Matt Birney

Lithium Australia has hit another milestone on its road towards recycling lithium-ion batteries with the successful production of lithium phosphate from mixed metal dust derived from waste battery electrodes. The company is currently in the process of using this lithium phosphate to produce lithium-ferro-phosphate cathode powder that will then be used to manufacture coin cells for testing.

Surefire Resources is finalising a drilling program to test anomalous zones of gold mineralisation previously identified within greenstones at its Victory Bore project located near Sandstone in Western Australia’s Mid-West region. Previous drilling in the 1990s defined a gold-in-soil anomaly about 4.4 kilometres long and up to 750 metres wide with a top intersection of 8m @ 10.2g/t gold from just 20m down-hole.

Strike Energy has inked a fourfold increase in the net reservoir within the secondary objective Wagina sandstone to 10.2 metres with porosities of up to 14% at its multi-target West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia. The company said this compares favourably to the nearby producing Beharra Springs fields, which flowed up to 38 million cubic feet of gas per day from a 10.4 metre net gas reservoir in the Wagina sandstone.

Black Rock Mining’s Mahenge project in Tanzania has successfully produced spherical graphite that exceeds industry standards for battery anode materials with yields of up to 53% and purity of 99.98% TGC during a large-scale trial in a commercial environment. The results are higher than Chinese industrial benchmark yields of between 35% and 45% and purity of 99.5% TGC and replicate results achieved during laboratory testing.

Buru Energy has observed hydrocarbon shows after intersecting the secondary target Anderson Formation at its Adoxa-1 conventional oil exploration well in the Canning Basin, Western Australia. The significance of these individual sand bodies with hydrocarbon shows in cuttings samples will be evaluated with wireline logs once the well is completed to its total planned depth of 2,200m.

MGC Pharmaceuticals and Chinese e-commerce marketplace YuShop Global have kicked off a full marketing and sales campaign for MGC’s cannabis-based nutraceuticals following a successful eight-week test campaign. Under the distribution agreement between the two companies, YuShop will sell MGC’s nutraceutical products to consumers via its online platform and network of retail channel partners, which include 1,500 luxury spas.

Infinity Lithium has hit a milestone with the successful production of lithium hydroxide using recycled reagents, a feat that the company said proves the viability of its processing flowsheet for the San José project in Spain. The company now expects to finalise the capital and operating costs within the next week, which will lead to the completion and release of the project’s pre-feasibility study.

PolarX has delineated large chargeable anomalies using data from a recent geophysical survey and commenced diamond drilling at the Saturn porphyry copper-gold target within its Alaska Range project in the US. The company said that the data returned from Saturn is consistent with porphyry copper exploration models worldwide and shows potential prospectivity for disseminated sulphides and a quartz-veined stockwork ore system.

Hot Chili has commenced a second phase of diamond drilling aimed at expanding the prospective, higher-grade zone of the Cuerpo 3 porphyry copper-gold ore system within its Cortadera project in central Chile. The company said results from the first phase had exceeded expectations and re-shaped its view of the potential size and grade of the Cortadera discovery.