Matt Birney

TNG Ltd is finalising its environmental impact statement and permitting processes for its NT-based, Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project and the proposed TIVAN downstream processing plant facility for refining high-value ore products, located close to Darwin. The company will haul concentrated products to a rail siding facility for transportation to Darwin, where the materials will be refined and then exported to customers in Asia.

88 Energy has started discussions with the preferred bidder to farm-in to the conventional acreage at its project known as “Project Icewine” in Alaska’s famed North Slope oil province. Evaluation work on the unconventional HRZ shale at Project Icewine is also continuing with the company expecting to have a dataroom ready by mid-2019, which will allow a formal farm-out process to begin.

Spectrum Metals has drilled high grade extensions at its Penny West gold project near Youanmi in WA, intersecting an 8 metre wide intercept of mineralisation grading 24.2g/t gold from 149m down-hole. The zone at Penny North is directly on strike from a historical open pit, that generated 85,000 ounces at 21.8g/t gold in the 1990s. The company has expanded its drilling campaign to follow up the discovery.

Neometals is now fully focussed on progressing the Barrambie vanadium-titanium-magnetite project near Sandstone, WA, towards a final investment decision this year following the completion of the $104m Mt Marion divestment. The company is also planning to complete the Canadian lithium‐ion battery recycling pilot and feasibility study and proving up the potential of its zeolite production process.

Great Southern Mining has discovered strongly anomalous cobalt and scandium mineralisation in laterite from historical aircore drilling programs completed at its Mt Weld project, near Laverton, WA. Best results were 12m @ 0.19% cobalt from 56m down-hole and 16m at 130g/t scandium from 38m down-hole in separate vertical drill holes. The company is also re-assaying drill samples for their platinum group metal potential.

Northern Minerals is raising up to $20m through multiple subscription agreements with a number of sophisticated investors to ramp up exploration at the Dazzler and Iceman prospects in the East Kimberley, WA. The company recently released a maiden resource estimate of 144,000 tonnes grading 2.23% TREO for the Dazzler prospect and expects to release an estimate for the Iceman prospect later this year.

Infinity Lithium is now better positioned to attract investment for its integrated San Jose mine and lithium hydroxide refining project in western Spain after increasing its ownership to 75% by paying AUD$1.6m to JV partner Valoriza Mineria over 14 months. Valoriza will retain its contractor rights to develop the project, ensuring that the partners remain aligned on their goals and focus on moving the venture forward.

Venus Metals has generated a new mineral resource estimate of 134.7 million tonnes grading 0.34% vanadium pentoxide for its Youanmi vanadium oxide project near Sandstone in WA. 64% of the mineral resources lie within the confident measured and indicated categories, which will allow the company to accelerate scoping studies and metallurgical test work and define a maiden ore reserve, based on more targeted definition drilling programs.

St George Mining has drilled two holes that intersected nickel sulphide mineralisation at the new Fairbridge prospect of its Mt Alexander project near Leonora, WA, with a large chargeable anomaly to the north of these holes to be drilled this week. Drilling has also confirmed that a new nickel sulphide zone exists in the previously unexplored 500m strike zone between the Stricklands and Investigators prospects in the Cathedrals Belt.

Coziron Resources’ directors have provided the company with $125,000 in interim funding by way of loans that are convertible into company shares for working capital. The company is planning to carry out infill drilling at its Buddadoo vanadium project in the Murchison, WA, to generate a JORC resource and has identified a number of drill ready targets at the Croydongold project in WA’s Pilbara region.

Hammer Metals is adding another string to its bow with the acquisition of the Bronzewing South gold project in the heart of WA’s gold-rich Yandal greenstone belt. Despite being located along strike from the 4 million ounce Bronzewing mine and the 1 million ounce Orelia deposit, the project remains relatively underexplored due to the transported cover that ranges between 2m and 40m in thickness.

Bellevue Gold’s first pass step-out drilling at its Bellevue project northwest of Leinster in the WA Goldfields has doubled the strike lengths of the high-grade Viago and Tribune gold lodes. Notable results include 4m @ 14.8g/t gold and 6m @ 24.9g/t gold. The company expects to release an upgrade to the current resource of 1.5 million contained ounces grading 11.8g/t gold in the second quarter of this year.

Image Resources has started a program to upgrade ore reserves at its Boonanarring heavy minerals project north of Perth after achieving higher than expected grades since production commenced in December last year. Ore production in January achieved HM grades of 12.6%, more than double the 6% HM estimate of the ore reserve, whilst zircon was 33.5% of the HM content compared to an estimate of 22.9%.

Artemis Resources has completed a ground geophysical gravity survey program over priority exploration targets it defined in January over the Armada project in the emerging Paterson Range copper-gold province of WA. The company will now integrate the processed gravity data with the recently collected magnetic data to identify and prioritise potential drilling targets at the intriguing project.

PharmAust is basking in the early success of Phase I clinical trials for its flagship anti-cancer drug Monepantel in dogs. Preliminary results show that the blood concentrations of Monepantel in the test subjects already exceeded levels observed to achieve anti-cancer activity after administrating just one tablet. The company has now started the dose escalation component of the Phase I trial on schedule.

Rox Resources will start poking holes in its exciting looking portfolio of WA-based gold projects in the northeastern Goldfields next quarter with a view to proving up new mineral resources in the under-explored region. The company already holds 89,000 resource ounces at its Mt Fisher project and confidently expects to grow this with a full revision of historical data and a focussed work program.

