Matt Birney

Tyranna Resources has announced it is about to kick off a resource development drill program at the Eureka gold project north of Kalgoorlie, after acquiring the historic project outright earlier this month. The work will lead to the estimation of a JORC compliant mineral resource later this year. The company will then instigate a feasibility study to evaluate the opportunity for mining and toll-treating the ore.

St George Mining’s new step-out drill hole near Leonora looks to have hit the goods after intersecting high grade nickel-copper sulphides in the eastern section of the Investigators Prospect at the Mt Alexander Project near Leonara. Portable XRF readings show up to 8.6% nickel and 2.6% copper. A down-hole electromagnetic survey will assist in identifying the extent of the massive sulphides around the drill hole.

Geopacific Resources has discovered some seriously high grade gold and copper anomalies from soil sampling at its Woodlark project in PNG. Samples of up to 32g/t gold and 1.4% copper were returned from soils across several mineralised corridors in the southern region. At Loluai, soil values peaked at 0.56% copper and 0.79g/t gold, whilst at Norac, soil values peaked at 0.97% copper in a 3 square kilometre corridor.

Calidus Resources has uncovered multiple walk-up exploration drill targets from a detailed soil sampling program across its flagship Warrawoona project, located 25km south of Marble Bar in the east Pilbara region of W.A. All targets lie within a 15km radius of Calidus’ major Klondyke deposit. The cashed-up explorer is continuing its infill and extension program ahead of a resource upgrade due in the December quarter.

Legend Mining has identified a 24km zone in the southern region of its Rockford Project in Western Australia’s revered Fraser Range region that sits on the same trend as the recent Independence Group Andromeda copper-zinc discovery. The company is planning to carry out a combination of aircore drilling and electromagnetic surveying in this area in September.

Venus Metals has announced some excellent upgrades and recoveries from metallurgical test work on fresh ore composites from its Youanmi vanadium project in the Murchison region of W.A. Results showed that vanadium pentoxide grades from a select sample nearly doubled from about 0.7% to 1.34% via simple crushing and separation of a magnetic concentrate. Further test work is underway to improve the overall recovery of vanadium.

Aspire Mining’s 80%-owned subsidiary Northern Railways has secured an 18 month extension from the Mongolian Government to meet the remaining conditions for its Erdenet to Ovoot Rail Concession Agreement. The company is targeting completion of the Definitive Environmental Impact Assessment and Management Plan and land use agreements by the June 2019 quarter and it will also look to have funding in place by then.

Calima Energy’s review of horizontal drilling in the Canadian Montney oil and gas formation has left it confident that its planned wells will match the best practice of other successful operators in the region. The company plans to kick off drilling in December with one vertical well before drilling two horizontal wells that will be fracture stimulated and then production tested for 4-6 weeks.

Galena Mining has appointed former Paladin Energy Chief Executive Officer Alex Molyneux as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer with effect from the 1st of September 2018 as the company moves towards becoming a base metals producer. Current Chief Executive Officer Ed Turner will remain as the company’s General Manager of Geology and Exploration from the same date.

BlackEarth Minerals has delivered a maiden resource estimate of 11.2 million tonnes grading 7.1% total graphitic carbon at its emerging Razafy graphite prospect in Madagascar. The recent work will form the backbone of the Maniry project scoping study which is scheduled for delivery in the last quarter of 2018. The company also issued a massive exploration target for Maniry, ranging from 260-380 million tonnes @ 6-8% TGC.

King River Copper has announced further outstanding drilling results from the narrow, but high grade Trudi Vein at its Mt Remarkable gold project near Kununurra in W.A. Several intersections returned bonanza grades near surface at the intersection with the Grahame Vein. The best result was 4m @ 36.77 g/t gold from 7m down-hole, including 1m @ 70.9g/t from 9m. Exploratory drilling is ongoing at the property.

Calima Energy now has 100% of its lucrative 72,000 acres of oil and gas ground in the revered Montney formation in Canada. The company recently announced the acquisition of its joint venture partners in the project, TSV Montney and TMK Montney. The move is expected to attract greater market interest, provide improved access to capital and remove any risks relating to partner funding of development costs.

MGC Pharmaceuticals expects revenues to rise thanks to strong demand for its range of 18 cannabis based skin care products that has prompted UK luxury retailer Harvey Nichols to make them available in two additional stores. The company said the exposure provided by its skin care products may also provide a ready made pathway to market for its fledgling medicinal cannabis business.

Latest assays from drilling at the San Antonio copper mine suggest Hot Chili may have found a large, high-grade, shallow copper resource that could transform the economics of its flagship Productora development just 20kms away. Best results include 27m at 1.3% copper and 5m @ 2.5% copper. Copper mineralisation is continuous over a 700m strike length and remains open along strike and at depth.

Classic Minerals has implemented an exploration target review of its Fraser Range nickel-copper-cobalt project, located 45km northeast of the famed Nova-Bollinger deposit and less than 10km north of the Creasy Group’s very promising new Silver Knight find in the Fraser Range of W.A. The focus will be on nickel-copper mineralisation at the Mammoth prospect and copper mineralisation at the Alpha prospect, discovered by Classic in 2013.

Legend Mining will carry out a moving loop electromagnetic survey over its intriguing Area D prospect at the Rockford nickel-cobalt-copper project in W.A’s Fraser Range region to identify targets for diamond drilling in the fourth quarter. The 32km2 survey is the first recommendation of a geophysical review over Area D and is expected to take up to six weeks to complete.

