Matt Birney

Spectrum Metals has returned a high-grade gold intersection 125m below a historical open pit at its Penny West gold prospect near Youanmi in WA. The intercept of 5 metres grading 28.9g/t gold from 203m down-hole was contained within a wider zone of 31m @ 5.5g/t gold from the same depth. The company said the result might represent a structurally thickened zone and that further drilling is planned.

Image Resources has outlined further evidence of a very high-grade core section in the eastern strand of its Boonanarring heavy minerals mine north of Perth after processing ore with an average grade about 2.5 times than the budgeted grade in March. The company has commenced a close-spaced drilling program to delineate the high-grade zone and update its ore reserve estimate.

MGC Pharmaceuticals continues to progress its strategy to commercialise its bio-pharma business with research partner RMIT receiving approval from the Australian Office of Drug Control to possess and handle phytocannabinoids for research purposes. The company has also been awarded a European Union licence to produce non-sterile schedule two medicines in that jurisdiction.

Canadian conglomerate gold specialist Novo Resources has increased minerals resources at its Beatons Creek gold project near Nullagine in the East Pilbara region of WA by 30% to 10.94 million tonnes grading 2.57g/t gold for 903,000 ounces. 85% of the company’s oxide resources that total 316,000 gold ounces are within the high-confidence indicated category subset, from which future ore reserves can be derived.

Coziron Resources has identified an electromagnetic conductor down-dip of the Martin prospect at its Croydon Top Camp multi-element project in WA’s Pilbara region as a priority target for its upcoming drilling program. Reprocessing of 2016 electromagnetic data is underway to determine if any additional anomalies are present. Any conductive targets with coincident geochemistry will be prioritised for drilling.

Artemis Resources has outlined a development drilling program for its flagship Carlow Castle gold-copper-cobalt project in the Pilbara of WA that is aimed at upgrading the current inferred mineral resource to the higher confidence indicated status. The drilling will close up the drill spacing over higher-grade sections of the existing mineral resources and allow the company to derive a maiden ore reserve for the project.

Aurora Labs has successfully printed a series of 10mm high, titanium parts in just 20 minutes, proving the ability of its proprietary multi-level 3D printing technology to manufacture complex shapes at high speed. This outcome is another step towards its goal of using additive manufacturing to produce parts in a whole range of application. The company has also successfully printed an aluminium part with a high density of around 99%.

Hammer Metals has delineated a number of prospective looking copper-gold and gold only anomalies from a soil geochemical survey program at its early-stage, Mt Philp breccia iron oxide-copper-gold project, near Mount Isa in Queensland. The company said that it is now field checking the new copper-gold anomalies and that a ground gravity survey is planned to investigate possible blind exploration targets.

Buru Energy has completed the acquisition of a further 22.5% interest in two exploration permits in the Canning hydrocarbon Basin in WA’s Kimberley from Mitsubishi Corporation for $720,000, taking its operating stake up to 60%. Permits EP 457 and EP 458 are considered to be prospective for conventional oil in a number of formations with the 2015 Victory-1 well recovering oil from the Laurel Formation.

Spectrum Metals has drilled a bonanza grade intercept at its new Penny North gold prospect near Youanmi in WA, returning a 4 metre wide intersection of mineralisation grading 105.2g/t gold from 151m down-hole. The company has expanded its drilling campaign to follow up the new find, which is along strike from a historical open pit that produced 85,000 ounces at 21.8g/t gold in the 1990s.

Terrain Minerals has generated a high-grade grab sample of 4.67g/t gold from its new 382-shear prospect, located just south of its flagship Great Western gold resource, near Leonora, WA. The target is interpreted over more than 2.5km of strike and the company is planning a follow-up field program of shallow trenching, geological mapping and surface sampling to delineate potential drill targets along the prospective structure.

Greenland Minerals has reached a key milestone for its giant Kvanefjeld rare earth project in Greenland with its social impact assessment now ready for public consultation. This offers stakeholders the opportunity to provide feedback on the assessment, which will be incorporated into a final document forming part of the package of material required for the mining licence application process.

Anglo Australian Resources has started a 52 hole infill drilling campaign at the Mandilla South target of its Mandilla gold project located 20km southwest of Kambalda and along strike from the East Mandilla resource. This campaign will define initial bedrock drilling targets for a future reverse circulation drilling campaign within the extensive supergene-enriched gold blanket.

TNG Ltd has applied to trade mark its high-quality, low iron titania pigment produced via hydrometallurgical processing of ore feedstock from the Mount Peake multi-commodity mine near Alice Springs in the NT. The product’s main use is in paint additives and coatings applications, so the minuscule iron content is a bonus, as it enhances the “brightness” of the tint and inhibits corrosion.

PharmAust continues to tick off the milestones at its ongoing Phase I clinical trials for its anti-cancer drug Monepantel in dogs with the escalation study showing no adverse safety issues. Beagles treated with up to 10 Monepantel tablets displayed no adverse effects or signs of toxicity after being monitored over three days. The company will now start dosing tests to determine how best to maintain long term monepantel blood levels.

Vonex is continuing to build its sales momentum with a 34% year-on-year growth in new customer orders for February as it continues to sign up new channel partners and users for its cloud-based PABX telephony business. The company passed the 27,500 PABX users mark in March and processed more than 500 new customer orders through its channel partner-focused sales software, Sign on Glass.