BlackEarth Minerals has received another outstanding set of high grade graphite assays from its surface trenching program at the Ianapera project located in southern Madagascar. Best results included 14m grading 10.36% total graphitic carbon, which incorporated 2m @ 23.9% TGC and 2m @ 10.9% TGC. The trench samples approximate the true width of the mineralisation and outline the potential for a significant resource tonnage.

Tyranna Resources has defined an updated mineral resource of 762,000 tonnes grading 1.8 grams per tonne gold, or 43,100 contained ounces, below the existing open pit at its Eureka gold project near Kalgoorlie. The resource remains open along strike to the north, south and at depth. The company plans to carry out near mine drilling, starting with the southern mining leases, to test for the mineralised potential.

Europe’s shift from a reliance on fossil fuels has resulted in a corresponding increase in its sustainability and carbon footprint requirements. This has brought into focus the need for a strategic local supply chain for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries in its expanding EV market. Infinity Lithium’s Spanish San Jose project, where the company aims to mine, process and refine lithium chemicals, could potentially benefit from these changing obligations.

Altech Chemicals continues to make good progress on the stage one construction of its high purity alumina, or “HPA”, processing plant in Johor, Malaysia, with initial site establishment activities now complete. The company recently appointed Macquarie Bank as the preferred mezzanine lender for the HPA plant. Completion of the mezzanine facility is conditional on the outcome of due diligence that is currently underway.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources has appointed Paul Brennan as its Chief Operating Officer to assist with the development of its flagship Warrawoona gold project in WA, which is moving towards the release of a pre-feasibility study in the third quarter of this year. The company is planning to start drilling of untested regional anomalies in the next two weeks.

Kalia Limited’s geophysical interpretation of airborne data collected over its Mt Tore JV tenements on Bougainville Island has generated 64 exploration targets, with 12 priority positions identified as potential intrusive complexes and pathways for copper/gold mineralisation. The company is presently conducting on-site ground geological reconnaissance, with drilling on priority targets expected to commence next quarter.

With a breakthrough product that is already generating revenue and more products in the pipeline, regenerative medicine company Koligo Therapeutics is pitching its unique offering ahead of a proposed $6m listing on the ASX. Its “Kyslecel” product for patients suffering from chronic or acute recurrent pancreatitis has already been used for 22 procedures since commercial sales started in November 2017.

Geopacific Resources will secure full ownership of the flagship Woodlark gold project in PNG by paying JV partner Kula Gold AUD$3.25m for the remaining 7% of the project it does not already control. The timing is quite strategic, with gold prices sitting 10% above the company’s base case scenario used in last year’s DFS for Woodlark, which delivered robust economic and technical outcomes for the project.

Tyranna Resources’ in-pit drilling at the Eureka gold project near Kalgoorlie has returned a 5 metre intersection grading 25.6 grams per tonne gold at depth that ended in mineralisation. The company said that more than a third of the 23 holes drilled returned ore grade intersections, with four of those holes ending in mineralisation. The results will be included within an updated resource model for the Eureka project.

BlackEarth Minerals has received an outstanding set of high grade graphite assays from its maiden surface trenching program at the Ianapera project located in southern Madagascar. Best results included 18m grading 22.1% total graphitic carbon, which included 8m @ 32.7% TGC and an incredible 2m @ 46% TGC. The trench samples approximate the true width of the mineralisation and outline the potential for a significant resource tonnage.

Nickel explorer St George Mining has identified several priority drilling targets at the promising new Fairbridge prospect of its Mt Alexander project near Leonora, WA. The new targets have electrically chargeable signatures that are consistent with sulphide mineralisation and may also be associated with surface nickel-copper sulphide gossans. Drilling at Fairbridge is expected to commence next week.

Adriatic Metals has significantly increased its land holdings at the exciting Vares project in Bosnia, after receiving an Exploration Permit to expand the existing concession area over the Rupice and Veovaca base metals prospects. The company will immediately begin drilling at Rupice North and aims to extend high grade mineralisation down plunge from a 66m thick, high grade intersection it reported in October last year.

88 Energy is preparing to carry out wireline logging operations at its potentially high impact Winx-1 exploration well in Alaska’s famed “North Slope” oil province after completing drilling operations. Interpretation of the wireline logging data will allow a decision to be made on whether to proceed with production testing of the most prospective zone within the primary target Nanushuk formation.

Northern Minerals has generated a maiden mineral resource estimate for its Dazzler rare earths deposit, located 15km south of the Browns Range mining and pilot processing operations in the Kimberley region of WA. The inferred resource contains 144,000 tonnes grading 2.23% total rare earth oxides, which is the equivalent of about 3,200 tonnes of TREO and includes a significant quantity of the sought-after element dysprosium.

Caravel Minerals’ RC drilling has intersected more thick zones of copper including 138m @ 0.35% copper from 74m down-hole and 200m @ 0.31% copper from 42m at its namesake project in the Wheatbelt, WA. Results from the recently completed drilling campaign will now be incorporated into an updated mineral resource model for the Bindi deposit that is scheduled for completion later this quarter.

Artemis Resources has upgraded mineral resources at its Carlow Castle gold-copper-cobalt project near Karratha in the Pilbara region of WA, boosting the tonnages by 71% over last year’s estimate. The deposit now contains an inferred resource of 7.7 million tonnes grading 1.06g/t gold, 0.51% copper and 0.08% cobalt. Last month the company reported exceptional recoveries of gold, copper and cobalt from metallurgical test work at the project.