Matt Birney

Geopacific Resources has reported more impressive gold results from soil sampling at its Woodlark project in PNG, defining a new exploration target at the Talpos prospect covering over 1 square kilometre in area. The work returned highly encouraging assays up to 3.36g/t gold in soils. The company also revealed rock chip samples up to 48.4g/t gold from the Watou prospect that was also recently identified by soil sampling.

ASX listed security surveillance camera company Spectur, has reported revenues of over $800,000 for July and August, up 190% on the same period the previous year courtesy of its ongoing east coast expansion strategy. A change to the company’s pricing strategy is expected to improve margins as it targets Tier 1 enterprise level solutions and explores new business activities outside of traditional security.

Neometals has successfully transitioned lithium waste material into pay rock by converting spodumene waste into a little known but lucrative synthetic material known as “zeolite’. A typical operation that processes lithium bearing spodumene mineralisation into Lithium hydroxide would normally deliver almost 90% of the spodume concentrate to waste. Neometals will turn that waste into zeolite and turbo charge the economics of its hydroxide plant in the process.

Hot Chili has reported a lovely set of shallow, high grade numbers from a drilling program at its El Fuego copper project in central Chile. Assays show intersections up to 12m going 1.5% copper from just 28m down-hole and 8m @ 2% copper from 124m at the Valentina prospect. Surface rock chip sampling has defined anomalous copper mineralisation over at least 700 metres now at Valentina.

Venus Metals has reported some very encouraging results from metallurgical testing of its oxidised vanadium ores at the Youanmi project near Sandstone. The work showed impressive recoveries of up to 70% vanadium from simple acid leaching which also recovered valuable nickel, copper and cobalt credits. The company will now commence a drill program to prove up the oxidised mineral resource and provide samples for more metallurgical work.

Pharmaust will complete preliminary clinical trials on dogs in the coming weeks to help determine the required dosage for its newly reformulated Monepantel tablets and to confirm that it is non-toxic. The company will also start a Phase I “pharmacokinetic study” with the new tablets during the fourth quarter and it will also follow this up with initiation of its long awaited Phase II clinical trials.

Volt Resources has received the key Environmental Impact Assessment certificate for its Bunyu graphite project, which is the final pre-requisite for the grant of a mining licence over the promising project in south Tanzania. The company already has two binding offtake agreements in place and plans to raise up to USD$40m through a resources-based notes issue that could underwrite the Stage 1 development.

Southern Gold’s project generation strategy for pinpointing epithermal gold and silver targets in South Korea is starting to bear fruit with the company outlining its fourth new project acquisition at Neungju. Recent rock chip sampling at the project produced grades up to 20.3g/t gold and 13g/t silver and follow on from the discovery of 18g/t gold and 270g/t silver rock chips from the historical Sonbul gold mine nearby.

Great Southern Mining has paid $145,000 in a deal that will allow the junior explorer to pick up 4 exploration licences, within 15km of its Mon Ami project near Laverton in W.A. The new tenements are just 25km trucking distance from Gold Field’s Granny Smith gold operation, opening up the future possibility of toll treating the ore if the company is successful on the hunt in the area.

Venus Metals’ farm in partner Lepidico has intersected lithium mineralisation during drilling at one of the company’s Youanmi project tenements in the Murchison region of W.A. Lepidico reported rock chip samples up to 1.71% lithium oxide from outcropping pegmatites on the ground and has secured an option to earn up to 80% of the lithium rights on the licence located 20km from Venus’ Youanmi gold operation in W.A.

ASX listed Hammer Metals has discovered a new high grade zone at its Perentie project in Mt Isa, Queensland, with rock chip samples returning up to 46% copper and 0.6g/t gold. The Susan prospect now takes the mineralised trend up to more than 3.4km. The company has also identified a fourth mineralised zone on a separate but parallel structure about 2.7km southeast of Paddy B.

Sky and Space Global has signed a binding MoU with South American internet service provider, Foundation Busie Suriname, that could lead to the provision of affordable internet and online connectivity services in that region. The agreement includes a commitment by FBS to utilise a minimum number of devices and services along with the option to scale the commitment up to meet its requirements.

Greenland Minerals has reached an important milestone, submitting its updated environmental impact assessment for the Kvanefjeld rare earth project. The assessment aims to mitigate, eliminate or minimise negative environmental impacts throughout the initial 37-year mine life at the project. The company plans to meet shortly with senior Government officials to discuss timing of the pubic consultation period.

Coolgardie Minerals has commenced open pit mining at its flagship Geko gold project near Coolgardie in the Goldfields region of W.A. The company listed on the ASX this week after it closed out an over-subscribed IPO in July, that put over $4m in its coffers. It will now look to create an early cash flow position from the mine by investigating toll treating options.

Adriatic Metals will increase its land holdings at the exciting Vares project in Bosnia after local municipal authorities approved the company’s request for major expansions to its existing concession agreement over the Veovaca and Rupice prospects at its 100% owned Vares base metals play. At the Rupice project, the expansion includes land immediately north of a 66m wide, high grade intersection of gold, silver and base metals reported by Adriatic in July.

ASX listed Ironbark Zinc has moved to prove up the viability of shipping ore from its Citronen zinc project in Greenland following the arrival of the contracted Nunavik icebreaking cargo ship at the site in the country’s north. The ease with which the Nunavik achieved this goal has increased the company’s confidence in being able to operate the project as a regular mine despite its relatively remote location.