Hawkstone Mining has estimated that its Big Sandy lithium clay project could hold between 242.1 million tonnes and 417.6 million tonnes grading from 1,000 ppm to 2,000 ppm of lithium, in an Exploration Target unveiled this week. The company is completing a follow-up diamond drilling program over the Northern Mineralised Zone at Big Sandy, with the aim of generating a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource.

Greenland Minerals has reduced civil construction costs for its massive Kvanefjeld rare earths project in southern Greenland by 44% to USD$175m following the completion of key engineering studies. The savings were achieved through substantial reductions in civil earthworks, an updated port design and greater use of local materials. The company added that process plant optimisation is also nearing completion.

Anglo Australian Resources has started an extensive drilling campaign that is aimed at fast-tracking development of its Feysville gold project, located 14km southeast of Kalgoorlie. The campaign includes infill drilling on the higher-grade core of the Think Big deposit and will also test shallow high-grade supergene gold mineralisation at the Saintly prospect and evaluate the potential for economic gold mineralisation at the Hyperno prospect.

Artemis Resources has fully committed to developing its West Pilbara gold assets and completing an upgrade of the strategic Radio Hill processing plant near Karratha in WA. The company will divest several non-core assets and is advancing discussions with other operators for toll treatment options through its Radio Hill plant for a number of stranded gold deposits within a suitable trucking distance.

Legend Mining has started aircore drilling over two intriguing base metal targets it located late last year at its Rockford project in the revered Fraser Range in WA. The first target at Rockford South returned results peaking at 3m @ 0.71% nickel and 0.04% cobalt from 40m down-hole. About 9.5km to the northeast, the company will target anomalous copper-zinc-silver mineralisation adjacent to an electrically conductive geophysical anomaly.

Venus Metals has delineated five prospective looking gold drilling targets from geophysical surveys completed along the under-explored Youanmi shear zone, centred 5km north of Spectrum Metals’ new Penny North discovery near the Youanmi mining centre in the Murchison region of WA. The shear zone hosts the company’s mothballed Youanmi gold mine and Spectrum’s Penny West gold project.

Metalicity Limited has used open file Government data to generate exploratory base metal targets and stake a new tenement, adjacent to the giant Admiral Bay zinc project in the Kimberley region of WA. The work interprets potential domed structural positions for the trapping of mineralised fluids, enhancing the prospectivity for mineralisation in areas nearer to the surface, than at Admiral Bay nearby.

Strike Energy has observed encouraging gas surges as it continues to depressurise its ground-breaking Jaws-1 deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia. This is consistent with the previous behaviour of the reservoir that resulted in the building desorption front in December last year. Water production rates are currently between 300 and 400 barrels per day.

King River’s decision to investigate acid processing at its giant WA Speewah vanadium- titanium-iron deposit is paying off, with a new engineering study pointing to potential big cuts in the estimated capex for the project. The company has been encouraged by the results and is on track to produce a pre-feasibility study in the September quarter for the project that houses the world’s largest vanadium deposit.

Hawkstone Mining has commenced drilling at its Big Sandy lithium clay project in Arizona state, US to follow up last year’s encouraging drill intersections and metallurgical test work results from the ore system. Best drill results included 43.8 metres grading 2,089 parts per million lithium from just 8.2m down-hole and the company recovered 95% of the lithium from clays by simple acid leaching techniques over 7 hours.

Buru Energy is cashed up, partnered up and has a glint in its eye again as it embarks on a multi-million dollar search for more oil riches in the lucrative Canning hydrocarbon basin in WA’s north. Buru is preparing to drill two production wells to increase production at its Ungani oilfield and up to four exploration wells to test promising oil prospects in the underexplored region. With $64m in the bank and Chinese firm Roc Oil riding shotgun with a $20m farm in agreement, Buru has its chip back on the board.

Tyranna Resources is continuing its determined push to extract near-term cash flow from the Eureka gold project, 50km north of Kalgoorlie. Just weeks after releasing an updated mineral resource, Tyranna has now appointed mining consultant firm Entech to work out the best way to get Eureka into production via processing through one of the many mills in the region and is also planning the next phase of exploration.

ASX-listed graphite specialist Blackearth Minerals is shooting for a high-grade target of up to 34 million tonnes at its Ianapera project in Madagascar after final assays from a trenching program produced yet more impressive results. Latest assays include 14m grading 14.0% total graphitic carbon and follow news earlier this month of a whopping 18m intersection going 22.06% TGC.

Lithium Australia has kicked off a preliminary feasibility study to evaluate the production of lithium iron phosphate battery cathode powders using mica feed material sourced from its Sadisdorf lithium-tin deposit in Germany. The study is seeking to provide supply chain security by delivering cathode materials that require neither cobalt or nickel whilst remaining competitive with batteries using standard lithium carbonate materials.

Caldius Resources does not appear to be resting on its laurels after recently announcing a 1.25 million ounce gold resource in the Pilbara with the ASX junior this week kicking off a drill program to test new targets at its highly prospective Warrawoona project. The program will test three high-priority targets from soil geochemistry that showed the largely unexplored region is still rich with potential.

Australian Potash has started a major study into the benefits of using its sulphate of potash product over the more typically used “muriate of potash” for the growing of crops in WA. The two-year study will be a collaboration with the Western Australian No-Tillage Farmers Association and The University of Western Australia. It will compare the effects of both potassium sources on crop yield, quality, safety and value.