Matt Birney

ASX listed Affinity Energy & Health, formerly known as Algae.tec, has developed a breakthrough algae-based fish feed product for the aquarist market that has a long shelf life and does not require refrigeration. Distribution partner Seachem Laboratories will promote the product to key international aquarist markets through its networks and it has already received a first bulk order.

ASX listed Surefire Resources’ recent reverse circulation drilling at its Unaly Hill project, near Sandstone in the Murchison region of WA, has extended the vanadium mineralisation for several kilometres along strike. All 10 reverse circulation holes in the campaign intersected a number of vanadiferous magnetite bands of varying down-hole widths and assays are currently pending.

Southern Gold has reported some cracking high grade silver assays from underground sampling at its Shin Adit mine, part of the newly granted Deokon project tenements in Korea. Systematic sampling of underground drives produced results up to 0.4 metres grading 9.26g/t gold and 1,165g/t silver. The results effectively produce walk-up drill targets for the company at Deokon to be tested shortly with a diamond drilling program.

Kairos Minerals drilling has extended the strike length of the main Mt York deposit to over 3.8km, raising the likelihood that another resource upgrade might be on the cards for the Pilbara gold project. Some notable high grade intercepts include 3m @ 8.54g/t gold from 56m, 1m @ 15.93g/t gold from 57m and 8m @ 4.77g/t gold.

Image Resources has de-risked the sale of heavy mineral sands from its Boonanarring project just 80km north of Perth with the execution of a second binding offtake agreement with China’s Hainan Wensheng High-Tech Materials. The agreement complements Image’s existing agreement with Natfort as both offtake partners have agreed to take up the other’s share of production in the event that one is unable to do so.

Northern Minerals has re-estimated its mineral resources for the 2018 financial year, reporting just over 9 million tonnes grading 0.63% total rare earth oxides, which includes an ore reserve of 3.3 million tonnes grading 0.68% TREO containing more than 13 tonnes of sought-after dysprosium oxide. The company is currently proving up new discoveries of high grade rare earth element mineralisation at the Dazzler and Iceman prospects.

Volt Resources says the Tanzanian Ministry of Minerals has recommended approving two mining licences over the company’s Bunyu graphite project in the south of the country. The licences strategically cover the footprint for both the proposed Stage 1 and Stage 2 mine developments at the project. The company has been advancing offtake agreements for its product stream and recently completed a positive feasibility for the Stage 1 development.

Adriatic Metals has reported more fantastic drilling intersections from its Rupice multi-mineral ore system in central Bosnia. New drilling results include an impressive 28m intersection going 10.8% zinc, 5.9% lead, 271g/t silver, 3.4g/t gold, 0.5% copper and 61% barite from 236m down-hole. The new hit effectively extends the mineralisation by a further 140m down-dip at the northern end of the deposit, adding more resource tonnes.

Hammer Metals has nailed its latest rock chip program with an exciting suite of super-high grade rock chips at its Perentie project in Mt Isa over a 5km strike. Best results include 31% copper, 19g/t gold and 240g/t silver. The trend runs parallel to the Paddy B-Judith-Copper Ridge trend, where additional mineralised zones discovered by the company’s sampling activity have taken the strike length up to 5.5km.

Azumah Resources has produced an updated mineral resource estimate of 49.2 million tonnes grading 1.6g/t gold for just under 2.5 million ounces at its Wa project in northwest Ghana. This represents a sizeable 21% increase on the previous global resource inventory reported 2 years ago. The measured and indicated resource categories have lifted by 16%, which will help underpin potential ore reserve upgrades for the project later this year.

ASX listed 88 Energy has reached two agreements to increase its Project Icewine acreage in the famed “North Slope” oil province in Alaska by 45,239 net acres. The new western leases are partly covered by several prospects in its current conventional farm-out package whilst the Central Fairway leases are prospective for both conventional and unconventional plays and close to the road and pipeline.

Neometals has appointed two new non-executive directors with wide ranging experience to strengthen its board ahead of the proposed demerger of the Barrambie titanium-vanadium project and associated non-lithium technology assets into a new ASX-listed entity. Dr Jennifer Purdie is the CEO of Adani Australia Renewables while Leslie Guthrie was most recently Vice President Projects (Potash in Canada) for BHP Billiton.

MGC Pharmaceuticals will focus on its cannabis-based pharmaceutical products after reaching a deal to sell its cannabis cosmetics division, MGC Derma, to Canadian private cannabis investment company CannaGlobal for CAD$12.5m in scrip. CannaGlobal will also commit to an exclusive five-year supply agreement for MGC to supply it with raw materials and proprietary production intellectual for the period.

Venus Metals has completed a heli-borne electromagnetic survey at its Greenbushes East base metals project in WA, with preliminary interpretations outlining several conductive features which are coincident with historical zinc and copper surface geochemical anomalies. Interestingly, the project is just 20km from Venture Minerals’ recent massive sulphide discovery at Thor. Venus is now planning follow up field geological reconnaissance once final results of the geophysical survey are known.

Precious metals explorer Emu NL has outlined its proposed program for the upcoming field season at the Vidalita project in northern Chile. The company will undertake a comprehensive campaign of shallow aircore drilling at its Vidalita, Peon 4, Vidalota D and Jotahues areas and will target higher grade gold and silver mineralisation with diamond drilling at the main Vidalita project. Field teams will be on-site in early November.

Sky and Space Global has signed a binding MoU with inter-governmental organisation OECS for the provision of network services to the eastern Caribbean region. The two parties will explore how the company’s connectivity platform can be incorporated into the communication infrastructure of OECS member states, to improve and enhance its reliability, accessibility and feasibility.

