Matt Birney

Emerging battery metals producer Neometals is edging closer to developing its vanadium recovery plant in Finland after government authorities granted an environmental permit for the operation. The company is planning a joint venture with private operator Critical Metals to recover the high-purity vanadium pentoxide from a by-product slag that is created during the steel-making process.

After a run of rock sampling, Twenty Seven Co has confirmed pegmatite fertility within the company’s Mt Edon lithium, caesium and tantalum mining lease in WA’s Mid West region. Rock samples were found to grade up to 2.7 per cent lithium oxide, 1046ppm caesium oxide and 5057ppm tantalum oxide. A total of nine rock chip samples were taken from four outcropping locations across a pegmatite field spanning 6.4 km.

Junior explorer Asra Minerals has added critical minerals cobalt and scandium to its rollcall of rare earths at its flagship Mt Stirling project in Western Australia. The latest round of drilling was targeting zones of rare earths mineralisation within the shallow blanket of weathered rocks and hit thick zones of scandium oxide mineralisation with anomalous cobalt.

Positive results are now in from Toro Energy’s scoping study into a standalone uranium-vanadium mining and processing operation at its Lake Maitland deposit within the company’s broader Wiluna uranium project in WA’s northern Goldfields region. After the cursory size-up, the standalone project currently holds a pre-tax net present value of $610 million and a total capital cost of $270 million.

Shares in Galan Lithium surged 30 per cent higher during intraday trading following a game-changing increase of more than 150 per cent to the mineral resource of its flagship Hombre Muerto West project in Argentina. The revised estimate now tips the scales at 5.8 million tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent grading 866 milligrams per litre - a staggering 2.5 times increase from the previous figure.

Minerals explorer Godolphin Resources has overcome adverse ground conditions and successfully completed a 27-hole 1111m diamond drilling campaign at its Narraburra rare earths and rare metals project in Central NSW. The company is now eagerly awaiting assay results with the aim of updating its mineral resource estimate early next year from a previous JORC 2004 compliant inferred resource.

Tambourah Metals has begun an airborne magneto-telluric survey across its recently granted Yerecoin prospect where the company is targeting nickel, copper and platinum group elements 120km north-east of Perth. The survey will also investigate multiple magnetic targets identified at Tambourah’s Bolgart and Wongan Hill South prospects across a strike length of about 80km that stretches from the town of Wongan Hills to south of Goomalling.

ASX-listed explorer Zuleika Gold has hit the go button on a 73-hole, 4490m air-core drilling program across a trio of target areas within its larger Zuleika and Credo projects near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The company is chasing gold across a raft of structural targets and says the probe could be completed by November with results due by the end of the year.

Sihayo Gold says transitional and fresh material from a zone beneath its proposed Sihayo-1 pit in North Sumatra, Indonesia could be economically mined following a recent uplift in metallurgical recoveries. The company recently announced its high-pH caustic pre-leaching process could recover over 80 per cent of the site’s gold and now plans on testing samples from a seven-hole, 2216m campaign to confirm its theory.

Strickland Metals is looking to demerge its non-core assets and deliver a standalone ASX base metals explorer as the company works to stack on gold ounces at its flagship project on WA’s well-endowed Yandal greenstone belt north-east of Wiluna. The proposed spin-out will see the company’s Iroquois zinc-lead and Bryah Basin assets packaged into a new wholly owned subsidiary that will seek to list on the ASX in the first quarter of 2023.

Podium Minerals is just days away from revealing an updated mineral resource estimate for its Parks Reef platinum group metals project after receiving the final assays from stage 9 and 10 drilling at the site. Among the latest assay highlights were a 19m intercept at 2.48 grams per tonne 5E PGM from 76m including a 2m hit at an impressive 12.9 g/t 5E PGM from 88m.

Strickland Metals has continued its hot-streak with more high-grade gold drill hits at the company’s newly discovered Wanamaker deposit just north of its Millrose gold resource, 85km north-east of Wiluna in WA. The latest results from its ongoing drill program at the project include a standout strike of 5m going 14.5 grams per tonne gold from 67m downhole.

WA-focussed gold developer Classic Minerals has launched a 3000m drilling program at its Kat Gap project as it looks to follow up on high-grade shallow mineralisation struck in ongoing infill work. The 20-hole campaign will follow up a suite of notable near surface strikes including 3m at 13.23 grams per tonne gold from 32m.

Battery metals explorer Askari Metals is looking to beef up the development of its Australian lithium assets after signing a strategic agreement with Shanghai-listed lithium-heavyweight Zhejiang Kanglongda Special Protection Technology. The new partner has a market cap of nearly US$1 billion and also holds a controlling interest of 51 per cent in Jiangxi Tiancheng Lithium Industry that specialises in extracting lithium sulphate solution.

Infinity Mining has begun an electromagnetic survey across three of its projects in the Pilbara region as the company aims to home in on nickel, copper, gold and zinc anomalies. The explorer is surveying its Strelley Gorge, Panorama and Hillside projects near Marble Bar to identify drill targets for its upcoming exploration planned for 2023.

WA gold explorer Brightstar Resources is now debt-free after just over $6 million in debt was scrubbed from its balance sheet through two cash-less settlements. A larger burden of $5.4 million owed to private company, Stone Resources was lifted from the explorer’s shoulders in exchange for a net smelter royalty over selected tenements held by the company. A smaller debt of $630,000 owed to another private company, Great Cortex International was also extinguished from Brightstar’s books in exchange for a proportionate slice of shares.

