Matt Birney

Perth-based TNG Ltd has signed strategic agreements with contracting giants Clough and McMahon, bringing the exotic metals company a step closer to catapulting its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron mine in the Northern Territory into production. The project is expected to spit out a staggering AU$738m a year in free cash and produce an extraordinary pre-tax NPV of AU$4.7b. TNG currently has 804m shares on issue.

ASX listed Azumah Resources has announced some impressive gold intersections from its maiden drilling program at the Butele North target in Ghana. Results include a 6m intersection grading 1.86 g/t gold from the southernmost line. Private equity firm Ibaera Capital has agreed to plough $17.5m into the project for a 47.5% interest even though Azumah’s entire market cap is only $17.5m.

Neometals has announced the acquisition of a strategic brownfields lithium project, located 40km from its existing Mount Marion Lithium project near Coolgardie. The company obtained 75% of the lithium rights to the Mt Edwards Lithium project for a staged consideration of $2.7M and will obtain the remaining 25% lithium rights by purchasing 19 tenements from a private company for a further $1.8M.

Peppermint Innovation shares leapt 22% on news of the company’s planned acquisition of a money remittance business that has facilities in place to transfer money from Australia to over 200 different countries. Peppermint has potentially carved itself off a decent serving of the global money transfer market estimated by the World Bank to grow to US$616 billion next year.

Galena Mining’s breakthrough discovery of a high-grade zone at the Abra lead-silver deposit is yielding exciting clues about the potential for a major extension of the deposit outside the known resource area. New modelling work suggests the high-grade zone could extend up to 1.4km to the Hyperion prospect in the west, where historical drilling hit high-grade lead in the Abra host rocks.

Sixty-four million Latin Americans have come a step closer to satellite based mobile connectivity following an agreement between Sky and Space and Globalstat, regarded as a prelude to a commercial deal that is expected within weeks. Globalstat has operations throughout South and Central America in a market where 10% of people still do not have mobile phones or internet access.

Aspire Mining has begun a 58-hole, 10,000 metre drilling campaign at its Nuurstei coking coal Project in Northern Mongolia in an endeavour to upgrade its resource in readiness for production. The Perth-based explorer, and aspiring coal miner aims to complete a feasibility study this year and has flagged potential first production from Nuurstei from as early as the first quarter of next year.

Terrain Minerals has generated four new base metal drilling targets at its Red Mulga project in the Murchison region of Western Australia. The company reports anomalous base metal results from its recent reconnaissance mapping, rock chip and soil sampling program and now plans to complete a limited drilling program as a follow up. Terrain believes that a large mafic-ultramafic complex may exist at the project.

ASX listed Hammer Metals has announced further high grade copper-gold results from an infill and extensional drilling program at its Jubilee prospect near Mt Isa. Significant results include a 4m intersection grading 6.27% copper and 0.70 g/t gold from the northernmost line of the program, implying that the mineralised system is not closed off along strike or down-dip just yet.

The finish line is in sight for Altech Chemicals, who is considering mezzanine debt amongst a number of options to secure the balance of capex funding for the construction of its high-purity alumina plant in Malaysia. The Perth-based company is eager to avoid heavy dilution of its share register and has expressed confidence that the final piece of the funding jigsaw will slot into place by the middle of the year.

Canadian independent geological consulting firm McDaniel and Associates has given Calima Energy’s coveted Montney Formation acreage in British Columbia a confidence-boosting review with estimates of 2.1Tcf of recoverable gas and 114million barrels of liquids. This verdict has reinforced Perth-based Calima’s conviction that it has a standalone project in the making as it prepares for a drilling campaign.

ASX-listed Hot Chili has created a sense of early excitement around its new Valentina prospect at the El Fuego copper project in Chile. The company has stumbled across historic records that show up to 4.8% copper was pulled from the shallow, small scale, family owned mine at Valentina back in the 1990s. Other historical results include an 11m intersection going 2% copper.

Northern Minerals has timed its Browns Range heavy rare earths project in the East Kimberley to perfection, with construction nearing completion just as US President Donald Trump calls on Australia to help it secure new supplies of strategic rare earths. Northern confirmed this week the project is on track for completion by June 30 and work is well advanced on exploring moves into downstream processing.

Galena Mining’s bold plan to unlock the potential of the giant Abra deposit is coming together in spectacular fashion, with a new resource estimate confirming it as one of the largest undeveloped lead-silver deposits in the world. The deposit now boasts 11.2 Mt at a very impressive 10.1% lead and 28 g/t silver, ranking it as the highest grade lead deposit in Australia and one that has global significance.

MGC Pharma’s new cannabis based diet and vegan vitamin supplement comes in seven different flavours to be sold in both capsule and powder form. The ASX-listed medical marijuana company is tapping into a growing global health supplement market estimated at over US$550 billion. The company said the product meets strict European Union guidelines and will be used to instil “inner health and wellbeing”.

Neometals has announced high-grade drilling intercepts at its Virginia Hills prospect, located adjacent to its flagship Barrambie project. The discovery shows 8 km of strike continuity for the vanadium-titanium mineralisation. Neometals is well advanced with technical studies for the project, including detailed drilling to define a 50,000-tonne ore parcel for metallurgical test work.

