Matt Birney

Blackstone Minerals has kicked off drilling at its Ta Khoa nickel project located in northern Vietnam and is initially targeting disseminated sulphide mineralisation at the Ban Phuc prospect, following geophysical surveys that showed chargeable anomalies were present. According to the company, the initial IP survey test line run through the area showed a strong correlation with the known massive and disseminated sulphide occurrences.

ClearVue Technologies looks poised to ride the rising green power revolutionary wave with its unique solar glass invention that converts sunshine into energy, courtesy of its technology that can be embedded into window glass. The glass panels can be used to self-power smart façades that automatically adjust light and ventilation to suit building occupants and also reduce the cost of lighting, cooling and heating.

Great Southern Mining’s maiden drilling program at its Rocky Ponds breccia pipe discovery in northern Queensland has intersected strongly anomalous zones peaking at 0.2g/t gold, 49.7g/t silver, 0.44% copper and 0.58% zinc within sulphide-rich epithermal altered mineralisation. The deposit geology is similar to the Mount Carlton mine, 20km to the south, which hosts 1 million ounces of gold and 33 million ounces of silver.

Strike Energy has intersected pronounced hydrocarbon shows in the Lesueur Sandstone and Woodada Siltstone formations at its West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia. Both formations display fair to good visual porosity in the cuttings and good elevated mud gas readings that were better than those encountered in the nearby West Erregulla-1 well.

Hot Chili has delineated thick, copper-gold mineralisation at its Cuerpo 3 porphyry copper deposit in central Chile, with drilling returning 188m @ 0.9% copper and 0.4g/t gold from 516m down-hole within a much broader 750m intercept. The company said the result from the Cortadera project is one of the best intersections of its type recorded globally and is similar to notable bulk tonnage underground porphyry mines.

PharmAust’s wholly owned synthetic and medicinal chemistry subsidiary, Epichem, is set to further improve its bottom line after paying off the $750,000 loan from Export Finance Australia taken out to help finance the construction of a state-of-the-art laboratory in 2015. This laboratory fuelled growth over the period from 2015 to 2018, with revenues increasing 38% to $3 million in the 2018 financial year.

Infinity Lithium’s San José project in Spain has been recognised as a potential cornerstone component of the European Battery Alliance’s goal of creating an integrated lithium-ion supply chain within the European Union. The EBA will facilitate discussions with other industry participants as part of their “battery mining belt” initiative whilst the European Investment Bank could provide funding to battery raw materials and mining projects.

Hammer Metals’ strategic review of the rare earth element potential of its Mount Isa project in Queensland has delineated two encouraging prospects for follow up work. Light rare earth element prospectivity was highlighted at the Koppany prospect near the historical Mary Kathleen uranium mine and Andy’s Well prospect adjacent to the Kalman project, a further 35 kilometres to the southwest.

Aurora Labs has signed a memorandum of understanding with Swedish industrial company, Gränges AB, that could lead to further collaboration in the use of 3D printed aluminium in the automotive and other industries. Under the agreement, Gränges could also pre-order an Aurora RMP-1 Rapid Manufacturing Printer and supply its proprietary aluminium powder to the company.

In a further demonstration that its Wa gold project in Ghana is still hiding significant ounces outside of the main Kunche deposit, Azumah Resources has delivered a maiden underground resource of 2.4 million tonnes grading 3.59g/t gold for just under 280,000 ounces at its exciting Bepkong deposit, just north of Kunche. The result more than doubles the previous Bepkong resource, now standing at 517,600 ounces grading 2.38g/t gold.

Hammer Metals has started an induced polarisation survey at its Bronzewing South gold project in Western Australia to refine potential drilling targets that were identified during initial field reconnaissance. First results from the survey are expected in early August. The company has also started the permitting process for the drilling campaign, which is expected to begin later this month.

Image Resources has completed the sale of three months of production inventory, or about 70,000 tonnes of zircon-rich heavy mineral concentrate, in just six weeks to its offtake partners. Drilling to delineate the high-grade core in the eastern strandline within the company’s Boonanarring project north of Perth is ongoing with preliminary drilling results expected soon.

Novo Resources has extended its tenement holdings in WA’s Pilbara region, with a binding letter of intent to secure surface gold rights over an additional 1,100 square kilometres of ground adjacent to its Egina gold project near Port Hedland. The deal is a strategic add-on for the company, which last month entered into a USD$30m farm-in and JV agreement with the Sumitomo Corporation to explore and develop Egina.

Hammer Metals has completed the sale of its 75% interest in the Millennium cobalt project near Cloncurry, Queensland, to Canadian partner Global Energy Metals Corporation. The company will now focus on its copper-gold projects in the Mount Isa mining district and the Bronzewing South gold project in Western Australia while retaining exposure to the cobalt projects through a 19.9% stake in GEMC.

3D printer Aurora Labs has received an advance of $1.35 million from Radium Capital, which represents about 80% of its anticipated Australian Government tax refund for its research and development expenditure in the 2018-19 financial year. The ASX-listed company will use the advance for working capital purposes and will repay Radium on receipt of the tax refund.

Middle Island Resources has increased its all-scrip takeover offer for fellow ASX-listed gold player Alto Metals to six of its shares for every Alto ordinary share. Alto has global mineral resources totalling 5.4 million tonnes grading 1.7g/t gold for 290,000 ounces of gold at its Sandstone project in WA, whilst Middle Island currently has a JORC mineral resource of 125,300 ounces of gold.

