Matt Birney

The Australian Patent Office has reported favourably on Lithium Australia’s international patent application for SiLeach, clearing the way for protection of its breakthrough lithium processing technology in 148 countries. The local patent authority reported that SiLeach, which slashes lithium extraction costs and opens up the possibility of treating lithium waste materials, is indeed “novel, inventive, industry applicable and patentable”.

After ending 2017 with some of its best-ever drill hits, Mt Isa-focused copper-gold explorer Hammer Metals is planning to start 2018 where it left off. A second RC drill program at the Jubilee prospect, 60 kms east of Mt Isa, will get underway later this month, aimed at extending high-grade hits of 7% copper in last month’s maiden drill program.

Galena Mining’s plans for a high-grade, underground development to finally unlock value from the fabled Abra deposit have received a major boost with the release of a remarkable set of assay results from a maiden drill program. The program has successfully targeted high-grade zones of lead mineralisation and is timed to perfection, with lead prices hitting seven-year highs earlier this month.

Perth-based Plymouth Minerals has launched a feasibility study for the San Jose lithium-tin project in Spain and begun the process of applying for a mining licence aimed at producing a world-class lithium supply line to the burgeoning battery industry in the heart of industrial Europe. A previous scoping study done on the project showed an annual EBITDA of USD$75m a year.

Fresh from last month’s $3.5m capital raising, Reedy Lagoon has wasted no time signing up a contractor to begin exploration drilling at its Columbus Salt March lithium brines project in Nevada. Boart Longyear has been contracted to drill a deep, large-diameter core hole that will extract brine samples from depths of up to 1000 metres.

Nzuri Copper has now taken final delivery of $10milllion from a placement to Chinese mining giant Huayou Cobalt and is kicking 2018 off on an upbeat note as it steps up the hunt for copper riches in central Africa. The Perth-based, ASX-listed junior will use the funds to develop its flagship copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to shore up its prospects from an aggressive exploration campaign.

Altech Chemical’s journey towards development of a high-purity alumina plant has taken another significant step from drawing board conception to sod turning reality with the application for a manufacturing licence from Malaysian authorities. The Perth-based company has also applied for ‘pioneer status’ in a bid for the project to be awarded a special tax exemption for the first five years of operation.

St George Mining has extended the strike length of nickel-copper sulphides at its Cathedrals prospect to 400 metres after assays revealed more high-grade drill hits from step-out holes. The latest results from Cathedrals, part of the Mt Alexander project just south of the Agnew-Wiluna belt, continues an exceptional run of news that has driven a rally in St George shares since November.

A land access and exploration agreement between Kalia Ltd and Bougainville locals has brought the minerals rich PNG island a step closer to reviving its former mining glory. The signing represents the first significant endorsement of the new Bouganville mining act in the now autonomous country that vests all mining rights with customary land owners. Kalia now has a serious first mover advantage.

After failing to hit target depth at all three maiden drill holes at its alluring Chile Gold project due to technical failures, Perth based ASX listed explorer Emu N.L has received a temporary setback and has remobilised a new drilling contractor at the project. Emu is about to test their intriguing theory of a large gold system sitting under a geological "steam cap" in a region that is rich with world class players.

After experiencing frightening stripping ratios in 2017 at the Wiluna Gold project, Blackham Resources now appear to have unearthed enough high-grade ore to produce a solid 2018. The company mined almost as much gold in the last month of 2018 as the entire September quarter and is building high-grade stockpiles for the first time in almost a year.

ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals will fast track an Australian operational base to cultivate medicinal marijuana after the federal government announced a plan to legalise exports of cannabis-based medicines. MGC said the regulatory changes, expected to be in place from February, would allow it to establish a pharmaceutical grade medicinal cannabis cultivation strategy to target key export markets.

Medical marijuana company MGC Pharmaceuticals has launched its first “Derma Plus” skin repair product which has been specifically developed to treat mild forms of psoriasis and has hit the shelves for sale through MGC’s website and existing eCommerce platforms. The product is available in Australasia, the European Union and the lucrative North American market, where 29 states and counting have legalised marijuana for medicinal use.

Northern Minerals has swelled its war chest by $9.74m with a debt and equity program to further develop and expand the life of its Browns Range rare earths project near Halls Creek in the north of Western Australia. The Perth-based junior revealed that it has long-term mining aspirations to increase the life of the full scale, expanded project from 11 years to 20 years.

DroneShield has secured critical radio-frequency safety certification for its DroneGun anti-drone countermeasure device. The new approval allows DroneGun to be used within specific frequencies to intercept, jam and retrieve invasive drones deployed for nefarious purposes. The latest approval satisfies a number of international requests from major defence and government procurement agencies.

New assay results from the Mt Remarkable gold project, 200km south of Kununurra, suggest 100%-owner King River Copper has barely scratched the surface of this forgotten gold field in the East Kimberley. Gold mineralisation on the Trudi vein, which recently produced an 11-metre interval at 27.9 g/t gold, is now shown to extend over a strike length of 1km, three times its previously known extent.

