diamond drilling at the Saturn porphyry copper-gold target within its Alaska Range project in the US. The company said that the data returned from Saturn is consistent with porphyry copper exploration models worldwide and shows potential prospectivity for disseminated sulphides and a quartz-veined stockwork ore system.

Blackstone Minerals’ targeting appears spot on with its maiden drilling program at the Ta Khoa nickel project in northern Vietnam intersecting substantial disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation. The first three holes at the Ban Phuc prospect returned wide intervals including 45.5m @ 1.2% nickel from 56.5m down-hole, 17.8m @ 1% nickel from 106.6m and 22m @ 0.8% nickel from 138m respectively.

Hot Chili has commenced a second phase of diamond drilling aimed at expanding the prospective, higher-grade zone of the Cuerpo 3 porphyry copper-gold ore system within its Cortadera project in central Chile. The company said results from the first phase had exceeded expectations and re-shaped its view of the potential size and grade of the Cortadera discovery.

Anglo Australian Resources is set to ramp up exploration of its Mandilla gold project south of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, after securing commitments for a $1.4 million share placement priced at 6.5 cents. Proceeds from the placement will also be used for further infill drilling and ongoing feasibility study work for the company’s flagship Feysville gold project also near Kalgoorlie.

88 Energy and partner Burgundy Xploration have signed an exclusivity agreement with the preferred bidder for the farmout of the conventional rights for their project known as “Project Icewine” in Alaska’s North Slope oil province. The bidder will pay USD$500,000 for initial agreed costs relating to the 2020 drilling program to secure exclusivity over the rights to 31 August 2019.

Bellevue Gold has discovered high-grade gold mineralisation below the historical Bellevue underground mine workings near Leinster, WA, with a peak result of 2.2m @ 27.8g/t gold from 656m down-hole. The new Deacon lode is located between 500m and 750m from the surface, over about 1km of strike, with mineralisation hosted in the same altered rocks as the mine and gold associated with sulphide minerals.

ASX-listed Neometals has intersected massive nickel sulphides at its Mt Edwards project in the Goldfields region of Western Australia with drilling returning a cracking intersection of 4m @ 6.3% nickel within a broader 11m @ 2.6% nickel from 108m down-hole at the Zabel prospect. Drilling at the Lake Eaton tenement also showed elevated nickel grades along strike of Mincor Resources’ high‐grade Cassini nickel deposits.

Brazil-focused gold explorer, Big River Gold, has received firm commitments from institutional and sophisticated investors for a $1.5 million share placement for exploration and evaluation of existing tenements adjacent to its flagship Borborema project. Proceeds from the placement will also be used for pre-construction activities to accelerate the development of the Borborema project.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have extended high-grade gold mineralisation at the Currans Find North prospect near Youanmi, WA, with drilling returning a top intersection of 1m @ 57.2g/t gold from 110m down-hole. The results extend high‐grade gold mineralisation at depth and demonstrate the potential for the discovery “blind” high‐grade gold lodes along strike and down‐plunge from known mineralisation.

Azumah Resources has completed a high-level scoping study indicating that its Bepkong underground deposit at the Wa gold project in north-western Ghana, could produce 154,000 ounces of gold and generate a cash flow of $47m over 4.5 years. In July, the company delivered a maiden underground resource of 2.4Mt @ 3.59g/t gold for 279,700 ounces at the Bepkong deposit, doubling the previous mineral resource inventory.

Buru Energy has encountered good to excellent shows while drilling through the primary objective Reeves Formation at its highly-prospective Adoxa-1 conventional oil exploration well in the Canning Basin, Western Australia. Live oil shows were observed at the surface and the well also intersected oil shows in cuttings samples of interpreted good quality sands at 970m and 1,565m measured depth.

Lithium Australia’s maiden reverse circulation drilling program at its Youanmi project near Sandstone in WA’s Murchison region is off to a flying start with initial assays returning a peak result of 1m @ 3.07% lithium oxide. Drilling has extended the extent of known lithium-bearing pegmatites at the project and has so far confirmed mineralisation over 1,200m of strike, which remains open down-dip and along strike.

AVZ Minerals’ metallurgical test work programs for its Manono lithium-tin project in the DRC, have delivered encouraging results in line with other global lithium-mineralised pegmatite ores and support its ongoing DFS. Testing has generated similar rock characteristics and strengths to other spodumene-bearing ore deposits and heavy liquid separation produced a high-grade concentrate at 6.2% lithium oxide, with a 66% concentrate recovery.

Australian Potash has cranked up the JORC mineral resource of its Lake Wells sulphate of potash, or “SOP”, project near Laverton, WA, by 23% to 18.1 million tonnes of drainable SOP. This resource is entirely within the measured category, which gives the company a high degree of confidence that it can support its initial planned 150,000 tonne per annum project for a long, sustained period.

