Matt Birney

Geopacific Resources has made its second high-grade gold and silver discovery in three months at its 85%-owned Kou Sa project in northern Cambodia and found more evidence that a large epithermal mineral system could be nearby. The latest discovery was made by an exploration program that returned gold assays up to 32.35 g/t and silver assays up to 2,300 g/t.

Hot Chili has discovered a 12m intersection going 3.1% copper without sinking a drill hole. The company has unearthed historic drill data records that show it is on the right track with its impending maiden drill program at the El Fuego project in Chile. The company has identified in-situ ore parcels adjacent to mine workings and discovered a new hanging wall lode.

Perth-based Volt Resources is nearing the finish line for approvals on a number of fronts at its high-purity Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania. Environmental, mining and other approvals are now at an advanced stage and ready to drop according to the company. Stage two of Volt’s project could catapult it into the ranks of the world’s top tier graphite producers when operating at full tilt.

The already impressive economics of Nzuri Copper’s Kalongwe copper-cobalt project in the DRC have soared in an updated feasibility study that boosted the internal rate of return to 99% and cut the capital payback period to just 17 months. The emerging developer also released impressive project economics for a proposed stage 2 development that would take Nzuri up the cobalt value chain.

Greenland Minerals has announced a significant upgrade in its rare earth concentration grade to nearly 25% REO for the massive Kvanefjeld rare earths project in Greenland. Metallurgical test work results open up the option of direct shipping of high value concentrate, whilst lowering the operating and capital costs. The value of the concentrate per kilogram of REO exceeds commercial base metal concentrates.

Reedy Lagoon has announced an update on its drilling program for the Nevada lithium brine project in the western US. The company confirms the presence of highly conductive brines in aquifers at the target zone, with assay results pending. Drilling has intersected large volumes of volcanic rock, the source of lithium for the brines in the area and demonstrates significant wider project potential.

ASX-listed Aspire Mining has received fresh support from its giant Chinese engineering partner for a 550km railway to bring its Ovoot coking coal deposit to market in China and Russia. Under a new MOU promoted by both the Chinese and Mongolian governments, Aspire’s Chinese partner aims to finalise its feasibility study on the planned railway as early as next month.

Classic Minerals has reported that exploration and resource drilling has commenced at its Forrestania gold project, south of Southern Cross. The program aims to upgrade mineral resources for the Lady Lila and Kat Gap prospects and target a new area at Van Uden West. The company also announced it had secured further strategic tenements in the area and is finalising drill approvals for Lady Magdalene

US police have deployed DroneShield’s anti-drone technology to protect the popular NASCAR Cup motor racing series in Texas. DroneShield’s partnership with US police at NASCAR is another signal of the growing desire to use the company’s DroneSentinel, DroneSentry and DroneGun products to keep people safe at complex, top tier global events that could be targeted by aerial drones.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has raised $5 million in an oversubscribed share placement to construct a 4,000 square metre state-of-the-art medical cannabis production and cultivation facility in Malta. MGC will build the fully-licensed medical cannabis facility after the company was awarded the landmark contract paving the way for it to operate a fully vertically-integrated medical marijuana operation in Europe.

King River Copper is forging ahead with its concept study for the Speewah vanadium project in the Kimberley. The company is investigating an innovative hydrometallurgical process to produce premium high grade vanadium pentoxide for direct sale. The study will incorporate relevant mining, beneficiation and processing costs to optimise a future open pit mining scenario for high grade mineralisation at the project

EON NRG has announced an expansion of its exploratory land holdings in the Nevada Basin and Range Province in western America. The district was mined historically for silver, lead and gold a century ago, however high grade cobalt also looks to be present in an area where with the now highly sought after battery mineral was possibly never sought out in the past.

Southern Gold is now riding shotgun with Northern Star Resources after the multi-billion dollar miner took over Westgold’s South Kalgoorlie assets, including the Cannon underground mine. Southern said this week that its 5 year “right to mine” agreement with Westgold had been transferred to Northern Star and was unaffected by the transaction. The company will receive a revenue stream from Cannon this year.

St George Mining continue to make impressive nickel-copper hits at Mt Alexander near the Agnew-Wiluna belt, with the latest drill hole intercepting massive sulphides with in-field, XRF readings of 4.75% nickel and 1.5% copper. The latest hole suggests the very high grade mineralisation discovered last November at the Stricklands prospects is still open to the north and west.

It seems that Calidus Resources hits gold almost every time it sinks a drill bit into the Warrawoona gold project near Marble Bar with 12 recent RC holes now extending the gold mineralisation a further 2kms east of the known Klondyke resource. Field mapping has also revealed the gold-rich host rocks extend another 2km further east, adding even more weight to the company’s view it is on to a serious system.

Galena Mining has moved to appoint contractors to work on a PFS at its world-class Abra lead-silver deposit, which the ambitious junior says is on track for completion in September. The appointments were made just weeks after a massive increase in the high grade resource estimate that was part of a defined strategy to isolate a large, high-grade portion of the huge tonnage project for fast tracked development.

