Matt Birney

Terrain Minerals is gearing up to complete a surface trenching program across a high-grade zone identified on its Wild Viper tenement near Leonora, WA, to follow up a rock chip sample of 4.67g/t gold returned from the 382-shear prospect in March. The exploration target is located just south of the Great Western gold mineral resource and has been interpreted to strike over more than 2.5 kilometres.

Northern Minerals has returned encouraging preliminary rare earth element results from portable XRF assaying completed on infill, extension and exploratory RC drilling samples at the Dazzler and Iceman prospects near its Browns Range operation in the East Kimberley region of WA. The company said the results also outlined a new target area just to the northwest of Iceman that is anomalous in the pathfinder element yttrium.

Lithium Australia has produced lithium iron phosphate batteries using lithium phosphate that was refined using a simple process developed in conjunction with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. The company expects batteries produced using the cheap and effective refining process to have significant advantages compared to those produced using lithium carbonate

Hawkstone Mining has appointed experienced investment banker and corporate advisor, Barnaby Egerton-Warburton, as its Non-Executive Chairman to oversee financing of the emerging Big Sandy lithium clay project in Arizona, US. He previously held executive roles in the resources sector and was most recently a Director of ioneer Limited who is developing the Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron resource nearby in Nevada state.

Anglo Australian Resources’ infill drilling at the Mandilla South prospect of its Mandilla project near Kambalda, WA, has intersected central core of higher-grade supergene enriched gold with hits of up to 1m @ 5.59g/t gold. Drilling also confirmed the presence of primary gold mineralisation and the potential to link the Mandilla South prospect and the Mandilla East resource into a 4km long camp scale target.

Greenland Minerals has outlined major improvements at its massive Kvanefjeld project in southern Greenland, including an impressive 8% increase in rare earth recoveries to 94%, compared with its 2016 Feasibility Study metrics. The work will lead to an increase of USD$31m per annum in revenue, based on the current basket prices for REO and provide attractive margins on production, while seriously reducing OPEX costs for the project.

ASX-listed Azumah Resources has intersected narrow but exceptionally high-grade gold zones of up to 0.5m @ 168.3g/t gold from 650.5m down-hole while hunting for depth extensions to its flagship Kunche deposit in Ghana. This follows on recent confirmation of substantial gold mineralisation to 580m below the surface at the Bepkong deposit and provides geological information to guide the next phase of drilling.

Buru Energy has kicked off a flurry of drilling activity that seeks to unlock the oil and gas potential of the severely underexplored Canning Basin in northern WA. Besides two horizontal production wells that could substantially increase its oil output, the company is also preparing to drill the Yakka Munga-1 and Rafael-1 exploration wells, either of which could be game changers if they are successful.

Gold development company Calidus Resources has made substantial progress on its PFS for the flagship Warrawoona project in the eastern Pilbara region of WA, saying it on track to publish the study in July. Earlier this month, the company completed a placement of $2.16m at a premium to the market, which will provide it sufficient funding to complete the PFS in the nominated timeframe.

Novo Resources is a step closer to mine production from its Pilbara gold assets in WA this week, with a key mining lease now granted for its emerging Beatons Creek project near Nullagine, WA. The rigorous tenement approval process was underpinned by the company’s impressive mineral resource estimate of just over 900,000 ounces, with 316,000 ounces sitting in the oxide zone, which Novo will attack first.

Strike Energy is another step closer towards booking a reserve at its potentially lucrative Jaws-1, super-deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia, after re-establishing consistent gas production. The flare stack has been ignited with reservoir pressure at 425psi whilst the continued flow of water at between 450 to 500+ barrels per day confirms the good productivity of the well.

Kalia Limited’s engagement of technical expert Dr Steve Garwin to overview its Mt Tore project on Bougainville Island has paid off, with five key porphyry copper-gold and epithermal gold targets delineated. Dr Garwin identified the geochemically “fertile” nature of the region’s rocks, with the underexplored area holding potential for world-class deposits of copper-gold in the highly endowed, desirable “Pacific Ring of Fire” location.

Hawkstone Mining has generated more wide, high-grade mineralisation in separate ore horizons from diamond drilling at the Northern Mineralised Zone of its Big Sandy lithium clay project in Arizona, US. New results include 47m @ 2,130 ppm lithium from 12m down-hole and the drilling campaign has now defined continuous, thick mineralised zones over more than 600m of strike at the emerging project.

Sky and Space Global has signed a definitive agreement with Nasdaq-listed manufacturer GomSpace for up to 16 new nano-satellites to extend its IoT and M2M connectivity services over the entire globe. These nano-satellites will be delivered in two batches with the first batch of eight dispatched by the end of 2019, whilst the second optional batch could be delivered in the first half of 2020.

TNG Ltd has signed a binding agreement with Swiss global specialty chemical distributor DKSH for the offtake of all titanium dioxide products from its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the NT. The company already has a binding offtake agreement with South Korea’s Woojin for at least 60% of the project’s vanadium output and a binding term sheet with major global commodity trader Gunvor for its iron products.

The WA Government’s plan to carry out $51m in major road upgrades in the Eastern Kimberley region will directly benefit Northern Minerals’ Browns Creek heavy rare earths mine, by providing virtually year-round access to the project tenements from Halls Creek. This will also provide greater certainty for the company to ramp future production from Browns Creek, knowing the product can be transported from site on a regular basis.