Calidus Resources has intersected wide zones of high grade gold at its Copenhagen prospect, just west of the flagship Klondyke resource in the Pilbara. The best result was an impressive 10m intersection going 12.85g/t gold from 117m down-hole, including 4 metres at nearly an ounce to the tonne. The company has three drill rigs operating at its Warrawoona gold project, targeting ore extensions both down-dip and along strike.

Tyranna Resources has kicked off a highly anticipated drilling campaign aimed at bringing the historical mineral resource at its Eureka gold project near Kalgoorlie up to JORC-compliant standards. The company will then make a decision about kicking off a feasibility study to evaluate the opportunity of mining and toll treating the ore at nearby processing mills.

ASX listed TNG Ltd has signed a binding heads of agreement with industry-leading German technology provider Ti-Cons for the supply of a full titanium dioxide pigment production technology package for its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the NT. The deal paves the way for the company to commercialise its TiO2 pigment production process that it successfully developed earlier this year.

Bellevue Gold has continued its dream run at the company’s namesake gold project near Leinster with a spectacular 10m drill intersection grading almost an ounce to the tonne gold. The company recently added a further drill rig on site to speed up the definition of the Viago lode and it is working on an updated mineral resource due later this year, which should reflect the latest exceptional results.

Location and scale are two areas that Lithium Australia is studying for its planned, large-scale lithium processing pilot plant to reduce capital requirements and optimise the technical and financial benefits. The company said that with changes to the Australian Federal Government’s R&D rebate scheme, it would locate its pilot plant in a jurisdiction that will provide the greatest practical benefits.

Artemis Resources’ drill campaign at Carlow Castle has uncovered the potential for more mineralisation at depth with a notable intersection of 25m @ 3.38g/t gold, 0.24% cobalt and 0.77% copper from 228m including 5m @ 9.62g/t gold, 0.65% cobalt and 0.79% copper. Further extensional and infill drilling is planned to target further strike extensions and define the major controlling structures.

Galena Mining has reported some outstanding results for its Abra lead/silver project PFS, showing an initial 14 year mine life and a pre-tax NPV of A$528m, $134m more than previously thought. Galena says Abra will churn out an impressive A$97m worth of free cash annually after 2022. The company also reported a maiden ore reserve of 10.2 million tonnes grading 8.1% lead and 20g/t silver this week.

Azumah Resources has reported that a review of the cost structure at the company’s Wa gold project in Ghana shows lower capital and operating costs compared to its 2015 feasibility study. The work shows higher plant throughput could be achieved, potentially positioning the project for future development. Recent exploration activity has defined a number of new drilling opportunities at Wa East, which has seen little or no historical work.

ASX-listed vanadium player TNG Limited has taken another step towards development of its vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory, securing a $10 million strategic investment deal with a leading Indian mining conglomerate. TNG sees the deal with Vimson, a family-owned Indian resources company, as another milestone on its move towards making its flagship 100 percent-owned Mount Peake Project a reality.

With the bulk de-watering phase now complete, Strike Energy is carefully managing drawdown at its historic Jaws-1 super-deep coal seam gas well in SA with gas flows expected to start soon. it’s a case of softly softly for Strike who is methodically seeking to prove its theory that coal seam gas can in fact be accessed economically from over 2km down hole.

Anglo Australian Resources has gone back to the future to squeeze more ounces out of a gold prospect near Kalgoorlie that netted it a tidy sum of gold back in 2006 and 2007. The company has kicked off a 70 hole drill campaign to revisit the Mandilla project where it previously identified a near-surface weathered bedrock target with a strike of more than 1.5km.

Southern Gold’s JV partner in South Korea, Bluebird Merchant Ventures, is set to increase its pre-development activities at the historical Gubong gold mine over the next few months, including all necessary approvals and the granting of a “permit to develop” the underground operation. Progress is also reported for the Kochang JV, with Bluebird due to report on the feasibility of re-starting that underground mine in late October.

Venus Metals has executed a farm-in and JV agreement with AIC Resources, for that company to earn an 80% interest in 5 exploration tenements within Venus’ Doolgunna project near the Plutonic gold mine in WA. The deal requires AIC to spend $175,000 over a 2 year period. The tenements are prospective for volcanic-hosted massive sulphide mineralisation similar to the nearby DeGrussa copper mine and shear-hosted gold deposits such as Plutonic.

Tyranna Resources has started its resource development infill drilling program at the Jumbuck gold project, located west of BHP’s Olympic Dam mine, in the highly prospective Western Gawler Craton in SA. The project has existing mineral resources of 8.7 million tonnes @ 1.1g/t gold for 319,000 ounces. The program will target the Campfire Bore prospect to upgrade the JORC status of the deposit’s inferred mineral inventory totalling 109,000 ounces.

Kalia Limited has announced that a detailed geophysical survey is well underway at its Mt Tore JV tenements on Bougainville Island in the PNG. The highly anticipated exploration program across its porphyry copper-gold assets is ramping up with geological reconnaissance and geochemical sampling underway in the Aita area. The company’s active engagement of local communities is bearing fruit now, with a number of areas already approved for on-ground exploration activities.

Versatile ASX listed telco Vonex’s recent trial marketing campaign in south-eastern Queensland to increase brand awareness and gather market intelligence has resulted in a 114% increase in daily average Vonex website and a spike in converted sales. The company’s major marketing push in October will target areas where the NBN is available but not connected yet, or construction is complete and the area is becoming available.