Matt Birney

Askari Metals has kicked off a phase 1 3500m RC drilling campaign at the company’s recently acquired Uis lithium, tantalum and tin project in Namibia, Africa. The initial phase is part of an overall 10,000m campaign designed to test high-grade lithium rock chip results of up to 3.1 per cent lithium oxide. The main target area will be less than 2.5km along strike from an operating battery metals mine.

ASX-listed Venture Minerals has got the drill bit spinning at a new, high-priority rare earth and tin target at its flagship Mount Lindsay project in Tasmania after discovering a 1200m long soil anomaly at the site. The company has coined the prospect “Cruncher” and says it is laden with elevated doses of praseodymium and neodymium, materials critical in the construction of electric vehicles and wind turbines.

ASX-listed cell therapy innovator Chimeric Therapeutics has secured an exclusive global licence from a leading American research university for a promising cancer-fighting treatment. The treatment centres on “natural killer” cells that occur organically in the human body and can recognise and kill cancer cells. Chimeric says the treatment continues to show promise after a clinical phase 1 trial earlier this year.

After a round of infill drilling Blackstone Minerals has confirmed high grades of up to 4.3 per cent nickel, 4.73 per cent copper and 18.2 grams per tonne platinum group elements at the company’s Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam. The assays come from the company’s recently completed campaign of resource definition drilling at the project’s King Snake massive sulphide vein deposit.

Estrella Resources has signed an offtake and ore processing agreement with Glencore subsidiary Murrin Murrin Operations for 2000 to 4000 tonnes of bulk metallurgical sample from its 5A nickel mine near Kambalda. The company says a positive process outcome from the bulk metallurgical sample will give Estrella a strong base from which to fully develop the 5A nickel mine using simple pit cutback methods.

White Cliff Minerals has commenced a high-resolution magnetic and radiometric survey at its Yinnetharra lithium and rare earths project about 100km north-east of the Gascoyne Junction in WA. Previous rock chip sampling at the site has returned grades of up to 924 ppm total rare earth oxides and the in-progress geophysical campaign is aimed at refining and generating new targets at the site.

Legend Mining’s board has got its boots on the ground at the company’s Rockford project in the Fraser Range to view field activities on-site including an ongoing 3D seismic survey of its Octagonal prospect. The company recently engaged hard rock seismic solutions company HiSeis to define the structure of the Octagonal intrusive complex at Rockford to a minimum depth of 1500m below the surface where it is targeting nickel-copper mineralisation.

Valor Resources has successfully deployed radon-in-soil surveys at its Hidden Bay uranium project and identified priority targets located close to the historic Rabbit Lake mine in the Athabasca Basin, Canada. The surveys were designed to follow up on prospective targets previously identified by the company. The area of interest is situated close to the Athabasca unconformity with the potential for both basement-hosted and Athabasca sandstone-hosted uranium deposits.

Internationally recognised lithium expert Joe Lowry expects the price of battery quality lithium carbonate to continue its upward trajectory into 2027 before hitting highs of US$97,000 per tonne as the supply and demand curve starts to invert. Speaking at this year’s Lithium Update by the Experts at Perth’s Hyatt Hotel, Lowry dubbed lithium the “irreplaceable element” in the new energy transition and says the balance of power in the industry has switched from China to Australia and South America.