Matt Birney

Lithium Australia has reached in principle agreement with a battery researcher for the development of advanced silicon anodes that could significantly increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. The company is planning to establish facilities for the development of the new graphite/silicon anodes at its VSPC plant in Brisbane with operations starting under the terms of an MOU.

Hammer Metals has produced some exceptional copper and gold recoveries from initial metallurgical test work studies on ores from its Jubilee prospect, located in the Mount Isa mining district of north-western Queensland. The company achieved exceptional copper recoveries of 98% and even managed gold recoveries of 80%, essentially as a bonus credit in the final concentrate during mineral flotation test work for Jubilee.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has finalised the sale of its cannabis-based cosmetics business, MGC Derma, to CannaGlobal for a 10% stake in the private Canadian cannabis investment company. MGC has also received CAD$500,000 for an initial supply order under an exclusive five-year agreement to supply cannabidiol and cosmetics materials to CannaGlobal for the manufacture of the MGC Derma range of products.

ASX listed upstart telco Vonex’s success in growing its cloud PBAX business continues unabated with the company now boasting 25,000 registered users as at the end of October 2018, up 25% from the same time in 2017. Further growth is expected as the second phase of Vonex’s very successful marketing campaign across Australian capital cities hits its stride.

Adriatic Metals has revealed another exceptional intersection from its Bosnian, multi-commodity play with the latest numbers from the Rupice prospect turning up a serious looking 18 metre intersection grading 17.6% zinc, 9.4% lead, 3.8g/t gold and 508g/t silver from 162m down-hole. The result is 100m up-dip from a previous high grade result and grows the mineralised footprint ahead of the company’s maiden resource estimate.

Myanmar Metals has delineated significant extensions to the China Lode during resource development drilling at its Bawdwin base metal project in central Myanmar. The work is targeting areas outside of the existing mineral resources and those resources with lower confidence inferred status. Results included 32m @ 4.2% lead, 0.9% zinc and 91g/t silver from 81m down-hole that falls outside the current resource, but inside the optimised open pit shell.

Hammer Metals has achieved encouraging recoveries of up to 95.1% copper and 95.4% cobalt from its first pass metallurgical testing program at the Millennium JV project near Cloncurry in Queensland’s Mt Isa mining district. Testing of the high grade composite sample from the northern quartzite zones also recovered 81.4% of the gold together with the copper concentrate.

Adriatic Metals has increased its land holdings at the exciting Vares project in Bosnia, after local Government authorities approved the company’s request for major expansions to its existing concession agreement over the Rupice and Veovaca prospect areas at its 100% owned base metals play. At Rupice, the expansion takes in the region north and down plunge of a 66m thick, high grade intersection reported in October.

Great Southern Mining has completed a maiden inferred mineral resource estimate of 1.1 million tonnes grading 1.7g/t gold for 59,000 ounces at its flagship Mon Ami gold project near Laverton in the northern Goldfields region of WA. The newly discovered deposit is just 25km trucking distance from Gold Field’s Granny Smith gold operation, opening up the possibility of future toll treatment of ores.