Hammer Metals’ recent farm in to the Mt Frosty copper-gold joint venture with Glencore in Queensland is looking like one of the deals of the year after turning out another batch of excellent assays from the maiden drill program. The Mt Isa-focused explorer this week reported a shallow, 5-metre interval assaying 7.34% copper and 3.75 g/t gold from the final hole in the program.

Reedy Lagoon Corporation has successfully raised $3.5 million to fund a drilling campaign to test some alluring conductors within salty underground aquifers in the United States. The ASX-listed company has also acquired Nevada Lithium, an American player that holds three lithium projects in strategically-located parts of America that are approximately 200km from Tesla’s Gigafactory.

Subsea drone company Aquabotix has added two new distributors to an expanding global network that has seen 10 new partners come onboard in the past four months. Just one week after the launch of its new Integra AUV/ROV drone, the ASX-listed company welcomed Japan to its portfolio as it casts the sales net for its products on a wider arc into Australasian and Asia Pacific markets.

MGC Pharma is aiming to hit a series of new highs in 2018 with a number of medicinal and cosmetic cannabis products hitting the shelves in the new year as the company shifts into production phase. The Perth-listed company is moving into the final countdown on the launchpad to the release of its first medical marijuana product to designed treat severe cases of epilepsy.

Legend Mining has taken another important step towards discovering a Nova lookalike at its Rockford project in the Fraser Range with news that last week’s highly anomalous nickel, copper and cobalt results were from the same host rocks as those at the revered Nova ore body nearby. New assays also showed significant nickel and copper 1.6 kms away, suggesting Legend could be on to something decent.

Hammer Metals’ maiden drill program at the Mt Frosty joint venture with Glencore has produced a series of impressive hits of copper and gold, including 6 metres at 2.55% copper. The results are an early reward for Hammer, who bought its way into Mt Frosty earlier this year on the basis that it could potentially define a resource with minimal drilling. This is the second time Hammer have done this.

Northern Minerals is racing towards the commencement of production at its Brown Range pilot plant and is set to become a rare, global producer of dysprosium outside of China. Located near Halls Creek in the north of Western Australia, the Browns Range pilot plant looks set to produce 60,000 tonnes of dysprosium a year for three years following a targeted start-up in the third quarter of 2018.

Six months after listing on the ASX, Calidus Resources has added 300,000 ounces of gold to their Pilbara gold project. The total mineral resource at the Warrawoona project expanded to 10.5 million tonnes at 2.11 g/t gold for 712,000 ounces, up 74% as Calidus closes in on its target of one million ounces.

Geopacific Resources has discovered a significant new gold zone at the Woodlark gold project in PNG, boosting hopes that in time it could grow into something more like its multitude of Tier 1 neighbours. The new Boscalo gold zone is only 300 metres from an existing deposit and could potentially be incorporated into an expanded pit design. The best result at Boscalo was 12m @ 7.45 g/t gold.

Altech Chemicals appear to have pulled off a major financial coup with their announcement that the German Government would provide a debt guarantee for their proposed Malaysian high purity alumina plant that will be fed with Kaolin, mined in Meckering, W.A. The project is now debt guaranteed, fixed price guaranteed , has a 10 year off-take guaranteed and the quality and throughput rate is also guaranteed.

St George Mining has ended 2017 with its share price on an upward trajectory on confirmation that its Mt Alexander project produced one of the most impressive base metals drill hits in the country this year. New assay results have revealed a 17 metre drill intersection grading 3.01% nickel, 1.31% copper, 0.13% cobalt and 1.68 g/t platinum group elements from a depth of just 37.45 metres.

Perth-based biotech company PharmAust has announced a set of tail wagging results from tests conducted on dogs with cancer who were given PharmAust’s promising development drug Monepantel, or MPL, which stabilised the spread of the disease in the animals. 6 of the 7 dogs tested experienced a reduction in tumour size over a two week period when administered with MPL.

Lithium Australia is moving quickly to improve its newly defined maiden lithium resource in Germany with a diamond drilling program aimed at lifting confidence in the deposit and potentially expanding its size. Historical drilling has already shown potential to supply a 25,000 tonne per annum lithium carbonate plant for 10 years and the company is now keen to see what new drilling may reveal.

Perth-listed junior tech company Connected IO posted a whopping 340 per cent lift in revenue in 2017, delivering a top-line of $2.2 million this year. The “internet of things” company, which has rapidly expanded its customer base in 2017, expects further growth in 2018 given the strong pipeline of new purchase orders it secured in recent months. The order book for 2018 is already sitting at $3.3m.

ASX-listed MGC Pharma is set to rollout a marijuana-derived psoriasis treatment after clinical trials in Europe showed the product, CBD Herbal Repair Cream, was effective at relieving dermatological symptoms such as irritated and inflamed skin. The first product offering from MGC’s Derma Plus line, is scheduled for launch in January and will be sold online and through existing channels.

Neometals’ push into high-value lithium hydroxide is moving ahead at a rapid pace, with a FEED study expected to get underway in the first quarter of 2018 followed by a final investment decision as early as the end of the year. The plant is just one of three downstream projects in progress, including a cutting-edge lithium titanate research project that could replace graphite in batteries..