Matt Birney

Adriatic Metals has reported another wide, high grade base metal, gold and silver intersections from its emerging Rupice multi-mineral ore system in central Bosnia. The new drilling result of 66m grading 9.5% zinc, 4.9% lead, 187g/t silver, 2.4g/t gold, 0.5% copper and 56% barite from 204m down-hole extends mineralisation by a further 35m at the northern end of the deposit, adding more tonnes adjacent to the concession boundary.

Calidus Resources has raised $3.7m in funds to underpin resource development activities and complete the feasibility studies for its flagship Warrawoona gold project, located near Marble Bar in the eastern Pilbara region of WA. The company describes the deal as a strategic technical alliance between the companies, where Calidus can leverage Alkane’s experience and costing assumptions from its operating Tomingley open pit gold mine in NSW.

Myanmar Metals has delineated strong indications of potential shallow conductive base metal sulphide mineralisation at the prospective ER Valley exploration target area, just southeast of its flagship Bawdwin multi-commodity resource in Myanmar. The area has numerous artisanal workings and anomalous zinc, lead and silver assay being recorded from historical diamond drilling and sludge samples taken from horizonal adits. Elevated copper, cobalt and nickel values have also been recorded.

BlackEarth Minerals’ initial metallurgical test work has produced a high grade 96% TGC concentrate with large flake graphite making up more than 52% of its content from composite material obtained from the Razafy prospect. Test work is ongoing on both oxide and primary ore mineralisation from Razafy to establish a preliminary flow sheet design for the current scoping study.

Blackstone Minerals has identified the Jewel copper-gold-cobalt prospect in British Columbia as its highest priority drill target after soil sampling identified a 1.5km long copper-gold-cobalt target that sits over a recently identified IP anomaly, that was interpreted to be a potentially large sulphide bearing body. New surface rock chip samples at the Jewel prospect have also returned results of up to 5.6% copper.

Altech Chemicals has been awarded a key patent from the Australian Patent Office for its proprietary process for the production of high purity alumina from all types of aluminous clay including kaolin, using hydrochloric acid. This enables the company to protect its intellectual property as it progresses development of its proposed HPA plant in Malaysia and associated kaolin mine near Meckering in WA.

Northern Minerals has received a $25m investment from China’s NRE Industrial Group Limited, which is subscribing for 240.4m shares in the company for between 9c and 11c per share. A new private investor is also subscribing for $2m worth of shares priced at 9c each. The funds will be used to progress development of the Browns Range heavy rare earths pilot plant project in the Kimberley region of WA.

ASX listed biotech PharmAust now has sufficient data from testing of different tablet prototypes of its flagship Monepantel anti-cancer drug to take the best performing and most economical tablet for GMP manufacturing. The selected tablets will be used in formal dose escalation studies in healthy Beagle dogs to determine the maximum dose that can be given and with what safety margin.

Artemis Resources says it finally has a good handle on the geology at its intriguing cobalt-gold-copper ore system at the company's Calow Castle project near Karatha after throwing nearly 25,000 metres of drilling at it this year. The existing resource of 4.5 million tonnes grading 0.9g/t gold, 0.07% cobalt, 0.4% copper and 1.3g/t silver dates from January 2018.