CVCheck has added $5m in annual top line revenues in just two short years as regular and recurring demand for its CV and resume checking services from a stream of serious corporate clients starts to hit the company accounts. Revenues booked in FY18 were $12.5m , up from $7.1m in 2016. The tech company is now hurtling headlong towards that magical breakeven mark.

Galena Mining’s drilling of the “apron zone” at its Abra lead-silver project near Meekatharra continues to extend the known mineralisation, with results up to 5.5m @ 16% lead and 22g/t silver from 291.9m down-hole and 6.1m @ 8.1% lead and 11g/t silver from 327.9m reported in the same hole. The campaign is proving up mineral resources that will be incorporated into the company’s PFS, due for release late this quarter.

Hot Chili has reported more shallow, high grade copper drilling results from its RC drill program at the El Fuego project area in central Chile. Assays showed intersections up to 9m @ 2.0% copper from 132m down-hole and 16m @ 1.1% copper from 93m down-hole at the San Antonio copper mine prospect. The ore system strikes for almost 700m, to a depth of 200m and plunges shallowly southwards.

Aspire Mining has secured a $15m financing package that will support the early development of its flagship Ovoot coking coal project in Mongolia where Aspire is looking to truck coal from a starter pit to the existing rail head at Erdenet. Cash flows from the project could begin within 12 to 15 months once all approvals are received, funding is committed and a decision to mine is made.

ASX listed Lithium Australia has received approval from the W.A. state Government to recover material from mine dumps at its Lepidolite Hill project near Coolgardie for a proposed large scale lithium carbonate pilot plant. The company plans to use X-ray transmission ore-sorting to pre-concentrate lepidolite from the waste material before transporting it to the plant location.

The exciting drill hits have continued for Adriatic Metals in Bosnia with a 16m intersection going 1.6g/t gold, 136g/t silver, 1.1% copper, 4% lead, 6.5% zinc and 33% barite from 206m down-hole at the emerging Rupice prospect extending the ore footprint by 60m. Another 18m intersection that showed 2.6g/t gold, 201g/t silver, 0.5% copper, 4.5% lead, 9.2% zinc and 62% barite has extended the ore zone 50m up-dip.

Artemis Resources has hit a treasure trove of high grade gold, cobalt and copper drilling intersections from its Carlow Castle project east of Karratha in the Pilbara. Results include a knee trembling 132m intersection grading 4.89g/t gold, 0.25% cobalt and 1.11% copper from 98m down-hole at Carlow Castle South East. The company has now extended the mineralised footprint to a depth of nearly 250 metres below surface.

Reedy Lagoon has received positive results from a subsurface 3D geophysical survey at its Alkali Lake North project in Nevada, USA. Interpretation has shown a 1km long, 100m thick conductor starting from about 500m vertical depth, which the company says could represent multiple lithium-rich brine aquifers. The project is 30km northeast of Albemarle’s Silver Peak mine, which is currently North America’s only producing lithium brine operation.

Ironbark Zinc has received expressions of interests from financiers who are looking to move towards more formal discussions about possibly financing the company’s giant Citronen Zinc project. The expressions of interest came after Ironbark management wrapped up a series of site visits to Citronen with interested parties. The company has also started preliminary site works at the project in anticipation of a positive outcome.

Calidus Resources has entered into an agreement with TSX-V listed Pacton Gold Inc, to vend its non-core conglomerate gold rights at the Warrawoona gold project for a consideration of CAD$3.5m in Pacton shares. Calidus will retain all other gold rights to the ground. The deal covers 8 exploration licences and allows Pacton to explore and mine for conglomerate gold, with liability for rehabilitation and environmental obligations.

ASX listed Bellevue Gold’s infill drilling program has returned more high grade near surface gold hits including an impressive 2m @ 40.8g/t gold at the Tribune Lode within its Bellevue gold project in the W.A. Goldfields region. The company is also accelerating exploration at the its Viago Lode discovery with a view towards defining an initial resource that will upgrade the project’s current half a million ounce resource.

ASX listed medical marijuana player MGC Pharmaceuticals has received ethics approval to carry out phase two clinical trials into the benefits of its “CogniCann” product for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients in early 2019. CogniCann is a GMP certified, pharmaceutical grade, medicinal cannabis product specifically developed for the treatment of dementia symptoms to improve specific cognitive functions.

St George Mining has identified multiple nickel-copper sulphide targets from down hole electromagnetic survey programs at its Investigators prospect near Leonora in W.A. Recent drilling at the prospect identified sulphide mineralisation up to 7.55m thick, including nearly 1.3m of high grade massive sulphides. The company reported that a diamond rig has arrived at site to commence extensional and infill drilling on the new exploration targets.

Middle Island Resources has returned some serious diamond drilling results going nearly 2 ounces to the tonne gold near Sandstone. Higher grade results were returned from BIF and basalt units, including 2m @ 54g/t from 340m down-hole and 93m @ 2.57g/t from surface respectively. The target tonalite intrusion returned thick lower grade results including 165m @ 1.11g/t gold from 85m down-hole at the Two Mile Hill deeps deposit.

Strike Energy’s landmark Jaws-1, super-deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin of South Australia, continues to demonstrate excellent productivity with water production rising 18% to 1300 barrels per day. The pumps are being run at less than 50% capacity while reservoir pressure is currently about of the original pressure prior to beginning depressurisation. Strike is managing the water drawdown to maximise gas recovery.

Underwater drone developer Aquabotix has joined the Information Warfare Research Project consortium which provides members with a fast tracked route to secure contracts offered by the US Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. The company will gain access to key partners and customers and gain the ability to be able to carry out rapid research and prototyping using nondilutive funding options available under the OTA.