Matt Birney

Strike Energy continues to gradually increase gas flow at its Jaws-1 super-deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia, as more coal transitions from water to gas production. Pumps have been set to maintain a pressure of 250psi to allow the desorption front to gradually spread outwards into the rest of the reservoir as more coal transitions from water to gas production.

Lithium Australia has identified lithium and tantalum mineralised pegmatite dykes over a 5km strike in shallow historical tourmaline and tin mine workings at the Dudley prospect of its Kangaroo Island project in South Australia. Rock chip sampling returned assays of up to 0.43% lithium oxide, 770 ppm tantalum, 460 ppm niobium and 1600 ppm rubidium despite the strong weathering of outcrops.

Calidus Resources has generated encouraging infill drilling results that confirm the grade continuity of its Klondyke ore system at the Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara region of WA ahead of next month’s PFS. The company has also completed a surface trench sampling program over the Klondyke resource to establish the grade and thickness of gold mineralisation and support future mining operations.

Neometals Ltd has signed a binding memorandum of understanding with India’s third-largest power trading and diversified renewable energy company, Manikaran Power, to develop the first lithium refinery in the country. The joint initiative comes as India moves to build up a domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity and promote the use of more electric vehicles.

Hot Chili has delineated a thick, high-grade zone of copper-gold mineralisation at its Cuerpo 3 porphyry copper deposit in central Chile, that returned 188m @ 0.9% copper and 0.4g/t gold from 516m down-hole within a wider 622m intercept. The company said the intercept was comparable to results from SolGold’s Cascabel porphyry copper-gold discovery in Ecuador, which holds 5.2 million tonnes of copper and 12.3 million ounces of gold.

Strike Energy is continuing to drill its West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, WA, towards the secondary and primary gas targets after intersecting some hydrocarbon shows in the tertiary oil target. While the shows in the Cattamarra oil target were deemed insufficient to warrant the running of wireline logging, the company said that the results supported its geological model and would help with future activities.

ASX-listed medical cannabis player, MGC Pharmaceuticals has extended its reach to Brazil after signing a three-year exclusive distribution agreement with ONIX Empreendimentos e Participações. Brazil is a key emerging market with specialist market insight provider, Prohibition Partners, estimating that the Brazilian and Latin American medical cannabis sector could be worth up to USD$8.5 billion by 2028.

Telco disruptor Vonex has opened up a new avenue to grow its brand awareness and revenue through a partnership with business to business loyalty program, Qantas Business Rewards. This partnership will provide exposure for the company’s offering to QBR’s 250,000 small and medium enterprise members, who will be able to earn Qantas Points on Vonex products and services from August this year.

Venus Metals has struck wide, continuous intercepts of gold mineralisation at its Bell Chambers project near Sandstone, WA, which confirmed historical assay results and the geological interpretation for the current 17,000-ounce resource. Better results included 27m @ 2.72g/t from 27m down-hole and 64m @ 1.7g/t gold from 10m down-hole in separate drill holes.

Altech Chemicals is well on the pathway towards producing high purity alumina in Malaysia with erection of the workshop steel frame and placement of its roof structure now nearing completion. In addition, construction of the retaining wall is now about 75% completed whilst work has started on the first of four on-site detention storm water tanks that will store all site storm water.

Classic Minerals has recommenced drilling at its emerging Kat Gap gold project near Southern Cross, WA, where a series of exploratory programs last year unearthed shallow, high-grade gold mineralisation at a prospective rock contact. The short campaign will target strike and up-dip extensions of the defined mineralisation, which produced results up to 10m @ 30.78g/t gold from 28m down-hole and 8m @ 19.05g/t gold from 32m down-hole.

Classic Minerals has completed an earn-in and JV agreement worth up to $4.55m to divest its Fraser Range nickel-copper project in WA to base metals miner Independence Group. Classic will now concentrate its exploration at the emerging Kat Gap gold project located south of Southern Cross, WA, where recent drilling returned impressive results up to 8m @ 19.1g/t gold from 32m down-hole.

Venus Metals has contracted Murdoch University Associate Professor Aleks Nikoloski to carry out a metallurgical research study into vanadium, iron and titanium recoveries from its Youanmi project near Sandstone, WA. The research is co-funded by the Australian Government and test combined pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical process to recover all three metals from Youanmi oxide ores.

Infinity Lithium’s San José project in Spain could benefit from the EU’s recent recognition that access to raw materials has become essential for ensuring the supply of lithium chemicals for its automotive industry. The European Commission has identified 10 potential mining projects that could allow the EU to produce 30% of the world’s lithium by 2030 and flagged that more investment in this sector is likely.

Alterra has strengthened its board as it continues to build agricultural business opportunities with the appointment of experienced corporate accountant John Palermo as a non-executive director. His background in corporate transaction execution, strategic business management and business structuring is expected to assist Alterra with its strategy of building capacity and pursuing its growth plans.

AVZ Minerals has formed a strategic relationship with Chinese cobalt manufacturer Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt to advance the DFS for its giant Manono lithium-tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Besides lending AVZ its experience in the DRC and mainland China, Huayou will also prove the company with advice and assistance in other areas such as project financing and offtake financing.

