Matt Birney

ASX listed Spectur’s security surveillance systems will quietly watch over at least 20 building sites and potentially up to 120 sites belonging to a national building company in a deal that will initially kick off with a $65,000 order. Spectur has posted revenues of $520,000 for April and May, representing an increase of 200% over the same period last year.

Legend Mining has discovered a second, larger nickel-copper mineralised intrusive of magmatic sulphides within a host rock similar to the famed Nova-Bollinger deposit, at its Rockford project in the Fraser Range. The new results cover an area of 300m by 100m, with shallow anomalous drill intersections up to 36m @ 0.39% nickel, 0.23% copper and 0.04% cobalt, containing disseminated sulphide mineralisation.

Kopore Metals has procured four new prospecting licences in a highly prospective region of the emerging Kalahari copper belt in Botswana. The cash and scrip deal gives Kopore full ownership of the tenements, which are adjacent to those held by major copper resource developer Cupric Canyon. Exploration in the newly awarded tenements is limited and provides an element of blue sky for the company.

Classic Minerals is back in the field at Forrestania near Southern Cross with lots of exciting gold targets about to be drill tested. The company has kicked off a 3,000 metre RC drill program that will target high grade cross-cutting gold lodes at the Lady Magdalene deposit and define resource extensions for the Kap Gap, Lady Lila and the newly discovered Van Uden West prospect.

Adriatic Metals has announced a spectacular drill intersection of 64m grading 4.6g/t gold, 537g/t silver, 0.9% copper, 7.7% lead, 10.8% zinc and 46% barite from its project in Bosnia. The result extends mineralisation 80m down-dip and 50m down-plunge of the original geological interpretation. The company also reported gold mineralisation up to 3.5g/t in grab samples from the historic JB Zone, 1km away.

Altech Chemicals has pointed to recent research reports that forecast significant uptake of high purity alumina from the lithium battery sector to suggest that its proposed HPA plant in Malaysia is well placed to take advantage of the HPA growth curve. HPA is used in lithium-ion batteries to separate the anode from the cathode. Demand from the battery sector is predicted to triple by 2025.

Algae.Tec has secured a funding facility of up to $7m from New York financier Magna to drive several near-term expansion and development initiatives aimed at commercialising its algae and medicinal cannabis divisions. It is also finalising the spin-off of its Uruguay medicinal cannabis interests into a wholly-owned subsidiary that will seek up to $10m via a public listing.

Infinity Lithium has announced positive results from a scoping study to produce a high value lithium hydroxide product from processing of its San Jose ores in Spain. The work provides flexibility for the company to tailor offtake products to end user specifications from its existing processing flowsheet. There is a strong demand for the lithium hydroxide product currently, driven by battery requirements from the electric vehicle industry.

Perth-based Epichem, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed biotech PharmAust, has received a contract extension with a leading US biotechnology company, Unity Biotechnology. The new contract, worth around US$1.65 million out to 2020, means Epichem will continue to provide synthetic and medicinal chemistry expertise to support Unity’s drug discovery projects.

Lithium Australia’s Eichigt project in Germany is looking a little more interesting after a second round of samples produced 1.47% cobalt and impressive lithium values from the same patch of ground. The rare double up of cobalt and lithium is contained in mineralisation not previously discovered in Saxony and augurs well for the company’s plans to supply battery metals to Europe.

Hot Chili has commenced drilling at its very prospective looking El Fuego copper targets in Chile, with assay results due shortly. The program is testing extensions of shallow, high grade copper lodes at the historical San Antonio and Valentina mines. The company has initiated underground mapping and sampling at San Antonio and recently completed regional reconnaissance mapping and sampling.

Kopore Metals has reported over 10sq kms of prospective base metal soil geochemistry at the recently identified KM3 airborne electromagnetic target at its Ghanzi West project in Botswana. Ground EM surveys have confirmed coincident conductors from 50m, generating a high priority location for upcoming drilling programs. The company is continuing its regional soil sampling programs across its tenements.

Australian Potash remains on track for development of its Lake Wells potash project as it progresses the approvals and permitting processes with two key areas of environmental fieldwork now complete. A final field program is planned for the third quarter of 2018 with an all encompassing Environmental Review Document to be submitted shortly thereafter.

Galena Mining has announced outstanding metallurgical test work results from its flagship Abra lead project, confirming its ability to produce high grade concentrates averaging 74.5% lead with recoveries exceeding 94%. Results showed that the ores can be processed into high quality base metal concentrates with low impurities, using conventional crushing and flotation techniques.

Middle Island Resources has reported that ore sorting trials to upgrade gold mineralisation at its flagship Two Mile Hill underground deposit will be completed this month. Preliminary test work has proved highly successful in pre-concentrating ores via optical sorting methods. Resource definition drilling is also underway and is designed to increase resources at the Sandstone gold project.

Tech play Connected IO took in cash receipts and invoiced products this quarter to the value of $660,000 with another $650,000 in purchase orders on the books yet to be invoiced. Bottom line performance is also expected to improve with reduced U.S. overheads and renegotiated manufacturing costs expected to boost gross margins from 30% to 50% on some products.

