Matt Birney

TNG Ltd has appointed Germany’s KfW IPEX-Bank to lead a syndicate that will raise USD$600m to underpin development of its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. The final capital requirements will be determined and optimised during the ongoing front end engineering and design study and lender’s due diligence.

Venus Metals has completed a detailed resource definition drilling program at its Youanmi vanadium oxide project near Sandstone in WA, in preparation for updating the mineral resource estimate for the deposit. The work will allow the company to convert a large part of the existing inferred resource into measured and indicated oxide resources, from which ore reserves can then be optimised.

Metalicity Limited says it has outlined four significant structural exploration targets for copper-gold at both of its recently secured large project regions in the Paterson province of the Pilbara region in WA. The company identified two targets each at the Mandora and Desert Queen projects that cover over 900 square kilometres, after compiling and modelling existing geophysical and geological data sets.

Volt Resources has received approval from the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange for its proposed USD$40m resources-based note issue that will underpin the stage 1 development of its Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania. The company is now awaiting final approval from the Tanzanian Capital Markets and Securities Authority before proceeding with the note issue.

Kalia Limited has been busy doing the geological ground work to systematically unlock the mineral riches on Bougainville Island from early next year. It has now completed a highly anticipated geophysical survey over the Mt Tore JV tenements and commenced data interpretation for the exploration of its porphyry copper-gold assets. The company’s engagement of local communities is bearing fruit, with a number of areas already approved for exploration.

Shareholders in WA agribusiness player Alterra are just one step away from receiving an unexpected direct income stream from the company’s carbon forestry business. The transfer of all forestry and carbon assets into Carbon Conscious Investments has been completed and the company is now seeking majority shareholder approval at the upcoming extraordinary general meeting to be held in Perth on 20 December 2018.

Azumah Resources has substantially increased the potential for underground mining at its flagship Wa project in Ghana after hitting an amazing 93m intersection grading 2.33 grams per tonne gold from 261m down-hole at the Bepkong East deposit. This includes two high grade intersections of 9.9m @ 8.42g/t gold from 295m and 2.16m @ 21.17g/t gold from 303m. Assays are pending on two other holes drilled at the deposit.

Classic Minerals’ latest drilling program near Southern Cross in WA has continued to deliver with multiple intersections of shallow, narrow, high grade gold mineralisation being unearthed at the emerging Kat Gap prospect. Better results included 3m @ 38.33g/t gold from 21m down-hole, including a metre at 111g/t gold from 22m deep and 5m @ 5.61g/t gold from only 6m down-hole which included 1m @ 12g/t gold from 8m.

Spectrum Metals has completed the acquisition of the high grade Penny West gold project and an exploration licence located immediately east of the project in WA’s Goldfields region. The company is currently awaiting assay results from a 1000 hole auger geochemistry program and is planning to start a RC/Diamond drilling program in the first quarter of next year.

Ironbark Zinc has applied for two new exploration licences covering 400 square kilometres that may host potential extensions of its giant Citronen zinc project in Greenland. The licences cover mineralised outcropping gossans over an extensive region on the interpreted source fault that aligns with the trend of the broad Citronen ore system.

Surefire Resources has intersected wide, high grade vanadium mineralisation in a resource extension drilling program completed at its Unaly Hill project, located near Sandstone in the Murchison region of WA. Results up to 34m @ 0.53% vanadium pentoxide from 79m down-hole, including 16m @ 0.69% vanadium pentoxide from 89m have extended the strike of the existing resources by another 4km to the north northeast.

Hammer Metals is set to kick some serious goals at its early-stage Mt Philp breccia iron oxide-copper-gold project near Mount Isa in Queensland, after being awarded $80,000 by the State Government to partially fund exploration activity at the property. The company will use the funds to assay geochemical soil samples and complete geophysical data interpretation and surveys, to generate a 3D model and pinpoint specific drilling targets.

Lithium Australia has formalised an option agreement to acquire the three exploration licences that comprise the Youanmi lithium project about 100km southwest of Sandstone from private exploration firm Diversity Resources Pty Ltd. The project could be a feed source for the company’s upcoming third generation SiLeach pilot plant trial.

Southern Gold has signed a new agreement with Northern Star to acquire two strategic mining tenements at no cost, in order to facilitate development of the company’s Cannon underground gold resources near Kalgoorlie in WA. The agreement optimises the combined assets for a standalone mining operation or simple monetisation, as the gold mineralisation at Cannon plunges into the existing Northern Star lease.

Sky and Space Global has signed a reseller MoU with India’s Globe Teleservices and MoUs with BT LATAM Brasil and the Blue Power Group covering the potential use of its nano-satellite narrow-band communications network. Globe has also agreed to distribute a minimum number of devices and services.

Bellevue Gold is accelerating an updated resource estimate for its namesake gold project near Leinster in WA to the first quarter of 2019 thanks to ongoing high grade drilling results such as 2.4m @ 26.1g/t gold from 269.89m and 1.3m @ 35.2g/t gold. Drilling has also extended the Bellevue lode by a further 230m to the south of historic underground workings where mineralisation remains open in that direction.