Image Resources’ Boonanarring heavy mineral sands project near Perth continues to deliver with a grab sample of an ultra-high grade zone that was identified and mined by the company returning 95% HM and 70% zircon content. About 500 tonnes of this ore has been stockpiled and work will be carried out to determine how far the zone extends into areas that have not been fully cleared of overburden.

Legend Mining’s aircore drilling program for its Area D prospect at the Rockford project in the Fraser Range of WA has given the company encouragement that it is zeroing in on a larger mineralised system. Recent assay results from drilling at the D4 and D5 conductors turned up strongly anomalous nickel, copper and cobalt results, as the company seeks to define a high-grade sulphide system in the area.

Sky and Space Global has signed six new MoUs and two reseller agreements since deciding to expand its telco coverage over the globe rather than just equatorial regions of the world in April. Its reseller agreement covering the US, Canada, Mexico and the UAE with globally focussed internet of things engineering firm Penteon, is a formalisation of their MoU that was signed in October 2018.

Geopacific Resources has appointed former Bank South Pacific Limited Group CEO Ian Clyne as its Chairman to drive financing arrangements for the company’s flagship Woodlark gold project in PNG. Last November, the company released a DFS supporting the project’s development, saying the project could generate $257m in free cash during the first five years of production and about 1 million gold ounces over 13 years.

King River Resources could have another potential revenue stream for its massive Speewah specialty metals project in WA’s Kimberley region after producing HPA during metallurgical test work. Further tests will be carried out to improve precipitation efficiency, reduce the amount of hydrochloric gas required and increase recycling of hydrochloric gas. The company also plans to find the best method for producing HPA.

Kairos Minerals has started its exploration field season in WA’s Pilbara region on two fronts, following up extensive surface gold anomalies previously identified at the Croydon project and investigating the gold and lithium potential of its Kangan project. At Croydon, work is underway to investigate a prospective conglomerate horizon along strike from recent gold nugget discoveries and anomalous results from geochemical sampling.

TNG Ltd has engaged Australian contractor McMahon Services to progress the program of work for the non-process infrastructure requirements of its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. McMahon will advance the infrastructure planning developed by TNG, develop the tendering documents and implement the strategy and delivery framework for the infrastructure works packages.

Hot Chili has outlined thick zones of porphyry-related copper and gold mineralisation during its maiden RC drilling campaign at the large Cortadera deposit located in central Chile. Results included 122m @ 0.6% copper and 0.3g/t gold directly from the surface, including a high-grade intercept of 20m @ 1.2% copper and 0.5g/t gold from 40m down-hole, related to a wide supergene enriched zone of copper.

Lithium Australia is seeking to become a leading lithium-ion battery supplier through an alliance with DLG Battery – one of China’s ten largest battery manufacturers. The two companies will form a joint venture to manufacture lithium-ion packs and modules in Australia, produce batteries using their technologies for both local and global markets and offer battery-recycling solutions.

TNG Ltd has been granted Vietnamese patents for its proprietary TIVAN technology for the extraction and recovery of high-purity vanadium, complementing its existing patents in Australia, Russia, Canada and the US. The patents provide further protection for the hydrometallurgical process as it progresses its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory.

Black Rock has executed two further Chinese offtake agreements at mutually agreed grades, volumes and prices for the premium graphite flake concentrate products sourced and processed from its impressive Mahenge project in Tanzania. With the pricing framework now in place for four of its five offtake partners, the company is now focussed on delivering an optimised Definitive Feasibility Study for the project.

Hammer Metals’ rock chip sampling at the Malbon region near Mount Isa in northwest Queensland has returned intriguing grades of up to 12.9 grams per tonne gold and 15.8% copper and identified the new Speculation, Pioneer Prince and Alice-Kings trends. The company said that outcrop in the area is sparse and further mapping and sampling would be required to understand the extent and structural controls of mineralisation.

Strike Energy is on track to spud its highly anticipated West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, which will target up to 1.16 trillion cubic feet of gas and 7.2 million barrels of oil, later this month. The company recently uncovered further evidence that West Erregulla is similar to Japanese company Mitsui’s nearby Waitsia gas field - one of Australia’s largest onshore gas fields.

Blackstone Minerals is set to acquire a 90% interest in the advanced Ta Khoa nickel project in northern Vietnam from AMR Nickel Limited over a 12-month period costing AUD$1.6m in cash and scrip. The project includes an existing 450,000 tonne per annum concentrator and is located in a prospective, underexplored district that contains numerous massive and disseminated sulphide occurrences with nickel, copper, cobalt and PGEs.

Altech Chemicals has reached another milestone on its journey towards becoming a significant high purity alumina, producer with the raising of the first steel column at its plant site in Johor, Malaysia. The plant in the Tanjung Industrial complex will produce up to 4,500 tonnes of HPA from very pure kaolin clays sourced from the company’s shallow open pit mine near Meckering in WA.

Massive UK investment fund, M & G Investments, who has a whopping £286b under management, has stumped up $6.3m to cornerstone Perth small cap, Troy Resources’ latest capital raise. Troy will use the money to develop a resource at its exciting, high grade, near mine exploration play in South America known as Ohio Creek, that looks set to turbocharge the economics of its operating Karouni gold mine.