Matt Birney

Crusader Resources is securing funds to facilitate the optimisation and completion of a DFS and BFS for its Borborema gold project in north-eastern Brazil by the end of this year. The company recently divested its Juruena-Novo Astro gold projects for $3m in cash and scrip and is raising up to $4.1m in a rights issue, as it vectors towards the development of its flagship gold project.

Volt Resources is close to securing approval for a USD$40m note issue on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange that will underpin the Stage 1 development of its Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania. The company has also made progress regarding a proposed bond issue on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and has received strong interest from North America and Asia-based institutions to fund the project.

Great Southern Mining has secured up to $150,000 of co-funding support from the WA Government for RC drilling on the various nickel-cobalt-scandium targets at its Mt Weld project near Laverton. This is timely given the ongoing trade war between China and the US that has sent shares in Lynas Corporation, who operates the neighbouring Mt Weld rare earth mine, sky-rocketing more than 80% since late March.

Strike Energy has signed a gas offtake option agreement with major chemical manufacturer CSBP for the supply of up to 100 petajoules of gas from the upcoming West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, WA. CSBP will pay a $5 million option fee to help fund the cost of drilling the well, which targets up to 1.16 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Kingia High Cliff sands and 7.2 million barrels of oil in the Jurassic Cattamarra Coal Measures.

Tyranna Resources has secured a mandate to progress with its plan to unlock early cash flow from its Eureka gold project near Kalgoorlie after defeating an attempt by major shareholder Central Iron Ore to replace the current management. The early mining opportunity is expected to generate a positive cash flow of about $2.6 million that the company will use to accelerate exploration at the project.

Calidus Resources’ recent IP survey has identified a strong chargeability anomaly similar to and located immediately to the south of the 1.15 million ounce Klondyke deposit at its Warrawoona gold project in the eastern Pilbara, WA. The company said the new parallel shear highlights the potential for further growth at the project and will be drill tested in the second half of this year.

Image Resources has signed sales agreements for 70,000 tonnes of zircon-rich HMC from its Boonanarring project north of Perth for three bulk shipments with Chinese offtake partner Shantou Natfort Zirconium and Titanium. The company has also received significant interest from other potential buyers for its HMC, which could indicate rising demand for the product in China.

Coziron Resources is looking to breathe life back into its unique, high-quality, Ashburton magnetite project, with drilling planned to deliver a maiden JORC compliant resource, just 40km from CITIC’s massive Sino project. The company has identified extensive magnetite deposits at least 6km long and 1km wide at Ashburton, with encouraging analytical work that showed mass yields of magnetic iron content up to 42% and concentrate grades exceeding 67% iron.

Hawkstone Mining has outlined more high-grade lithium assays from the Big Sandy clay project in the US, including 39m @ 2,015 ppm lithium from 23m down-hole. The company is poised to accelerate its exploration and development activities at the project, following a recent oversubscribed placement for $2.4m, which will facilitate the estimation of a mineral resource and the completion of definitive metallurgical test work programs.