Matt Birney

Lithium Australia’s new refining process has successfully produced a high purity lithium phosphate product for use in lithium-ion batteries, bypassing the need to produce lithium hydroxide or carbonate. The new process fits seamlessly into the SiLeach process and greatly reduces the concentrations of impurities such as potassium, sodium and sulphur, providing scope to further improve battery performance.

Sky and Space Global has signed a trial agreement with African mobile telecommunications provider MTN Nigeria that could result in a commercial agreement for the use of its satellite-based narrow-band communications network. The two companies will examine the potential for collaborative projects using advanced Internet of Things and narrow band applications in the growing African market.

Spectrum Metals has added a bit of polish to its Penny West project near Youanmi in WA discovering 14 metres of mineralisation grading 14.4g/t gold and 4.11g/t silver from 124m down-hole. The zone is north of the historic Penny West open cut, that produced 85,000 ounces grading 21.8g/t gold in the early 1990s. The company said it would expand its drilling to follow up the new find.

Strike Energy has added a new Jurassic sand sequence target that could host about 7.2 million barrels of oil to its upcoming West Erregulla-2 well in the North Perth Basin, WA, which will be drilled in the second quarter of 2019. A success at West Erregulla-2 has the potential to re-value the adjoining acreage to the south and east that were part of the UIL Energy acquisition late last year.

88 Energy has encountered encouraging oil shows whilst drilling its potentially high impact Winx-1 exploration well in Alaska’s famed North Slope oil province. Data observed while drilling the Nanushuk formation in the Winx-1 well appears to be comparable with a nearby third party well targeting the same formation. The company also encountered oil shows in the deeper Torok formation.

King River Resources has extracted up to 97% vanadium in heated sulphuric acid vat leaching metallurgical test work on mineral concentrates from its massive Speewah specialty metals project, located near Kununurra in the Kimberley region of WA. The company previously stated that the results support an alternative ore processing route for its flagship project that could drastically lower capital and operating costs.

Black Rock Mining’s EPC partner Yantai Jinyaun has delivered high quality, flake dominant, graphite concentrates exceeding 99% purity at 93% recovery from pilot plant test work studies in China on ores from the company’s Mahenge deposit in Tanzania. The work was aimed at optimising circuit design and process flowsheets and resulted in an improved graphite flake distribution, whilst preserving exceptional concentrate grades.

Growing PABX user numbers and strong retail growth have increased Vonex’s sales revenue to $4.3m for the half-year ending 31 December 2018, up 9% from the same period the previous financial year. The company’s wholesale division achieved a 12% increase in direct sales of “white label” hosted PABX services while its retail division posted a 9% increase in revenue.

Middle Island Resources has announced a takeover offer for Alto Metals, proposing an all-scrip off-market consideration of five of the company’s shares for every Alto share, which could consolidate the parties’ Sandstone gold assets in WA. The addition of Alto’s gold resources could provide initial mill feed and critical mass to a combined entity with synergies that may potentially benefit shareholders of both companies.

UltraCharge continues to lay the groundwork for commercialising its unique, high powered, cobalt-free lithium-ion battery technology that could substantially lower the cost of energy storage. The company is currently supplying battery packs to three-wheel electric scooter manufacturer Roadix Urban Transportation and is poised to deliver a test battery pack to electric scooter manufacturer Blitz Electric Motors.

Aspire Mining has generated outstanding results in the PFS for its Ovoot coking coal project in Mongolia. The study outlines pre-tax NPV of AUD$820m and IRR of 43.7% and produces 4 million tonnes annually for delivery into China at an exceptional margin of AUD$96 per tonne. The project has an initial mine life of just over nine years and produces an annual EBITDA of AUD$240m.

Metalicity has secured two new prospective looking nickel-copper-PGM exploration tenements that it identified from examination of historical geophysical data and diamond drill core in the sought-after Fraser Range region in southern WA. This work identified intriguing magnetic and gravity anomalies while the drill core confirmed that disseminated copper sulphide mineralisation was present in the sought after mafic intrusive rock types.

Sky and Space Global has signed a reseller MoU with Jakarta-based Cendrawasih Teknologi Nusantara for the provision of narrow-band communications services using its miniature satellites network. This has potential exposure to 260 million customers in Indonesia and opens the door towards expanding the company’s existing connectivity offering across the entire Asia Pacific region.

Image Resources has delivered high grade intersections of gold mineralisation up to 3m @ 11.5g/t gold from 92m down-hole, after re-assaying anomalous gold zones identified during last year’s RC drilling program at the Erayinia project near Kalgoorlie. The company said the new results from fire assaying were significantly higher than what been returned earlier using the aqua regia method on composited sample intervals.

Strike Energy has brought its Jaws-1 deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia, back online after completing workover operations and has restarted the depressurisation of the Vu Upper coal seam. This is aimed at returning the Jaws well to its critical desorption pressure and reinitiating gas flows. The company said the pumps would be slowly ramped up to ensure sustainability of the pumping operations.

Aurora Labs has formed a collaboration with the University of Western Australia and Royal Perth Hospital to develop designs, specifications and parameters for the 3D printing of human medical implants. The company will provide one of its 3D printers, the metallic consumable powders used for 3D printing, and the assistance of its maintenance and technical staff as its contribution to the project.

