Matt Birney

It seems that almost everyone is looking for a smarter, faster and cheaper way to do things these days. Aerial drones represent an irresistible and abundant opportunity for the technically minded to achieve these goals for us. But what of underwater drones ? Recently ASX listed company Aquabotix say the underwater drone business will eventually catch up to the aerial drone market.

Calidus Resources are unleashing a barrage of hi-tech exploration techniques on their newly expanded ground at Warrawoona near Marble Bar. They have already been rewarded with multiple, high-grade gold targets. The CSIRO are being brought to the task and will work with Calidus over the next six months to unlock the secrets to further gold discoveries in the region.

Auroch Minerals have topped up their healthy cash balance by banking another $1.1m from from Xtract Resources last year’s sale of the Manica gold project and expect a final $0.5m instalment within weeks. The company has now added to their already impressive $4.2m bank balance and will use the funds to continue with their clean-tech metals exploration plays in Europe.

Northern Minerals continue to make rapid progress with construction of their Browns Range heavy rare earths pilot project in the East Kimberley, with fast-modular construction of the processing plant in China proving its value. Site works are racing ahead and mining of ore has already been completed. The company will stock pile 3 years worth of ore for the initial pilot stage.

ASX-listed Sky and Space Global has inked a deal with leading UK software services company SCISYS PLC to develop a simulator for its planned constellation of up to 200 nano-satellites. The “Pearls” network of nano-satellites are planned for rollout in orbit by 2020, with the build of a system simulator an important step in validating the innovative telecommunications technology ahead of launch.

MGC Pharmaceuticals have signed a distribution deal with local pharmaceutical distributor HL Pharma to launch its cannabis-based epilepsy treatment, CannEpil, in Australia. MGC wants to target the more than 70,000 Australian sufferers of the condition and sees it as a significant additional revenue stream ahead. The company says it now has a pathway to deliver the drug to patients from 2018.

CVCheck has teamed up with leading Australian HR software company PageUp in a partnership that will see major blue-chips like Telstra, Programmed and Linfox have access to the Perth-headquartered company’s online screening and verification services. PageUp will now integrate CVCheck's resume verification services into their own software platform that is used by about 25% of Australian majors.

Whilst most mining types had written Bougainville off, Perth mining entrepreneur Nik Zuks was quietly travelling back and forth to the Pacific island to assist landowners to prepare for the new mining act which opens Bouganville up for mining for the first time in decades. Zuks' ASX listed Kalia Ltd has just locked down exploration licenses in Bougainville that cover about 1/3rd of the lucrative Island.

DroneShield has secured an order for its drone-jamming device, "DroneGun" from Paraguay’s defence department, which will undertake in-field evaluations on the counter-drone device ahead of a potentially larger order. DroneShield’s first-ever South American DroneGun order comes after the Queensland opposition said it wants the state’s police force to be equipped with them too.

ASX-listed Sky and Space Global has hit another critical milestone on its march towards full commercialisation of its game-changing nano-satellite network, receiving official approval from the UK’s communications regulator. The tick of approval from the regulator, known as Ofcom, is validation of the successful operation in orbit of the Perth-listed company’s three demonstration nano-satellites.

ASX-listed biotech PharmAust continues to bolster its IP safeguards around its portfolio of anti-cancer treatments, securing a key patent in the US. The latest patent, which secures PharmAust’s IP in the major North American market, relates to the use of a library of cancer fighting compounds owned by Perth-based PharmAust after being developed by Japanese pharma Nihon Nohyaku.

Alterra has welcomed the sale of one of WA’s oldest dairy operators to China’s Shanghai Ground Food Tech. Alterra, who are pursuing a new style of dairy farming known as System 5 in WA, says the sale of the iconic Brownes Dairy will likely be a positive development for the state’s dairy sector. The sale of Brownes to the Chinese may open up export opportunities and fix local oversupply problems say Alterra.

ASX listed Connected IO has bagged an order for 1,000 of its cutting-edge wireless modem like devices from Rosco Vision Systems as the Perth-listed company cements its links with the US-based in-vehicle video market player. Connected IO has already sold thousands of its devices to Rosco and expects a flurry of new orders from the in-vehicle video company in 2018.

Elon Musk once famously said of his Lithium-ion batteries; “our cells should be called nickel-graphite because primarily the cathode is nickel and the anode side is graphite with silicon oxide”. With the steel industry undergoing a resurgence, Lithium-ion battery demand getting stratospheric and Chinese graphite plants closing due to enviro concerns, it's no wonder the graphite price has jumped 30%.

Calidus Resources are easily pulling their weight amongst the spate of recent gold hopefuls in the Pilbara with new high-grade hits at their Warrawoona gold project of up to 22 g/t Gold. Latest drill results also include 18m @ 4.35 g/t from just 46m down hole and 16 metres at 3.52 g/t. Calidus say they are now dealing with a large mineralized system that remains open along strike and at depth.

Real-time testing of Peppermint Innovation’s mobile-phone bill payment technology is delivering significant customer insights that will assist the ASX-listed fin-tech company to fully commercialise its unique APP. Almost 500 representative agents of Filipino businesses MyWeps, Metro Gas and SUNMar Express have been conducting ‘live’ pilot programs with their customers using Peppermint's APP.

