Matt Birney

Spectrum Metals has started spinning the drill bit at its new Penny West project in the Murchison mining district, one of the highest grade open pit gold mines ever worked in Western Australia. The 4500 metre maiden drill campaign is primarily aimed at defining and extending the mineralised envelope below the Penny West open pit. Final assay results are expected during April.

PharmAust has kicked-off its highly-anticipated Phase I clinical trials for its flagship anti-cancer drug Monepantel in dogs using the first batch of 2000 tablets manufactured to its new and better-tasting formulation. The initial component of the trial is designed to validate the performance of the drug in different dietary settings that dogs may encounter at home. First results are expected in the middle of March this year.

Artemis Resources has been granted the key Armada prospect tenement in the emerging Paterson Range copper-gold province in the eastern Pilbara region of WA that surrounds Greatland Gold’s spectacular new Havieron discovery on three sides. The company recently outlined multiple exploration targets on the tenement from a geophysical interpretation of a high-resolution, aeromagnetic survey.

Tyranna Resources has completed infill drilling at the mothballed Eureka gold project near Kalgoorlie and is in discussions with nearby processing mills for the sale of ore from potential mining at the project. The in-pit drilling campaign was aimed at confirming the continuity and grade of the mineralisation directly below the open pit floor to support the company’s plan to recommence open pit mining at the project.

Azumah Resources has confirmed the presence of a large mineralised system for the Bepkong East Lode of its flagship Wa gold project in Ghana after intersecting a 99.5 metre zone @ 2.16g/t gold from 316m down-hole that includes higher grade results of 10m @ 5.01g/t gold from 369m and 8.5m @ 5.82g/t gold from 406m. This provides further support for a potential future underground mining operation at Bepkong.

Connected IO is looking to tap into the growing internet of things market, where global spending could pass the USD$1 trillion mark by 2022 as businesses become aware of its potential to cut costs and provide improved data for decisions. Connected IO reported total cash receipts of AUD$560,000 in the second quarter of the 2019 financial year, up 26% over the previous quarter.

Nusantara Resources has kicked off a program of deep exploratory diamond drilling at the Puncak Selatan prospect, adjacent to its flagship Awak Mas gold resource on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. The work follows on from impressive surface trenching results and is aimed at expanding the optimised limits of the proposed Awak Mas open pit, potentially increasing the project’s mine life and economics.

PharmAust’s wholly-owned subsidiary Epichem will continue to provide its synthetic and medicinal chemistry expertise to leading research and development organisation Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, or “DNDi”, which extended its current contract for an 11th year. The contract extension is expected to generate up to $1.24 million in revenues for Epichem this year.

Lithium Australia has mapped three swarms of outcropping lithium-rich pegmatites over a total strike length of 2.5km and widths to 50 metres at its Youanmi project near Sandstone in the Murchison region of WA. The company will use recently acquired high-resolution geophysical surveys of the region, along with its recent geological mapping program, to delineate lithium drilling targets at the broader Youanmi project.

Image Resources has completed the ramp-up of its Boonanarring project just north of Perth to full production in just two months, well in advance of the planned six month ramp-up schedule in the bankable feasibility study. The company has also shipped a full complement of about 20,000 tonnes of heavy mineral sands this month and expects to achieve positive project cash flow before the end of the current quarter.

Caravel Minerals has reported high recoveries of copper averaging 96.1% at coarse grind sizes from a metallurgical test program carried out on diamond core ore composites at its namesake project in the Wheatbelt of WA. The results eclipse the 92% recovery used in the 2016 scoping study and will now feed into the company’s updated scoping study report, which is due for release next month.

Kalia Limited has delineated a new exploration target at its Teosiri prospect on Bougainville Island in PNG, with rock chip sampling turning up assays of 2.76 g/t gold, 4.9g/t silver, 0.32% copper, 1.22% lead and 2.4% zinc. The company is also finalising an independent geophysical analysis report from a detailed airborne survey completed last year, which will guide future exploration programs across its Toro JV tenements.

88 Energy has spudded its highly anticipated Winx-1 exploration well in Alaska’s famed “North Slope” oil province that targets a gross, best estimate, prospective resource of about 400 million barrels of oil across multiple stacked objectives, including the Nanushuk Formation, which is the primary target of the well. Winx-1 is adjacent to Oil Search’s Horseshoe discovery that hosts between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of oil.

Aurora Labs has announced that its multi-level Rapid Manufacturing Technology is able to 3D print about 113kg of metal parts per day, an impressive 55 times faster than the general market speed. The company has flagged the potential to further increase its print speeds too by using two sub-units in its Alpha machine, which could almost double the speed capacity of the single unit configuration.

Lithium Australia will carry out a preliminary study into the production of lithium-ion battery components using lithium micas sourced from its wholly-owned Sadisdorf project in Germany. This will involve the extraction of lithium phosphate utilising the company’s proprietary SiLeach process. Cassiterite mineralisation will also be processed into a saleable tin concentrate to add more value for the project.

Great Southern’s rock chip samples taken from weathered and oxidised gossanous outcrop at the SW-1 prospect of its emerging Edinburgh Park project in northern Queensland has returned high grade results of up to 10.6g/t gold, 315g/t silver and 1.95% copper. Further mapping and sampling programs are being carried out to better define the polymetallic prospect.

