Matt Birney

ASX-listed gold explorer DiscovEx Resources is gearing up for plenty of Q3 activity after completing a 6000m-plus air-core drilling program at its Sylvania project, 15km south-west of Newman and launching a geophysical gravity survey at its Edjudina project, about 250km north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

PolarX has launched a channel sampling program across an outcropping gold-infused vein system at its Golden Staircase precious metal target, part of its larger Humboldt Range project in Nevada, USA. The campaign is aimed at testing highly prospective targets within earshot of a recently struck 9.1m intersection that ran a dazzling 124 grams per tonne gold from just 27.4m.

Coda Minerals has been given the green light to begin drilling at its highly prospective Cameron River copper-gold project near Mt Isa with final environmental approvals received from the Queensland Government. The company says the 30-hole RC drill campaign will kick off on August 23 and test a number of geochemical and induced polarisation survey targets.

Diamond drilling at American West Metals’ Storm copper project in Canada continues to unearth more visual hits, with four recent holes plunged across a highly prospective area known as 2750N extending the zone’s shallow mineralisation footprint. The company says the first bore of its latest campaign intersected more than 74m of visual mineralisation, including a 15.3m package of breccia and massive copper sulphide material stretching across several intervals.

Strickland Metals has identified a new prospect at its Iroquois zinc-lead project in Earaheedy Basin near Wiluna in Western Australia after rock chip samples and a trial induced polarisation survey confirmed anomalies. Recent rock chip samples at the new Malecite prospect about 1.5km south-east of Iroquois returned peak results of 7.3 per cent lead, 0.5 per cent copper, 4.8 grams per tonne silver, 0.4 per cent zinc and 25 per cent manganese.

Surefire Resources has received results from two more RC holes at the company’s Yidby gold project in the Murchison district of WA’s Mid West region. The 4m assays revealed a high tenor of gold grades with one 4m-sample going as high as 10.4 grams per tonne gold from 72m downhole. The company recently completed a drilling campaign of 23 RC holes for 2754m, primarily aimed at testing “mobile metal ion” anomalies.

Nickel-focused Estrella Resources is becoming increasingly bullish about shifting into production after receiving further high-grade assays from resource drilling at the company’s Spargoville nickel project near Kambalda in WA. Significant results from its latest diamond drilling include 3.45m going 5.46 per cent nickel from 70m, containing a high-grade 1.2m at a stunning 10.85 per cent, 11.12m at 1.68 per cent from 59m and 2.7m at 2.47 per cent from 74m.

Empire Energy has ticked off a milestone in the Beetaloo sub-basin, hydraulically stimulating, or “fracking” a record 21 stages at its Carpentaria-2H gas well in the Northern Territory. The company says a key aim of the program is to assess a range of stimulation fluid mixes to optimise future production.

A nanobody with its origins in the camel family, that is now being used to fight cancer, is at the centre of two agreements inked by Melbourne-based company Radiopharm Theranostics. One deal is a collaboration agreement with US-based Lantheus – a US$5 billion NASDAQ-listed radiopharmaceutical company. The other is with UK company biotech NanoMab and gives Radiopharm important intellectual property rights in a cancer-fighting product.

ASX-listed Lindian Resources has followed up its shift into rare earths exploration by appointing commodities specialist Alistair Stephens as its new Chief Executive Officer as the company awaits shareholders to approve its takeover of the globally significant Kangankunde project in Malawi. Non-Executive Chairman Asimwe Kabunga will move to the role of Executive Chairman. Lindian is aiming to take full control of Kangankunde through a 100-per cent share acquisition of Rift Valley Resource Developments.

Ahead of an RC drilling campaign later this month, battery metals and gold explorer Askari Metals has uncovered up to 31.9 g/t gold in stream sediment from a loaming campaign at its Horry copper and gold project in WA’s Kimberley region. The company’s exploration campaign included panning creeks and tributaries, metal detecting and collecting rock chip samples. The rock chips revealed grades of up to 3.82 g/t gold and 4.3 per cent copper.

Panther Metals is working the drill bit at its Ironstone prospect, part of the company’s larger Merolia project near Laverton in Western Australia. The explorer says its 1200m diamond drilling program is aimed at testing historic mineralisation and modelling the target’s main lode. Earlier work in the area delivered a peak intercept of 9m at 22.27 grams per tonne gold from 112m.

TSX-listed Novo Resources has launched an RC drilling campaign aimed at testing gold and nickel targets at its Purdy’s North project near Karratha in WA’s Pilbara region. The campaign will initially focus on Novo’s Milburn nickel-copper-gold and Morto Lago orogenic gold targets before moving to several identified areas within the district. The initial targets are next to Azure Minerals’ Andover nickel-copper-cobalt discovery and Artemis Resources’ Carlow Castle gold-copper-cobalt prospect.

Perth-based Infinity Lithium has wrapped up its commitments to a successful test work program for its San José lithium project in western Spain by delivering the final tranche of share options to the program’s backer. The company has also announced a new battery industry training program for locals in the Extramadura region, the site of its proposed mine.

ASX-listed biotech and cancer fighter Chimeric Therapeutics has been granted patent protection in Japan for some of its novel cell therapy treatments – including one in a phase one trial and another at the pre-clinical stage. Chimeric management says the patents will expand the company’s intellectual property portfolio underpinning important assets in its development pipeline. Japan is the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical market.

Classic Minerals has returned high-grade gold intercepts from the first 10 holes of an RC drilling campaign at its flagship Kat Gap project near Southern Cross in WA’s Goldfields region. Assays include a 3m intercept going 13.23 g/t gold from 32m including 1m reading a substantial 17 g/t gold from 34m. The 109-hole infill program was designed following Classic’s recent bulk sample operation that mined 1011 ounces of gold.