Tests on lithium concentrates from the Mt Marion mine near Coolgardie have produced exceptionally high quality lithium hydroxide with a 99.99% purity, making a compelling case for part owner Neometals to move into downstream processing by making use of its off-take agreement with its partners. Neometals is planning to build a 10,000 tonne per annum lithium hydroxide plant for the off-take.

Reconnaissance exploration at Auroch Minerals new base metals project in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges has produced spectacular copper and zinc assays from rock chip samples and confirmed high-potential Sedex mineralisation. The aggressive junior explorer is planning a drill campaign in the September quarter, just months after settling the acquisition of the project in a metals-rich corridor.

Terrain Minerals is finalising a 1000 metre RC program to drill a number of never-before-tested targets at its Red Mulga project in the Murchison. The exciting greenfields project will explore a previously unrecognised occurrence of ultramafic rocks on the margin of the Yilgarn Craton with potential for nickel, cobalt and precious metals. The frontier nature of the project will be of interest to others in the region.

Calima Energy reports that ConocoPhillips has increased its land holding by 32% near its liquids-rich, Montney oil & gas play in Canada. The purchase of 35,000 acres for CAD$154M, which is above recent transaction metrics, shows that interest and the latent value in the region is increasing. Calima is ahead of its exploration schedule in the Montney with approvals in place to drill three wells in late 2018 .

Legend Mining has reported highly anomalous nickel-copper assays from an infill aircore drilling program at its Rockford project in the Fraser Range of W.A. The intersection of 14m @ 0.37% nickel and 0.43% copper from 72m depth is the most encouraging identified to date and contained visible sulphides in the same mafic intrusive that hosts the Nova-Bollinger deposit, 120km to the southwest.

In the mining game it's possible to experience the highest highs and the lowest lows. After staring into the abyss last year, Blackham Resources’ Matilda/Wiluna project is now knocking on the door of the 90,000 ounce a year club, producing gold at under $1100 an ounce at a mind blowingly low stripping ratio of just 2.5:1, with high grade stock piles that can be plundered at will.

The impending Vonex internet based telco float, backed by State One Stockbroking, will be fascinating to watch as the new ASX arrival muscles its way into big telco territory with its very own, in house, cloud based telephony technology. Every good float needs both a base load revenue story and a blue-sky pitch and Vonex certainly doesn’t disappoint in either department.

Underwater drone specialist Aquabotix has announced the launch of its “Swarm Diver” product, an autonomous underwater and sea-surface robot that can work in cooperation with other units of its kind on security, recovery and data collection missions. The Sydney and US-based company says the remote-controlled vehicle, which weighs 1.7 kilograms, is the first of its kind commercially available.

Nzuri Copper has appointed Lycopodium Minerals as its key engineering contractor for the Stage 1 Dense Media Separation plant at the Kalongwe copper-cobalt project in the DRC. Lycopodium was also retained for a Stage 2 economic assessment at the project. Nzuri are moving at a cracking pace now at Kalongwe which is in real danger of actually producing copper some time soon.

Auroch Minerals has opened up a new exploration front, targeting high-grade zinc, lead and maybe even a hint of cobalt in the metals-rich Adelaide Geosyncline after finalising the acquisition of two very interesting looking projects in South Australia. Previous exploration by the likes of Rio Tinto has produced drill hits of up to 26.9% zinc, however the two new projects are yet to be properly drill tested.

Things could move quickly for Geopacific after its DFS hits the streets in the third quarter of this year given that its Woodlark Island gold project in PNG is already sitting on a fully permitted and granted mining lease. The PFS was completed in March and showed a robust, 100,000 ounce a year, low cost, low stripping ratio open pit operation with an expected post tax 2 year payback.

Newly listed BlackEarth Minerals continues to set a cracking pace at its Maniry graphite project in Madagascar, with 15 diamond holes already drilled that will assist the Perth company to churn out a maiden resource by the middle of the year. Early results have been very encouraging, showing thick and highly consistent graphite beds that will allow wider-spaced drilling than previously planned.

Altech Chemicals’ vision of becoming the world’s leading producer of high-purity alumina has been de-risked with the Perth-based junior completing the purchase of 92 hectares of land at its Meckering kaolin mine, east of Perth. Settlement will give Altech unrestricted access to the area as it accelerates down the home straight towards construction of its high-purity alumina plant in Malaysia.

St George Mining has intersected additional high-grade nickel sulphides at the Stricklands prospect at the Mt Alexander project, near Leonora in W.A. The 10.9 metre combined intercept is true width, starting from 56m downhole and contained 1.1m @ 6.7% Ni and 1.9% Cu.

Calidus Resources has announced exceptional metallurgical test work results from its Klondyke project, at its emerging Warrawoona gold play in the Pilbara. Test work indicates that 63% of the gold is recoverable by gravity methods alone and more than 96% can be recovered by conventional cyanide leaching at coarse grinds. The ores are amenable to a conventional processing and are not refractory.

Metalicity will vend its mammoth Admiral Bay zinc project into a separate subsidiary to be called Kimberley Mining that will be listed on the TSX Canadian Venture Exchange. The decision was endorsed by project stakeholders and key North American institutions and will provide an opportunity for Metalicity to extract full value from the project that management believe is not fully valued in Metalicity’s market cap.