Neometals has executed a two-year option agreement with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to sub-lease a 40 hectare site for its proposed lithium refinery, located in an industrial estate at West Kalgoorlie. The site is located close to critical road, rail and power infrastructure, just 70km by road from the existing Mt Marion Lithium operations, where the company will initially source the raw spodumene lithium feedstock.

After agreeing terms for the spin-off of its giant Admiral Bay zinc project, Metalicity is now rapidly reshaping the company as a serious player in the battery metals sector. Exploration activity is being stepped up at three well-placed projects in lithium, cobalt and graphite, backed by an MOU already in place with Shanghai Metals for offtake, development and financing support.

Hammer Metals has announced significant cobalt-copper results from drilling at its Millennium JV project, near Cloncurry in western Queensland. The program tested up-dip continuity of the main lode, returning a best result of 7m @ 0.15% cobalt, 0.36% copper and 0.12g/t gold from 14m down-hole. The company also identified a new exploration target from rock chip sampling and mapping, 1km north of the Millennium resource.

Kopore Metals will commence its maiden drill program at the Ghanzi West project near MOD Resources significant copper find in Botswana, following receipt of Government environmental approvals. The company defined a number of high priority exploration targets using a combination of airborne and ground geophysics, with coincident base metal soil anomalies.

Junior explorer King River Copper’s gold project at Mt Remarkable in the Kimberley region of W.A could be just that – remarkable – if the latest drilling results are anything to go by. Assay results received in the past week have revealed fine visible gold in the latest drill holes including a 4m intersection going 113 grams per tonne gold.

Aspire Mining’s dream of a northern Mongolian railway has taken a leap forward with a feasibility study finding it could deliver coking coal from the company’s Ovoot deposit to world markets at competitive prices. The study highlighted the positive economics of the US$1.25 billion project which Aspire says will churn out US$2.75b in free cash after tax over thirty years.

Strike Energy’s technically ground-breaking Jaws-1 gas well at the Southern Cooper Basin project looks like it could be the making of the company after a vital fracture stimulation program was proclaimed a success yesterday. The company’s share price soared by 30% after it broke the news that all seven-stages of the Jaws-1 stimulation program had gone exactly to plan.

St George Mining shares have jumped by more than 20% on the ASX after news that its Mt Alexander project returned more high-grade drill hits. The copper-nickel-cobalt mineralisation remains open to the north, west and east and the latest results have highlighted the potential for further extensions of the mineralisation, with planning already underway for a follow-up drill program.

Auroch Minerals has initiated a geophysical survey program across its Arden base metals project, 360km north of Adelaide in S.A. Recent surface sampling identified highly anomalous zinc, copper, lead and cobalt mineralisation across three separate prospects. Interpretation of the survey data acquired will be used in conjunction with field mapping and geochemical sampling to identify drilling targets.

Altech Chemicals has announced it has received a formal manufacturing licence from the Malaysian Government for the company’s proposed 4,500 tonne per annum high purity alumina plant in Johor State at the southern tip of Malaysia. The company will source high purity kaolin clays from Meckering, near Perth in W.A. before transporting it to Johor, where it will be processed for industrial use.

UltraCharge Limited has finalised a deal with ETV Energy in Israel, fully acquiring the company’s intellectual property rights to its LNMO battery cathode technology. The assets are a critical component in the manufacture of lithium-ion cells that UltraCharge will produce. The global market for lithium-ion batteries is forecast to reach USD$145.4b by 2025, driven by use in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, power storage and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Blackstone Minerals has announced more encouraging results from its maiden drilling program at the Little Gem cobalt-gold play in British Columbia, Canada. High grade results include 3.2m @ 0.8% cobalt and 4g/t gold and were accompanied by extensive alteration zones, indicating a major system may feed the hydrothermal mineralisation being sought.

Tyranna Resources has increased the gold resource at its Jumbuck Gold Project by 46% to 319,000 ounces and is planning a scoping study that will likely include a toll processing option. With all gold mineralisation at less than 100m and still open at depth, Jumbuck is looking to uncover the kind of plunging, high-grade ore shoots seen at the Challenger mine next door.

Calidus Resources has commenced a resource drilling program at its Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara. The company is aiming to expand its mineral resource base beyond 1 million ounces, to underpin a PFS due at year’s end. The 30,000m program will target strike extensions and down-plunge positions at the main Klondyke prospect and also include exploratory drilling of prospective shear zones.

Lithium Australia’s plans to become a significant supplier of battery metals to Europe have taken another step forward with the discovery of cobalt at grades of up to 0.6% at its Eichigt project in Germany. The discovery was made from first-pass exploration in an area that has seen little modern exploration and is not far from the company’s significant lithium resource at the nearby Sadisdorf project.

Draig Resources has announced that a deep exploratory drill hole has intersected 4.3m @ 8.8g/t gold from 575.3m down-hole and is interpreted to be a faulted offset to the main lode at the old Bellevue gold mine that produced 800,000 ounces at around 15 grams per tonne gold. The new discovery is 190 metres west of the historic underground workings and located 500m from surface.