Graphite developer BlackEarth Minerals has generated a high grade 95% graphite concentrate product from its Razafy graphite deposit in southern Madagascar, with nearly 50% reporting above the premium large flake size. Results from the recent test work will be used to finalise the project’s processing flow sheet and ongoing scoping study, ahead of a BFS which is due to kick off in the first quarter of 2019.

Sometime in the next few weeks, ASX listed tech company, Aurora Labs, is expected to officially launch its game changing, multi-level, 3D printer that is capable of printing about 30 layers in a single pass. The company says the new printer could drastically lower the cost of 3D printing. In the next six to twelve months, Aurora is also planning to introduce a full-sized, large format 3D printer that could print up to 100 layers in a single pass.

Mongolia focussed coal developer Aspire Mining has completed a $15m financing package for its Ovoot coking coal project in the northwest of the country and is now debt free and fully funded to complete the required feasibility work. Upcoming studies will focus on a high quality, low ash, low strip ratio carve out from the Ovoot ore reserve, concentrating on extraction and processing of the premium Ovoot upper seam.

Phylogica’s biological “peptide” vaccine has performed the best in coaxing an immune response against HSV during animal testing, with 75% of the mice treated with its peptides mated to a common HSV antigen showing no detectable signs of the virus. The company will now pit its peptide vaccine against Swiss company Amal Therapeutics’ zebra CPP with results expected in the first quarter of 2019.

Southern Gold says that JV partner Bluebird Merchant Ventures has produced high recoveries of gold up to 80% and around 60% for silver, from simple gravity separation met test work at the Kochang project in South Korea. The company also said that a low CAPEX option for initial processing could result in early cash flows from the proposed Kochang operation, based on recoveries of precious metals via gravity techniques.

Calima Energy is now tantalisingly close to drilling its exciting oil and gas play in the revered Canadian Montney formation with the access road to the drill pad for its planned three well program now complete. Calima’s share price has held steadfast over the last year with only one brief foray below its floor price of 4.5c as investors choose to stay the course and await the moment of truth.

Affinity Energy and Health has signed a non-binding heads of agreement with St John of God Hospital Subiaco to identify and undertake medical cannabis research and development projects. St John has a strong focus on research and medical excellence that is expected to help Affinity underpin the commercialisation of its Australian medical cannabis strategy.

Ironbark Zinc has kicked off a helicopter-borne electromagnetic survey to gain a better understanding of the large-scale Jerangle prospect at its Captains Flat multi-element project in New South Wales. Earlier drilling by the company returned significant base metal intercepts such as 4.4m @ 12.05% zinc , which follows up on historic drill results.

Coziron Resources’ rock chip sampling program at the Croydon Top Camp project in WA’s Pilbara region has returned up to 12% copper, 2g/t gold and 0.34% cobalt at the newly named Martin prospect, which represents a drill-ready target. Sampling at the Top Camp prospect has also highlighted areas that are ready for an initial RC drilling program to delineate the subsurface rock-types and down-hole geochemistry.

Calidus Resources has confirmed that its existing 654,000 ounce Klondyke mineral resource still has legs, this week reporting significant depth extensions at the impressively mineralised gold deposit. All deep drill holes from the recent campaign returned mineralisation, peaking at 12.65 metres grading 3.25g/t gold from 253.3m down-hole. Others results were 6.97m @ 4.33g/t gold from 224m down-hole and 6.5m @ 3.43g/t from 207.8m down-hole - in separate holes.

Fraser Range explorer, Legend Mining, has unearthed two new targets from aircore drilling at its emerging Rockford project in the revered Fraser Range. The first new target defined at Rockford South returned encouraging results peaking at 3m @ 0.71% nickel and 0.04% cobalt from 40m down-hole. About 9.5km to the northeast, the company intersected anomalous copper-zinc-silver mineralisation at the Area S prospect above an electrically conductive geophysical anomaly.

Tyranna Resources has confirmed the presence of a high grade ore shoot beneath the existing pit at its Eureka gold project near Kalgoorlie, after drilling returned results including 1m @ 41.8g/t gold. Management will now complete an updated JORC mineral resource estimate before making a decision on whether to start a mining study into the feasibility of mining and toll treating at nearby mills.

UltraCharge has received further validation of its unique, cobalt-free, lithium-ion battery solution after signing a purchase agreement with Israel-based three wheel electric scooter manufacturer Roadix Urban Transportation. The company is contracted to provide a total of 16,500 batteries over a three-year period with the initial 2000 to be delivered in the first year.

Coolgardie Minerals’ first near-mine exploration hole has intersected a new gold mineralised zone at its operating Geko gold mine near Kalgoorlie, confirming the company’s new structural interpretation of the Geko project. The 10m intersection has a grade of 2.62g/t gold, which is higher than the average grade of 1.8g/t gold within the pit reserve. This indicates that the grade of the orebody may increase at depth and to the west.

Biotech company Phylogica has successfully used its first generation “peptides” to deliver a protein used for gene editing into the nucleus of a cell line that is normally difficult for genetic material to penetrate. The company will now determine the best conditions for peptide assisted delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 protein before assessing its relative effectiveness and safety compared to other delivery methods.

Image Resources has completed wet commissioning of its flagship Boonanarring heavy mineral sands project just 80km north of Perth and the company has started to ramp up production. Management has set an aggressive schedule aimed at achieving the feasibility study target processing rate of 500 dry tonnes of ore per hour in just six months.