After nailing down a brace of new targets at Venture Minerals’ South West nickel-copper-PGE project about 240km south of Perth, Chalice Mining has decided to commit to the second phase of the duo’s joint venture agreement. As part of the deal, Chalice will spend an additional $2.5 million on exploration over the next two years to claim a 70 per cent stake in the operation.

Buru Energy and Sipa Resources are continuing their foray into base metals, kicking off diamond drilling at the joint venture's Barbwire Terrace project south-east of Broome in Western Australia. The 50/50 split operation plans to sink up to four holes at nominal depths of up to 500m as they look to test targets along the south-western margin of the Fitzroy Trough.

Calidus Resources has identified strong gold-in-soil anomalies in samples taken across a 3km strike length in historically mined sections of its Blue Spec project near Nullagine in WA’s Pilbara region. The program targeted the untested western end of the Blue Spec fault zone associated with gold mineralisation. Preliminary fieldwork is underway to identify drill targets in addition to areas for program of work applications and heritage surveys.

Podium Minerals has officially added rhodium and iridium to its mineral resource estimate at the company’s Parks Reef project in WA — creating what it says is Australia’s first defined 5E PGM resource. 5E PGM represents a combination of platinum, palladium, gold, rhodium and iridium. Podium says its updated inferred resource is now 52.2 million tonnes at 1.64 grams per tonne for three million ounces of 5E PGM.

Xanadu Mines has completed metallurgical recoveries of up to 91 per cent gold and 46 per cent copper from preliminary glycine and cyanide leach testing at its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia. The tests were performed on partially oxidised material from surface to 30m depth and returned head grades between 0.52 and 2.25 grams per tonne gold and from 0.12 up to 0.67 per cent copper.

A strategic alliance between CZR Resources and Red Hill Iron has been forged to co-operate on developing shared haulage and port infrastructure that supports the companies neighbouring Pilbara iron ore developments. CZR says an agreement has been signed in a bid to lower capital costs as it steers towards releasing a definitive feasibility study on its Robe Mesa iron ore deposit.

Ora Banda Mining has reduced the assumed gold price used to calculate its ore reserve figures at the company’s Davyhurst gold project near Kalgoorlie as it focuses on higher-margin ounces and increased quality from deposits. The change to the price assumption means the company will target higher gold grades to improve the economic viability of each of its deposits at Davyhurst.

Kairos Minerals has nailed a suite of high-grade lithium hits at its Mt York project in WA’s Pilbara region after hyperspectral and X-ray diffraction analysis on rock samples from the operation’s pegmatites. The results ran up to 1.91 per cent lithium oxide and were found a mere 4km from Pilbara Minerals’ revered Pilgangoora operation.

Conico is set to spin the rods this week on a 5800m drilling probe at its Mt Thirsty multi-metal project as it seeks to extend Galileo Mining’s major discovery at Callisto that sits only 200m from its fence line. Conico is keen to test the underexplored mineralised horizon on its patch of dirt that has recently delivered a slew of head turning results for its neighbour, only 16km from Norseman in Western Australia.

Blackstone Minerals is quickening the pace of development of its Ta Khoa green battery metals processing project in Vietnam by focusing on critical activities, such as a review of key infrastructure and prioritising test work, piloting and approvals as it works towards starting production within three years. The company has recently held strategy meetings with prospective technology and off-take partners and has a definitive feasibility study in the works.

Middle Island Resources has revealed a strong iron oxide-copper-gold-style alteration in its first diamond drill hole at Crosswinds in the Northern Territory East Tenant region. The hole was drilled to 808.4m and intersected increasing veining, brecciation and alteration at depth. The current exploration campaign is targeting previously uncovered aeromagnetic and induced polarisation geophysical anomalies beneath a trench sample of 130m at 0.75 per cent copper.

In a transformative shift, Africa-focused bauxite explorer Lindian Resources has inked a deal to acquire the globally significant Kangankunde rare earths elements project in Malawi for US$30 million. Kangankunde has been hailed as one of the world’s largest rare earths operations outside of China. The acquisition is in line with the company’s pursuit of African projects.

Geological mapping at Galan Lithium’s Greenbushes South project in WA’s South West has led to the discovery of a significant new pegmatite outcrop that runs over 500m in strike length and alluringly remains open. The campaign follows previous exploration at the site that unveiled the operation’s first pegmatite lens in a highly prospective area coined “GS11”.

Estrella Resources says it remains on target to kick off full-scale mining of the company’s 5A resource in early 2023 after further high-grade assays at its Spargoville nickel project near Kambalda in WA. With drilling coming to an end, Estrella will now move to extract between 2000 and 4000 tonnes of material for metallurgical testing. The company says plans to calculate a revised mineral resource estimate will feed into ore reserve and pit optimisation modelling.

Image Resources has tabled a successful quarter of operations at its Boonanarring mineral sands project in WA despite rising costs. The company posted revenue of $54.6 million, up 46 per cent from the previous period. Image ended the financial year with a net cash position of $47.9 million. The mineral sands producer also expanded its total mineral resource to 6.4 billion tonnes after expanding its Eneabba tenement deal.

Lithium Australia continues to grow its revenue stream after recording almost $1m in receipts from customers for the June quarter and finishing the financial year with $4.8 million in the tin. The company recorded $994,000 in revenue for the June quarter that has increased from $575,000 in the March quarter that in turn grew from $488,000 for the December quarter.