Nzuri Copper has received an all-cash takeover offer from leading Chinese industrial player Chengtun Mining Group, that values the company at 37c a share, or about AUD$109.5m. The company owns the Kalongwe copper-cobalt project within the Central African Copperbelt in the far south of the DRC, which holds an ore reserve of 8 million tonnes grading 2.94% copper and 0.34% cobalt, which was used to underpin the company’s 2018 feasibility study.

The Tanzanian Government has granted Black Rock Mining two mining licences over its massive Mahenge graphite project and the company now looks to be a real chance at making the quantum leap from explorer to miner. The impressive DFS for Mahenge shows a 32-year project life that could generate a post-tax NPV of USD$895m and an IRR of 42.8% with CAPEX numbers that don’t look to be too frightening.

Metalicity has more than doubled its targeted areas in the emerging Paterson copper-nickel-gold province in WA with its application for seven new exploration licences in three project areas that cover a total area of 3000km2. Exploration by WMC from 1966 to 1971 at the priority Warburton target, identified about 200 copper mineral occurrences and geochemically anomalous soils over significant strike lengths.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has received independent verification from the University of Ljubljana Biotechnical Faculty and Pharma Lab in Slovenia that its proprietary cannabis strains have industry-leading levels of CBD and THC. The company will now carry out an additional breeding round as part of the genetics registration in the European Union to demonstrate the stability of the strains.

Aurora Labs is in detailed discussions regarding its 3D printing technology with two leading automotive manufacturers, two aerospace companies and several heavy machinery manufacturers. The company recently demonstrated the ability of its multi-level 3D printers to achieve print speeds of about 113kg per day, which is up to 55 times faster than the general market speed for 3D printing of around 1.96kg per day for titanium printing.

Hot Chili has executed an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in Chilean mining group SCM Carola’s Vallenar landholdings, that are adjacent to the company’s Productora and El Fuego copper assets in Chile. The new Cortadera tenements hold a significant copper-gold porphyry discovery which contains extraordinarily wide, consistent, drill intersections of copper-gold mineralisation only released earlier this month.

ASX-listed Australian Potash has started final field programs in the Definitive Feasibility Study for its Lake Wells sulphate of potash project near Laverton, WA. The company will drill up to three production wells for long term pump testing to confirm flow rates and construct trial evaporation ponds to establish the optimal commercial-scale pond design, in terms of cost of construction and effectiveness of the design.

Blina Minerals has exercised an option to fully acquire the Maintirano copper project in western Madagascar, after completing extensive due diligence. Recent field work turned up very encouraging results with several samples exceeding 5% copper, including a sample that registered 37.5% copper and 33ppm silver. The company will now carry out airborne surveys to assist locating additional mineralisation.

Vonex has added more than 1000 new registered PABX users in less than one month, double its typical growth rate of about 500 users per month. This takes its total registered user base to 27,000 as at 21 February 2019. The growth is due to in part to its new channel partner-focused sales software that significantly reduced average deployment time for a hosted PABX customer and the continued rollout of the NBN.

BlackEarth Minerals’ Maniry project in Madagascar now extends over 5km of strike, with the company locating wide, high grade graphite mineralisation over 52m grading 7.03% total graphitic carbon at its new Razafy SE prospect. The trench samples represent the true width of the mineralisation and may outline the potential for significant additional high-grade graphite resources to enhance the value of the project.

St George Mining has started a 37 hole RC drilling campaign that is aimed at discovering more nickel-copper sulphides at its Mt Alexander project near Leonora in WA. The program will initially target the new West End prospect to test for a continuation of the highly mineralised Cathedrals Belt towards the regionally important Ida Fault zone before moving on to test the new Fairbridge prospect.

Northern Minerals is ramping up rare earths output at its Browns Range pilot plant in the East Kimberley region of WA to steady state levels to assess the quality of the rare earth carbonate produced. Data collected from the production of 7.2 tonnes of rare earth carbonate to date has provided the company with a better understanding of its ability to produce rare earths at the required specification.

Great Southern Mining has stepped on the gas and will fast-track a program of infill and extensional drilling at its emerging Mon Ami gold project near Laverton in the north eastern Goldfields region of WA. The work aims to rapidly expand the current 59,000 ounce resource by drilling down-dip to the west, down-plunge to the north and along strike up to 1km south of the existing resource.

Lithium Australia has initiated the next stage of development for its LieNA spodumene processing technology after preliminary R&D showed that further work on the process was warranted. The process seeks to recover lithium from spodumene without the need for expensive, energy-hungry roasting by using a caustic solution to leach the lithium from spodumene and recover it as lithium phosphate.

Canadian conglomerate gold specialist Novo Resources has reported encouraging and consistent gold grades averaging 2.55g/t from a regional, bulk sampling program at its Beatons Creek gold project near Nullagine in WA. The current mineral resource sits at 8.38 million tonnes grading 2.47g/t gold for 667,000 ounces and will be updated this quarter using the bulk sampling results and a new 3D geological interpretation.

Caravel Minerals has confirmed a new geological model for the flagship Bindi deposit, located near Perth in WA, after drilling multiple new zones of copper sulphide mineralisation up to 202 metres wide grading 0.31% copper at its namesake project. The company will use the new data to update the mineral resource model and estimate for the Bindi deposit later this quarter.