Auroch Minerals has commenced its maiden drill program at the Arden base metals project north of Adelaide this week. The 2,500 metre campaign will drill three prospective looking zinc, copper and cobalt targets across the project. The company has previously announced high grade surface base metal assays from the Ragless Range and Kanyaka prospects, whilst Radford Creek showed highly anomalous lead, zinc and silver.

Tyranna Resources has announced that it has finalised the acquisition of the Eureka gold project, located 50km north of Kalgoorlie in W.A. Approved resource development drilling programs will now take place, to bring the project in line with current JORC-compliant standards of reporting. Up to 2,000 metres of drilling has been scheduled and will provide structural information regarding the quartz-hosted gold mineralisation and samples for metallurgical test work.

Artemis Resources has reported a swathe of high grade gold, cobalt and copper drilling intersections from its Carlow Castle project east of Karratha in the Pilbara. Bets results were 22m @ 6.1g/t gold, 0.55% cobalt and 2.35% copper from 133m down-hole at the Carlow Castle South East prospect, whilst the Carlow Castle South prospect produced 31m @ 1.65g/t gold, 0.11% cobalt and 0.47% copper from just 37m.

ASX listed Bellevue Gold has made a bonanza hit of 4.3m @ 58.8g/t gold that is located between two previous high grade intersections at the Viago Lode discovery within its Bellevue gold project. The results have led the company to draw comparisons to the high-grade ore shoots at the historical Bellevue mine in terms of geology, grades and width.

Strike Energy has started pilot testing to confirm the commercial quality of the Jaws-1 deep coal seam gas reservoir at its Southern Cooper Basin Project in South Australia after finalising commissioning activities. The electric submersible pumps will be run at low rates to ensure they are in good working order before being ramped up based on the productivity of the stimulated reservoir.

Southern Gold has added the Deokon gold-silver mine to its growing portfolio of high-grade projects in South Korea. Recent work by Southern at the historic mine has produced some bonanza gold and silver grades grades, suggesting that it may be part of a much larger system that has previously been overlooked. Southern is already producing gold near Kalgoorlie which is funding its blue sky foray into Korea.

Coziron Resources will ramp up its exploration and development activities at the high priority Buddadoo vanadium project and Croydon Top Camp gold project in W.A, following the procurement of $1m from its largest shareholder, the Creasy Group. At Buddadoo, funds will be directed towards drilling and metallurgical studies to prove up a JORC mineral resource, whilst RC drilling will be used to test targets at Top Camp.

Geopacific Resources has discovered high grade gold anomalies from a detailed soil sampling program being undertaken at its Woodlark project in PNG. Samples of up to 6.28g/t gold in soils have defined a corridor over 1.4km long through the historical Watou area. The company also defined 3 clusters of anomalous gold results adjacent to its existing Woodlark King resource, with one anomaly having had no previous exploration.

ASX explorer Middle Island Resources’ diamond drilling campaign at the Two Mile Hill gold deposit in Western Australia has had a fantastic start with the first hole intersecting 8m @ 14.5g/t gold in the a banded iron formation. This style of mineralisation adds to the more substantial, but lower grade, adjacent tonalite-hosted style mineralisation in the deposit.

Anglo Australian Resources has identified a new 200m long zone of mineralisation parallel and to the west of the very prospective Ethereal Shear Zone at its Feysville Gold Project, just 14km south of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The best result from the drilling campaign was a 20m intersection grading 2.41g/t gold from 96m at the main Think Big prospect.

ASX listed Ironbark Zinc has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Byrnecut Offshore for the provision of underground contract mining services and underground mine cost modelling for the Citronen zinc project in Greenland. Byrnecut will also provide the underground mining fleet, hold the debt and security over the equipment and assist with the company’s training and employment obligations.

Galena Mining’s resource drilling of the “apron zone” at its Abra project near Meekatharra has delivered wider intersections than expected, with results up to 28.3m grading 8.9% lead and 52g/t silver from 346.9m down-hole, including 8.1m at an impressive 11.2% lead from 395.8m deep. The drilling campaign is shoring up mineral resources that are to be incorporated into the company’s ongoing PFS, due for release next month.

Preliminary drilling at Northern Minerals’ Browns Range heavy rare earths project in the Kimberley region of W.A. has intersected significant mineralisation in the Gardiner sandstone, which stretches over tens of kilometres. The Gardiner was previously considered to be less prospective than the underlying Browns Range Metamorphics that host the Wolverine and Gambit West deposits.

Volt Resources will sell 9,000 tonnes of graphite a year from the company’s Bunyu graphite project to major Chinese graphite processor and distributor, Qingdao Tiangshengda Graphite, for at least 5 years. Qingdao Tiangshengda is a global, vertically integrated graphite processor and distributor with substantial annual capacity to process graphite and produce value added products including expandable graphite, flake graphite and battery metals powders.

ASX listed Aquabotix has joined the “Undersea Technology Innovation Consortium” that enables members to deliver new technologies quicker and more efficiently than traditional US federal acquisition requirements would otherwise permit. This is made possible by the “Other Transaction Authority” agreement for Undersea Technology Innovation that the consortium reached with the US Naval Undersea Warfare Center in June.

BlackEarth Minerals has reported consistent high grade assays and wide ore thicknesses from a step out drilling campaign at its Razafy graphite prospect in southern Madagascar. Results of up to 35.7m @ 7.6% total graphitic carbon from 10.1m down-hole, included a 7m intersection @ 10.7% TGC from just 20m. Geological data and results are being collated ahead of a maiden resource estimate due in August.