Buru Energy continues to maintain a stable production base of between 960 and 1000 barrels of oil per day from its Ungani oilfield in the Canning basin in WA’s Kimberley region. Work to upgrade the fluid handling capacity of the production facility is also on track and the company has signed a new oil sales contract on more favourable commercial terms with Petro-Diamond Singapore.

TNG Limited has signed a binding heads of agreement with Genesee & Wyoming Australia for the provision of rail haulage services for its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. The two companies will work together to develop an optimised rail haulage strategy for Mount Peake and finalise an agreement for the transport of magnetite concentrate from the mine to the processing plant in Darwin.

King River Resources has kicked off a 31-hole drilling program that seeks to define additional vanadium resources for its giant Speewah specialty metals project in WA’s Kimberley region. The company has also tasked Perth-based engineering firm Como Engineers with seeking indicative pricing on alternative sulphuric acid plants suitable for the Speewah project and has started to develop a strategy to deal with project waste.

Hawkstone Mining has received more high-grade lithium assays showing wide intersections up to 52m @ 1,953 ppm lithium, from its Big Sandy clay project in the US. The company recently accelerated its exploration and development activities at the project, which will assist in the estimation of a maiden JORC mineral resource and the completion of definitive metallurgical test work programs.

TNG Limited has put in place funding arrangements for engineering and design work on its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. The company is looking to raise $4.98 million through a rights issue of one share priced at 9.3 cents for every 20 shares held by eligible shareholders, which is fully underwritten by German investment company Deutsche Balaton Aktiengesellschaft.

Geopacific Resources has acquired 100% direct ownership of the Woodlark gold project in PNG after buying out Kula Gold’s remaining share for a cash and scrip transaction worth about $3.29m. The deal represents exquisite timing for the company, with the gold price nearly 25% higher than that assumed in November’s DFS for Woodlark, which already outlined robust economic metrics and strong margins to develop the project.

88 Energy has all but sewn up the farm-out of the conventional rights at its project known as “Project Icewine” in the famed North Slope oil province in Alaska after its as yet unnamed partner completed all internal approvals. The farm-out is now subject to the execution of closing documents and the transfer of working interests while well planning and permitting is ramping up for drilling in 2020.

Spectrum Metals’ Phase II drilling campaign at the Penny West project near Youanmi, WA, has returned further high-grade gold intersections, with mineralisation now defined over 650 metres of strike to a vertical depth of 230m. Preliminary metallurgical test work from the Penny North ores have been encouraging, with gold recoveries up to 99.2% and free-milling gold potentially amenable to a conventional processing circuit.

Lithium Australia plans to commence drilling to evaluate the potential and geometry of lithium pegmatites at the prospective Youanmi project near Sandstone in the Murchison region of WA, before the end of this month. The company will also carry out work on the higher-grade sections of a defined vanadium resource, which it believes to be amenable to direct leaching to produce vanadium sulphate.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources may be sitting on a high-grade gold deposit at their Currans Find JV gold project near Youanmi, WA, after re-sampling of recent holes turned up a spectacular intersection of 1m @ 72.67g/t gold from 39m within a wider zone of 3m @ 27.5g/t gold. This is significantly higher than the initial assays, which returned 6m @ 9.82g/t gold from 36m.

Volt Resources has secured USD$1 million in working capital from European investor Mr Lars Bader to help finalise the USD$40 million note issue on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. The notes will underpin the Stage 1 development of the company's Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania that has an ore reserve of 127 million tonnes grading 4.4% TGC, most of which is in the Super Jumbo, Jumbo and Large flake categories.

Sovereign Metals has outlined encouraging preliminary metallurgical test work results for its Wofiira rutile prospect in Malawi, East Africa, generating a potentially premium high-quality product, with low impurities, from conventional mineral sands processing. The concentrated ore product contained 96% titanium dioxide at a recovered grade of 1.1% rutile and is on par with many of the world’s leading rutile producers.

AVZ Minerals will control 65% of the Manono lithium-tin project in the south-eastern region of the DRC after paying USD$5.5m to private company Dathomir Mining Resources SARL for an additional 5% stake in the tier-1 deposit. The monies are payable to Dathomir within three years and the agreement will generate an additional NPV of USD$130m for the company based on recent scoping study results.

Neometals’ synthetic zeolite product generated from lithium hydroxide production waste, has held its own against similar industry-leading products from a reference Japanese manufacturer. The company will now proceed with a pilot plant test of its proprietary process in the September quarter of 2019, which will in turn feed into a class 3 engineering study and feasibility study.

Venus Metals has this week pocketed $2.55m and a swag of shares in fellow ASX-listed company Rox Resources after the companies established a 50/50 joint venture agreement for the prospective Youanmi gold mine leases in WA. Several other JV agreements have now also commenced, which focus more on near-mine and regional exploration activities in the underexplored Youanmi greenstone belt.

ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals continues to spread its wings, signing an agreement with Germany’s Mexacare for the distribution of the company’s medical cannabis products to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Germany’s medical cannabis market alone was worth €133 million in 2018 and is estimated to grow to €7.7 billion by 2028, making it a key emerging market for MGC.