Nzuri Copper have begun diamond drill testing a number of exciting Copper-Cobalt prospects that could extend the life of their fast-tracked Kalongwe development in the Central African Copperbelt. Drilling will include a follow up to last month’s Cobalt discovery at Monwezi 7, which returned a 7-metre intercept with more than 1% Cobalt.

The giant German engineering firm that will build Altech Chemicals High Purity Alumina plant in Malaysia has gone all in with Altech by agreeing to take a A$19.5m stake directly in the company ahead of the building of the plant in Malaysia that will be fed by Kaolin mined from Meckering in W.A. Dusseldorf-based engineering goliath SMS Group have annual sales in the order of 3.3b Euros.

Reedy Lagoon are set to drill a high-impact Lithium brine well in the first quarter of 2018 at their US project after locking in $3.5m via a rights issue that will now be fully underwritten by Patersons. The well will test a potentially Lithium rich groundwater zone in Nevada in the same district as the only Lithium brines producer in the US. Historical geological reports from the 70's indicate there may be Lithium present.

New assays from Neometals’ 100%-owned Barrambie titanium-vanadium deposit suggest it could be an emerging giant of even higher grade than previously believed. The news coincides with work by Neometals on a number of fronts to accelerate a fast-tracked development program based on direct shipping high-grade ore to China. Recent drilling returned stunning intercepts of nearly 32% titanium dioxide.

Geopacific are off and running with the giants in PNG with their Woodlark project that sits dead centre in the middle of some of the largest gold and copper resources in the world. Woodlark Island is surrounded on every side by amazing projects that range from 17m ounces of gold up to Freeport's stunning 63m ounce project. Geopacific picked up the majority of it for a song from Kula Gold who spent $150m on it.

Wireless technology innovator Connected IO could be in for an unexpected bonus thanks to a surge in gold exploration activity around a project retained from its former days as a gold explorer. Connected IO’s Mission and Cables Gold project is next door to the 3Moz Darlot gold mine, now undergoing a renaissance under new ownership. The company has engaged an outside party to evaluate the project.

Auroch Minerals have hit more Cobalt with their third drill at the Tisova project in the Czech Republic, even before reaching the predicted target zone. The hole will be redrilled after hitting an historic void, with the fourth hole in the program to get underway in the meantime. The new Cobalt hits follow a big hit in the previous hole with visible Cobalt and Copper over a 130m interval.

The processing plant for the Browns Range heavy rare earths mine in the East Kimberley has begun to arrive from China, keeping Northern Minerals on track for first production by mid-2018. Northern Minerals has also drawn down the first tranche of their innovative R&D financing facility for the 100%-owned W.A project, which is set to become the world’s first significant producer of Dysprosium outside of China.

Pilbara gold explorer Calidus Resources have cemented control of the Warrawoona gold project, exercising the right to acquire some key tenements. Calidus have also finalised a JV with Canada’s Novo Resources Corp after due diligence found a number of gold anomalies on Novo’s tenements and prospective new trends that had not been previously recognised.

Legend Mining's Rockford project is gathering investor interest with the company's stock jumping by 55% in the past month. Nickel's growing recognition as a key part of the electric vehicle boom, coupled with Legend's blue chip address, just down the road from the revered Nova-Bollinger deposit, is putting legend onto the radars of investors. The company has just kicked off a 5000m drill program.

Calima Energy’s early entry into one of the largest resource plays in North America has earned it kudos from leading broker Euroz, who has initiated coverage on the oil and gas upstart with a share price target of almost double its current price . Euroz says that Calima have acquired most of their ground in the coveted Montney Basin at a fraction of the value implied by recent comparable acreage transactions.

Perth listed Connected IO has secured a purchase order from electronics giant LG for the "internet of things" tech tyro's cutting-edge wireless communications devices. The company says it received the initial order from electronics giant LG, flowing from its relationship with US telco Verizon, for 140 next-gen routers to assist LG with its North American wireless requirements.

ASX-listed Aquabotix has launched some new technology for their innovative range of underwater drones that enables its users to control the unmanned vehicles from anywhere in the world via the internet. The underwater robotics company says the game-changing tech also allows multiple users in different locations to operate the same vehicle remotely from everyday devices such as computers, phones and iPads.

Whilst most other medical marijuana companies are still trying to work out how to make money, ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals are busy collecting purchase orders for their cannabis based products. The company has signed a binding heads of agreement with local pharmaceutical distributor, HL Pharma to distribute MGC's low cost, cannabis based epilepsy drug CannEpil in Australia.

ASX listed PharmAust’s wholly owned subsidiary Epichem has been named WA exporter of the year in recognition of the Perth-based company’s ongoing excellence in the medicinal chemistry field. Epichem also received the Health and Biotechnology gong at the prestigious West Australian business event and PharmAust are predicting further rapid growth at the subsidiary, forecasting revenues of $4 million for FY18.

Lithium Australia’s plans for entering the high-value business of battery cathode materials with the acquisition of the Very Small Particle Company have been boosted by independent test results. A test lab in Germany found VSPC’s cathode material, which is used to make batteries for grid-scale electricity storage, performed even better than expected.