Geopacific Resources looks set to join the coveted ranks of the 100,000 ounce a year club with its Woodlark Gold Project in Papua New Guinea for at least the next ten years. The company’s share price rose 20% ahead of the highly anticipated pre-feasibility study, which is now on the street and hasn’t disappointed with a projected all in sustaining cost to produce each ounce of gold below the magical AU$1000 an ounce mark.

The wait is almost over and the anticipation is palpable. John Poynton chaired Strike Energy’s historic Jaws-1 appraisal well is steaming seamlessly towards completion in the Southern Cooper Basin as the company attempts to prove that coal seam gas can be accessed economically at previously unheard of depths. An interconnecting horizontal well will now be subjected to a seven-stage hydraulic stimulation program.

Connected IO has strengthened its relationship with a major US telco, securing a reseller agreement for its internet of things products in North America. The deal will see Connected IO’s wireless modem like products sold into the US by the unnamed telco giant that has a sales force of over 3,000 people in North America. Connected IO’s technology enables a user to remotely monitor and control devices via the internet.

Calidus Resources has identified a swag of exciting gold targets at its Warrawoona Project after completing an exhaustive regional target generation study at the rapidly expanding Pilbara project. The Company has identified 45 high priority exploration targets that will be fully evaluated and ranked in the coming months. Calidus will complete reconnaissance exploration ahead of drilling programs scheduled to commence during Q2 2018.

In basketball terms it's called a slam dunk. Blackham Resources has confirmed a stunning turnaround at the Matilda gold project with gold production climbing to a record of 6,713 ounces in February, while all in sustaining costs were slashed to just A$912 an ounce. Milled grades and gold production are expected to continue to improve with stockpiled ore grades going 1.7 g/t gold.

Lepidolite waste dumps near Coolgardie are firming as a source of supply for Lithium Australia’s large scale SiLeach pilot plant, highlighting the breakthrough advantages of the new processing technology. The waste material is looking promising after innovative ore sorting test work, which suggested the already mined material can be quickly and cheaply upgraded before being processed.

West Perth based Blackstone Minerals has dusted off historical mining records dating back over 60 years to fully understand the potential of its Little Gem Project in British Columbia, Canada that boasts one of the highest grade cobalt-gold deposits in the world. Recent drilling turned up a 4.3 m intersection going 1.0% cobalt and 15 g/t gold, including 1.1 m @ 3.0% cobalt and 44 g/t gold.

Hot Chili has announced some stand out high grade production results from a family owned small scale copper mine that sits atop the company’s exciting San Antonio prospect within its new El Fuego copper project in Chile. The work underlines Hot Chili’s confidence in the potential for regional continuity of high grade sulphide copper ores over significant strike lengths within trucking distance of its flagship Productora Project.

Southern Gold’s partner, Bluebird Merchant Ventures announced this week it had accessed a new level underground at the old Kochang mine in Korea. Significant assay results were returned from “waste” dumps and the tailings dam at the historic Gubong mine which closed decades ago due to low gold prices. Bluebird reported encouraging rock chip results from surface “waste” dumps going 10.5 g/t gold at Gubong.

Calima Energy hasn’t taken any chances locking down the first 20% of its farm in package ahead of time in the lucrative Montney oil and gas formation in British Columbia, Canada. The Perth-based company is planning to spud a three well drilling campaign in November to flow test the liquids-rich Upper and Lower Montney. Ultimately Calima will end up with 55% of the project for an expenditure of C$20m.

New studies at Myanmar Metals’ remarkable Bawdwin deposit in Myanmar, already ranked as one of the world’s best lead-zinc-silver deposits, have revealed a high-grade copper zone with almost 120,000 tonnes of the red metal in-situ. The studies have shown a new copper-rich resource of 3.4 Mt @ 3.12% copper, based largely on historical data and raises hopes of substantial additional discoveries from modern exploration.

Ironbark Zinc has engaged an army of experienced mining operatives, tasked with catapulting its giant Citronen Zinc project into production in Greenland. Ironbark’s newly hired production team have experience in everything from project finance to mine scheduling to plant construction and the company now looks to be on the home straight. The Citronen project remains one of the largest undeveloped zinc projects in the world.

ASX-listed Connected IO has secured a distribution agreement with internet of things supplier M2M Connectivity as the Perth-listed company looks to scale its tech offering in the Asia-Pacific region. Connected IO says the deal will provide it with an opportunity to leverage M2M's strong existing ties with Cisco, Meraki, and Telstra, enabling more consumers to monitor and control everyday items via the internet.

ASX-listed medical cannabis player MGC Pharmaceuticals is set to achieve a major commercial milestone as it edges closer to getting the final green light for its European medical marijuana facility. The company expects to receive official approval for the Slovenian facility this month after being granted an interim licence in January, bringing an 18-month approvals process near to completion.

Auroch Minerals is targeting large-scale zinc, lead, copper and cobalt deposits in a metals-rich region in South Australia after snapping up two high-grade projects that have not been subjected to any modern exploration. The Arden project near Quorn in the Flinders Ranges and the Bonaventura Zinc project on Kangaroo Island have historical drill hits of up to 26.9% zinc and 2.5% cobalt.

ASX-listed biotech Phylogica has achieved a medical milestone on its journey to developing a biological organism that is capable of carrying or “transporting” cancer fighting and other drugs directly inside the nucleus of a diseased cell. The Perth biotech said in a market update that it had successfully delivered a new “proof of concept cargo” known as “Cre” into kidney cells in the laboratory.