JV partners Venus Metals and Rox Resources have discovered high-grade intersections from their maiden drilling program at the Currans Find JV gold project, located near Youanmi, WA. At Currans Find North, spectacular new intercepts of potentially shoot-controlled and shallow quartz veining included 6m @ 9.82g/t gold from 36m down-hole and 4m @ 5.72g/t gold from 60m down-hole in separate drill holes.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has received a 50% increase in medical cannabis product orders from Australian distributors Health House International and Cannvalate due to both repeat and new prescriptions. The company also expects to conclude the Phase II clinical trial for its CogniCann medical cannabis treatment for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients about 12 months ahead of schedule thanks to the high level of interest.

Australian telco Vonex continues to build momentum for its core PABX telephony business with more than 29,000 registered users now on its books, a 24% increase over the last 12 months due to its marketing campaign and constructive engagement with its channel partners. The company also expects to deliver a 25% year-on-year growth in the June 2019 quarter, up from the 20% growth rate it reported last quarter.

St George Mining has delineated further high-grade nickel mineralisation at the Investigators prospect of its Mt Alexander project located near Leonora, WA. Best results included 10m @ 2.47% nickel, 1.06% copper, 0.07% cobalt and 2.52g/t PGEs from 142m down-hole. Regional exploratory drilling at the Sultans prospect also confirmed the continuity of nickel mineralisation from historical drilling.

AVZ Minerals has initiated a DFS for its Manono lithium project in the DRC after a scoping study outlined that a 5Mtpa operation could generate a whopping pre-tax NPV of USD$2.63b at an IRR of 64%. Manono boasts one of the world’s greatest lithium resources at 400 million tonnes grading 1.65% lithium oxide and 715ppm tin, most likely placing it in the top three lithium deposits around the globe.

Hot Chili has delineated a potential fourth porphyry centre at its large Cortadera copper-gold discovery in central Chile, after securing further historical drill hole and geophysical data for the project area. This technical dataset has revealed a substantial, alteration-related outline some 4km long by 3km wide, which has all the markings of a potentially world-class gold-rich, porphyry copper system.

Infinity Lithium remains on track to complete the pre-feasibility study for its San José project in Spain during July 2019 with test work demonstrating good lithium leachability and the lithium-bearing solution now undergoing further testing. The company is also working on a revised mining schedule and the potential to recapture a significant amount of water contained in tails for processing.

Vonex has reached the final stages of development for its game-changing Oper8tor aggregated communications app that connects multiple communication platforms such as Skype and Whatsapp in real time. The company plans to carry out third-party application unit testing and load testing from the week starting 17 June to ensure that the app performs as expected at scale before announcing a formal launch date.

Rox Resources has commenced an 8,000 metre drilling campaign aimed at extending the defined mineral resources and testing new regional greenfields exploration targets at its Mt Fisher gold project near Wiluna, WA. The area holds a mineral resource of 1.025 million tonnes grading 2.7g/t for just over 89,000 ounces of gold and the drilling will target geological structures potentially hosting higher-grade primary gold mineralisation at depth.

Caravel Minerals expects copper concentrate from its namesake project in WA’s Wheatbelt region to be sought after by copper smelters due to the very low levels of impurities such as arsenic. The concentrate was produced using composite samples from the project and contained about 25% copper while other impurities such as cadmium, selenium, antimony and lead were well below typical threshold limits for smelters.

Hammer Metals has generated high-grade gold and copper results from a rock chip sampling program at its Malbon project near Mount Isa, Queensland. The El Questro prospect produced values up to 99.4g/t gold and 5.96% copper in iron-rich quartz veining and requires follow up work. Numerous copper-bearing zones with gold mineralisation were also defined at the Mt Philp Breccia project to the west.

Australian Potash has made its thickest intersection of productive basal sands whilst drilling two production bores at its Lake Wells sulphate of potash, or “SOP”, project near Laverton, WA. The second bore intersected 62m of high-yielding sands in the target palaeochannel and has flowed brine at indicative rates above the project requirement of 15 litres per second.

Novo Resources has entered into a $43m farm-in and JV agreement with diversified Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corporation to accelerate development of its Egina gold project located near Port Hedland, WA. Sumitomo can earn up to 40% in the project by spending the monies over three years, with minimum expenditure of about $7m per phase of work defined by programs and budgets developed by Novo.

King River Resources’ ongoing metallurgical test work for its giant Speewah specialty metals project in WA’s Kimberley region has successfully produced an iron oxide product assaying 67% iron with low contaminants. The work has also produced an intermediate titanium product assaying 80% titanium dioxide that the company will seek to upgrade using various purification methods.

Venus Metals has divested its 50% stake in the Yalgoo magnetite project near Geraldton, WA, to Iranian-based EPC contractor FIJV Pty Ltd for $2.5m and will use the funds to evaluate its gold, vanadium and base metal assets elsewhere in the State. The company will retain exposure to FIJV’s plans to develop open cut magnetite mines in the Yalgoo district via a 0.625% royalty on future iron ore concentrate sales.

Strike Energy has spudded its highly anticipated West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, WA, that is targeting up to 1.16 trillion cubic feet of gas in the primary target Kingia High Cliff and 7.2 million barrels of conventional oil in the Jurassic Cattamarra Coal Measures. The well, which is being drilled to a total depth of 5,200m, will also intersect a conventional gas target in the Basal Wagina sandstones.