Matt Birney

Pilbara conglomerate gold theorist Novo Resources has generated rich concentrates from ore sorting trials at its Comet Well project near Karratha, producing ore grades up to 792.4g/t gold. The company also separated coarse gold nuggets from gravelly ore horizons at its Egina project near Port Hedland using gravity techniques and it has suggested that the procedure could be ramped up to a larger scale in the future.

St George Mining has intersected a 5.25m drill intersection going 6.95% nickel, 2.67% copper, 0.23% cobalt and 3.1g/t palladium plus platinum from 185m down-hole at its Investigators prospect near Leonora in WA. Another impressive 8.49m long intersection in a separate hole showed 5.78% nickel, 2.64% copper, 0.18% cobalt and 3.61g/t palladium plus platinum from 183.9m down-hole. The impressive results continue to extend the mineralised footprint at the prospect.

Aurora Labs has formed an equal joint venture with leading Australian mining services and engineering group, WorleyParsons, to provide 3D printing services to the oil and gas, mining and major infrastructure industries. This will allow the company to offer its innovate 3D printing technology and expertise to existing and new clients of WorleyParsons.

88 Energy has received strong interest in the farm-out of its conventional oil play at its Project Icewine in Alaska’s famed North Slope oil province and has extended its deadline for offers to the first quarter of 2019. The company is also carrying out lab tests and other studies to better understand its unconventional HRZ shale before starting farm-out proceedings next year.

Strike Energy continues to achieve greater continuous flows of gas from its super-deep Jaws-1 coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia, as more coal enters the critical desorption window. Water production has also remained steady which is an indicator that continued fluid recovery will lead to more gas production growth.

WA agribusiness player Alterra is another step closer to demerging its carbon forestry business after receiving proxy votes that favoured the demerger. The company is seeking shareholder approval at Thursday’s extraordinary meeting for the demerger, which will place its carbon arm and a solid stream of income into the hands of individual Alterra shareholders.

Artemis Resources has announced an updated mineral resource estimate of 975,000 tonnes grading 2g/t gold for just under 63,000 ounces at its satellite Weerianna gold project, just 35km from its 500,000 tonne per annum Radio Hill processing plant near Karratha in WA. Gold mineralisation at Weerianna outcrops at surface and the deposit could potentially be mined by open cut methods as an ore feed for the existing plant.

Myanmar Metals’ extraordinary base metals play in Myanmar just got a little more extraordinary with the discovery of the Yegon Ridge lode that could reduce the already low strip ratio in the China Pit scoping study and significantly improve the project economics. The new find continues the company’s ongoing success in finding high grade mineralisation in areas that were too difficult to access for historical miners.

Strike Energy is wrapping up the takeover of fellow Australian oil and gas explorer UIL Energy after receiving acceptances representing 92.01% of UIL shares on issue for its all-scrip offer. UIL’s three northern permits are believed to potentially contain an extension of the Kingia-High Cliff sands that are the main target at the West Erregulla prospect. Strike plans to drill it in the first quarter of 2019.