Matt Birney

Surefire Resources has procured the prospective, yet under-explored Victory Bore vanadium project near Sandstone, WA, from ASX-listed High Grade Metals in a cash and scrip deal worth $1.25m. The company now holds a global combined inferred mineral resource of 237.2 million tonnes grading 0.43% vanadium pentoxide, which incorporates the large Victory Bore deposit and the nearby Unaly Hill deposit.

Ongoing metallurgical test work of ore from Caravel Minerals’ flagship copper project in the Wheatbelt region of WA has established that it can be treated using standard process techniques with high recoveries. Testing has found that high recoveries can be achieved using low reagent doses, which could lower processing costs. The company has also revised resources to 1.3Mt of copper, up from the previous estimate of 1.28Mt.

Black Rock Mining’s Chinese EPC partner Yantai Jinyaun has generated high quality, large flake dominant, graphite concentrates grading 98.7% purity at 95.5% recovery from pilot plant studies on the company’s Tanzanian Mahenge ores. The test work was observed by customers, partners and potential investors and completed to validate the company’s optimised circuit design and processing flowsheets.

Middle Island Resources has identified new targets at the southern end of its Sandstone gold project in WA, which the gold explorer says indicates the area could host the densest clustering of gold deposits within the entire Sandstone greenstone belt. The targets lie within 2.5km of the company’s gold processing plant and significantly enhances the potential to contribute to a mill recommissioning decision.

Rox Resources has completed due diligence of an expansive drilling database from the Youanmi gold project in the Murchison region of WA and confirmed a 1.2 million ounce gold mineral resource estimate for the mine area. The company last week entered into a deal with Venus Metals under which it has the right to acquire a majority position in the Youanmi gold mine.

Infinity Lithium said that recent metallurgical test work studies completed on its San Jose lithium project in Spain have produced positive results and replicated the ore upgrades it achieved in 2018’s Scoping Study. In March, the company increased its ownership in San Jose to 75% and is now accelerating its PFS works for the project, which is on track for completion in June or July this year.

Altech Chemicals has raised $18m through a share placement to support the Stage 2 engineering and construction works for its high purity alumina plant in southern Malaysia. The company is planning to produce up to 4,500 tonnes annually of HPA at its Malaysian plant from very pure kaolin clays sourced from a shallow open pit mine near Meckering in WA, which has low levels of impurities.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have acquired a 90% stake in the historical high-grade Currans Find prospect located 5km from Spectrum Metals’ high-grade Penny West gold deposit in the Murchison region of WA. Historical records show that 6874 tons at an average grade of 13g/ton gold were treated from Currans Find, which has similar rock types to those that host the Penny West and nearby Columbia–Magenta deposits.

Buru Energy is preparing to kick off its 2019 drilling season in the Canning Basin in northern WA with the mobilisation of the NGD Loc 405 drill rig from Perth to its Ungani-6 horizontal oil production well, which is expected to spud in the first week of May. Work has also started on the drill pad for the Ungani-7 horizontal production well, which is located next to the existing Ungani-4 well.