Vonex is making solid progress towards commercialisation of its ground-breaking Oper8tor communications App with the company poised to make a “white label” version available to businesses next month. The company also plans to make the iOS and Android versions of the Oper8tor Conference app available for download in Australia in March, ahead of a commercial launch in Europe by July.

Caravel Minerals has reported a global mineral resource of 366 million tonnes grading 0.35% copper for its namesake project near Perth in WA, which is a 46% increase in just under three years. The new resources will underpin a new scoping study for the project, which will incorporate all recent technical work to assist in updating capital and operating costs to potentially develop the project.

Tyranna Resources has identified a number of cobalt and base metal targets that indicate the potential for a much larger mineralised system around the historic Whale mine at its Goodsprings project near Las Vegas, Nevada. Some areas have coincident geochemical responses and are considered to be high priority targets. The company plans to carry out a drilling campaign later this year.

Neometals has commissioned Stage 1 of its lithium-ion battery recycling pilot plant in Canada, with SGS Canada being awarded the contracts to construct and operate the plant at the company’s fully accredited Lakefield facility. The battery shredding plant has prepared about 2 tonnes of used battery materials for the Stage 2 hydrometallurgical processing and refining phase to deliver high-purity battery materials into the market.

Calima Energy has wrapped up drilling of the second horizontal well at its Canadian Montney oil and gas play and is now preparing to complete both wells for the key production testing in early March. The rate at which the wells will be tested has been optimised to maximise the recovery of condensate and other natural gas liquids whilst providing the best estimate of the condensate yield once they are placed on long term production.

BlackEarth Minerals’ Maniry project in Madagascar has received a serious shot in the arm, with the company uncovering exceptionally wide, high grade graphite mineralisation over 56m grading 9.89% total graphitic carbon at its new Razafy NW 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.

Great Southern Mining has discovered an intriguing gold/silver mineralised breccia pipe at its Rocky Ponds prospect, located near Townsville in northern Queensland. Rock chip samples up to 0.38g/t gold and 6.9g/t silver were returned from the hydrothermal intrusion. The company is now fast-tracking approvals and consents for RC and diamond drill testing at the prospect.

Artemis Resources has reported encouraging recoveries of gold, copper and cobalt from test work on ore composites from its Carlow Castle project located near Karratha in WA, proving the amenability of the ores to conventional processing. Gold recoveries were 98-99% using gravity and cyanide leaching techniques, whilst 77-85% of the total copper content and 73-79% of the cobalt metal was recovered into high grade concentrates by flotation.

Dogs have readily taken PharmAust’s Monepantel tablets using the new formulation for the anti-cancer drug either directly from administrators’ hands or from the floor. This bodes well for future trials of the drug in humans as the canine taste testers have an apparently higher taste sensitivity than humans. The Phase I clinical trial for Monepantel in dogs is poised to start later this month.

Phylogica continues to prove the effectiveness of its lead first generation cell penetrating peptides, or “CPP’s”, after winning its first ever competitive test with a competitor CPP in an animal model. Mice treated with the company’s CPP vaccine before being injected with a highly aggressive melanoma, had a longer survival time compared to those treated with the competing CPP.

Coziron Resources has completed preliminary metallurgical testwork that successfully upgraded the vanadium content for all metallurgical samples obtained from its flagship Buddadoo project near Yalgoo in WA. The next phase of work will include further sampling of RC drill holes. The company also plans to carry out a diamond drilling campaign to acquire additional samples for grindsize liberation and comminution studies.

PharmAust has executed an agreement with a major US contract research organisation to start Phase I clinical trials for its flagship anti-cancer drug Monepantel in dogs on 19 February 2019 using its final tablet format. This will provide information on the number of tablets, administration frequency, blood levels and verification of safety for the Phase II trials in pet owners’ dogs with naturally occurring cancers.

Adriatic Metals is set to increase its land holdings at the exciting Vares project in Bosnia, after receiving a key permit for major expansions to its existing concession agreement over the Rupice and Veovaca prospect areas at its 100% owned base metals play. At Rupice North, the expansion takes in the region northwards and down plunge of a 66m thick, high grade intersection reported in October 2018.

Great Southern Mining has identified an exciting large-scale porphyry system containing highly anomalous assays at its Leichardt Creek prospect, located near Townsville in northern Queensland. Rock chip samples up to 0.56% copper, 0.12g/t gold and 0.46% molybdenum were returned from a broad zone of gossanous, stock worked quartz veining and disseminated multi-mineralised outcrops also elevated in silver, zinc and lead, over an area of nearly 6 square kilometres.

Ironbark Zinc has identified a strong, broad bedrock anomaly at the proven, large-scale Jerangle base metals prospect at its multi-element Captains Flat project in NSW from preliminary interpretation of its recent helicopter-borne electromagnetic survey. Interpretation of the data is ongoing with a final report with drill targets expected shortly.

Calidus Resources has boosted the global mineral resource estimate at its Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara by 75% to 21.2 million tonnes grading 1.83g/t gold for 1.25 million ounces. The new mineral resources will underpin the company’s ongoing PFS for the project, which is well underway and set for completion in the September quarter of this year.