King River Resources has increased its footprint in the Northern Territory’s Tennant Creek copper-gold belt with the application for two prospective new exploration licences. One of the licence applications contains the same geological formation hosting the Tennant Creek and Rover goldfields, while the other covers the historical Kurundi open pit and underground mine where rock sampling returned over 5g/t gold and up to 9.7% copper.

Novo Resources is vectoring towards a prospective region located southeast of historical workings and trenches at its Egina gold project near Port Hedland, WA, after delineating a 600m wide region of gravel that contains plentiful gold nuggets. The company identified the patch during a ground-penetrating radar survey in May, which outlined a valley floor containing the sought-after gold-bearing gravel horizons.

Nzuri Copper’s takeover by Chinese industrial player, Chengtun Mining Group, is entering its final stages with shareholders set to vote on the AUD$109.5 million all-cash takeover offer in mid-August. The company’s Kalongwe copper-cobalt project within the Central African Copperbelt in the far south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is expected to play a key role in Chengtun’s copper-cobalt expansion plans in the country.

Rox Resources and Venus Metals have commenced a 14,000 metre reverse circulation drilling program aimed at newly developed high-grade targets and extensions to known mineralisation at their Youanmi gold project. The Commonwealth prospect, where historical drilling posted a top intersection of 18m @ 12.9g/t gold from 39m down-hole, crowns the joint venture’s hit list.

Strike Energy has confirmed that it has made a significant conventional gas discovery in the Wagina sandstone of its multi-target West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia. Notably, the well has yet to intersect the secondary target Basal Wagina sandstone and will now be finished before drilling resumes towards its total planned depth of 5,200m to intersect the Basal Wagina and primary target Kingia-High Cliff sands.

Multi-commodity explorer Venus Metals has received a vote of confidence from Queensland multi-millionaire and veteran coal miner, Christopher Wallin, who injected $1.2 million into the company through a placement of shares priced at 20 cents each. The investment gives Mr Wallin, one of Australia’s top 50 richest people, a substantial 5.03% stake in the company.

Greenland Minerals has raised $7m through a heavily oversubscribed share placement to fund ongoing technical development of its giant Kvanefjeld rare earth project in southern Greenland. Proceeds from the placement will also be used to complete the project permitting and advance commercial development. The company recently lodged its application for a mining licence over the Kvanefjeld project.

Anglo Australian Resources has intersected encouraging, high-grade gold intersections at its Mandilla East and Mandilla South prospects, part of the Mandilla gold project located 75km south of Kalgoorlie, WA. At Mandilla East, multiple intercepts were returned beneath an existing supergene zone, including 2.7m @ 46.1g/t gold from 123.3m down-hole, which incorporated a metre intersection grading 122.3g/t gold from 124.3m.

Australian Potash has flagged that it will soon upgrade mineral resources and define a maiden ore reserve at its Lake Wells sulphate of potash project near Laverton, WA, following the milestone completion of final field programs. The programs were carried out in support of the company’s ongoing definitive feasibility study, for which final documentation is currently underway.

Vonex has marked another quarter of sales growth with revenue rising 11.4% year-on-year to $2.35m for the quarter ended 30 June 2019 due to its success in penetrating the Australian market for telco services to small and medium enterprises. The company is also in the final stages of testing its Oper8tor app, which enables users of multiple communication platforms to communicate with each other.

Northern Minerals is ramping up the development of its Browns Range heavy rare earths project near Halls Creek, WA, by purchasing an ore sorting module to upgrade mill feed, potentially doubling the ore grade and reducing operating costs. The company recently obtained commitments for a $30 million placement split into three roughly equal tranches, the first of which totalled $11.9m and was received last week.

King River Resources has started reconnaissance geological exploration field programs and rock chip sampling over several newly granted exploration licences that lie along strike from its Mt Remarkable gold project near Kununurra, WA. The field work has already unearthed new occurrences of quartz-feldspar veining, similar to the very high-grade Trudi Vein system located at Mt Remarkable.

Lithium Australia has firmed up its alliance with Chinese battery manufacturer DLG Battery with the formation of a joint marketing division that will provide a range of lithium-ion batteries, or “LIBs”, with a focus on industry-scale energy storage products. The new Soluna Australia division will also provide technical support, customer service and custom products for large-scale storage applications.

Hammer Metals is cashed up to carry out its maiden drilling program at the Bronzewing South gold project in Western Australia next month, after raising more than $1.76m through a placement priced at 2 cents per share. The company is carrying out an induced polarisation survey to refine potential drilling targets identified during the initial field reconnaissance programs.