American West Metals has tabled an “outstanding” set of metallurgical test results that highlight exceptional recoveries of 94.4 per cent zinc and 78 per cent copper from samples taken at its West Desert project in Utah. The company is already sitting on a 59 million tonne-plus resource at the operation and says the results indicate a significant slice of the operation’s mineralisation is amenable to low-cost, heap leach processing.

Joint venture partners Venus Metals Corporation and Rox Resources have released a scoping study for their Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet in WA which includes a projected production of 71,000 gold ounces per year. The study predicts the site will be capable of producing about 569,000 gold ounces over an eight-year mine life at an average head grade of 5 grams per tonne gold.

WA-focused explorer Horizon Minerals has executed a binding term sheet with US-based resources financer, Nebari Partners LLC, for a US$5 million senior secured credit facility to develop the company’s Cannon gold project in WA. The funding agreement comes hot on the heels of Horizon’s A$300,000 sale of its Kangaroo Hill and Phoenix gold projects to Greenstone Resources earlier this month as it looks to lean down and focus on the more-advanced assets in its portfolio.

Ora Banda Mining has recorded high-grade hits from extensional drilling at its Main Lode prospect under the Riverina open pit that has increased mineralisation at the deposit to more than 350m below surface. The company has completed 12 holes of a planned 30-hole campaign at the project north-west of Kalgoorlie with assay highlights including a 1.2m hit at an impressive 29.3 grams per tonne gold from 359m in addition to 2.8m going 6 g/t gold from 357m.

Medical technology specialist Radiopharm Theranostics is gearing up to approach the powerful US Federal Food and Drug Administration, or “FDA” to get its cancer treatment known as “Pivalate” to market after successfully concluding a phase II clinical trial in the UK. The trial indicated that Pivalate can detect and monitor secondary brain tumours regardless of the origin of the primary cancer.

Estrella Resources has announced an upgrade of the nickel resource estimate at its Spargoville project’s 5A deposit, 20km south-west of Kambalda, with most of the resource now in the more confident “measured” category. Estrella is pressing ahead with optimisation work for a definitive feasibility study and is focused on 16 000 tonnes of massive sulphide grading 7.8 per cent nickel below 5A’s existing open pit.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has begun testing three prospects in the WA Goldfields with a short RC drill campaign aimed at firming up the extent of gold mineralisation at its Bulong Taurus project about 35km east of Kalgoorlie. The company has secured a total of 39 gold rights comprising an exploration licence, mining tenements and prospecting licences on land that has been mined since the 1890s.

Final assay results from phase 3 drilling at Askari Metals’ Burracoppin project show continuity of high-grade mineralisation at its Easter Gift prospect with a 1m hit coming in at an impressive 45.5 grams per tonne gold. The 45.5 gram hit was contained within a wider 3m section grading 17.41 g/t gold from 73m that also included 1m at 2.18 g/t from 74m and 1m recording 4.54 g/t gold from 75m.

Classic Minerals has entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with private company Barto Gold Mining for the toll treatment of ore from the company’s flagship Kat Gap gold deposit in WA. The non-binding agreement comes not long after the ink dried on Classic’s terms sheet with another private company Goldvalley Brown Stone for $10 million in non-recourse funding to facilitate the extraction and processing of its ore.

Strickland Metals is on a roll returning its best assay results to date from its recently discovered Wanamaker deposit in Western Australia serving up a 7m hit at an exciting 22.2 g/t gold. The latest assay result comes from drilling 50m north of where the initial Wanamaker discovery was made and extends the mineralisation footprint of the Millrose project to more than 3.2 kilometres.

USA-focused mineral explorer PolarX has been buoyed by a recently completed scoping study on its Alaska Range copper-gold project highlighting a potential NPV of $103m from the combined mining of the project’s high-grade Zackly copper-gold-silver and Caribou Dome copper deposits. It also confirmed the project’s potential viability and leverage from future resource expansions.

Infinity Mining is set to hit the go button on a maiden drilling program at its Tambourah South lithium project in the east Pilbara region of WA after ASX-listed Riversgold completed a heritage survey over a contiguous tenement. The company required Riversgold to complete the work to mobilise earth moving equipment to its tenement and is now set to follow up on a suite of solid rock chip results which graded up to 2.6 per cent lithium oxide.

Si6 Metals has kicked off a follow-up air-core drilling program at the company’s Monument gold project in WA’s Goldfields region. The 120-hole campaign will probe 6000m across four high-priority target areas as the company looks to build on wide zones of gold mineralisation encountered in May. About a quarter of the air-core volley will be aimed at potential extensions of Glencore’s world-class Murrin Murrin nickel laterite operation proximal to the south-west.

Askari Metals has unearthed a suite of minerals from reconnaissance field work at its Springdale project in NSW including rock samples showing grades of up to an ounce to the tonne gold. The company has also identified the potential for rare earths and base metals mineralisation in addition to significant levels of cobalt and manganese near historical workings at the site.

Twenty Seven Co has advanced its battery metals strategy by securing an option to earn a 100 per cent interest in the highly prospective Mt Edon lithium, caesium and tantalum mining lease in WA’s Mid West region. Twenty Seven Co will initially fund a due diligence work program at the project that will include 500m of RC drilling to a minimum of $140,000 before making a final commitment.

ASX-listed explorer Valor Resources has snared a suite of uber-impressive grade rock chips grading up to 6.13 per cent uranium oxide and an eye-catching 61.7 per cent copper at its Surprise Creek project in Canada. Legacy drilling at the tenure returned several compelling uranium intercepts, including 2.1m at 4.37 per cent from 57m, indicating the surface results could be just the tip of the iceberg.