Matt Birney

Asra Minerals could soon drill up to 50,000m across nine tenements at its Mt Stirling project in WA’s eastern Goldfields region after getting its hands on approval to launch a probe for rare earths, cobalt and scandium. The program is intended to evaluate and define an extensive mineralisation footprint at the multi-commodity operation.

Cyclone Metals has unveiled a suite of gold anomalies at its Mareburn and Macraes South projects, about 40km north of Dunedin in New Zealand’s Otago Province following the company’s trial of an ionic leach geochemistry survey. According to the company, the program is an inexpensive and swift method of sniffing out and defining drill targets across its extensive tenements on the South Island.

Mineral explorer Aurumin has intersected an impressive 344m at 1.29 grams per tonne gold in its first diamond drill hole at the company’s 784,000-ounce Central Sandstone gold project 130km west of Leinster in Western Australia. Highlights within the broad interval include 40.9m at 2 g/t, 21.8m at 2 g/t and 16.1m at 2.9 g/t.

Test work is about to start on ASX-listed Quantum Graphite’s coarse flake graphite as part of its thermal energy storage pilot partnership project with Melbourne-based Sunlands Company. The ultra-high temperature testing is a critical step in the project to manufacture long-duration energy devices that may potentially play an integral role in delivering stable and flexible energy to grids dependent on renewable power.

With numerous businesses reporting inflationary and rising operating costs, emerging battery metals producer Neometals has released highly encouraging engineering numbers for its proposed vanadium pentoxide recovery plant in Finland that potentially puts it in the lowest operating cost category. The company is planning a joint venture to recover the high-purity metal oxide from by-product slag created during the steel making process.

Infinity Lithium continues to gather local support for its proposed San José lithium project near Cáceres in Spain, partnering with the Cáceres Chamber of Commerce to form an energy sector accelerator program. Through Infinity’s wholly owned Spanish subsidiary Extremadura New Energies, the agreement is designed to help companies starting out in lithium, energy storage and renewable energy sectors.

After a third phase of rock sampling, junior explorer Askari Metals has identified lithium anomalism in a south-eastern zone of the company’s Barrow Creek lithium project in Northern Territory’s highly prospective Arunta pegmatite region. Three areas of anomalism were identified along a 5km long pegmatite corridor with results of up to 456 parts per million lithium oxide.

Perth-based battery technology company Lithium Australia is at the forefront of the lithium-ion battery recycling industry through its wholly owned subsidiary Envirostream. It’s a sector the CSIRO estimates in a recent report could grow to be worth $3.1 billion in Australia alone. The company says lithium waste is growing at 20 per cent per year, potentially exceeding 100,000 tonnes a year by 2036 — enough to fill 42 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Latest assay results from RC drilling at Strickland Metals’ Millrose project near Wiluna in WA have identified multiple new gold zones in addition to high-grade oxide gold intercepts. Highlights show one 5m intercept going 11.5 grams per tonne gold from 68m whilst a second 65m section from the same hole recorded 4.4 g/t from 95m including 3m at 20.2 g/t and another 3m reading an impressive 33.5 g/t gold.

Despite recent unseasonal WA weather, White Cliff Minerals has showered assay labs with about 1000 soil samples from its Diemals lithium and rare earths play east of Perth and Reedy South gold project in the historic Cue goldfields region. The company plans to keep up the momentum with more than 700 samples expected from its Yinnetharra lithium rare earths project in the coming weeks.

Valor Resources has identified highly prospective copper and uranium targets during a review of historical data from its Surprise Creek project in Canada’s Athabasca Basin. Based on the copper results alone, including rock-chip samples between 0.25 and 5.9 per cent and soil samples up to 3300 parts per million, the company has extended its tenements by 11 square kilometres to the south-west.

Aruma Resources has added almost 300 square kilometres of prospective central WA gold acreage to its exploration portfolio with the pegging of the greenfields Carter Well project, east of the historical Mt Magnet mining town in WA’s Murchison region. The company plans on getting boots on the ground as soon as regulatory approval has been granted.

Toro Energy has recorded its third discovery of massive and semi-massive nickel sulphides at its Dusty nickel project in WA, taking the prospective strike length at the site to at least 7.5km. The latest discovery, named Jumping Jack, was from a 3.4m intersection from 240.3m including a 1.4m- thick lens of massive nickel sulphides. The Dusty project falls within Toro’s wholly owned Yandal gold project in WA’s north-eastern Goldfields.

Meeka Gold could add more scale to its million-ounce-plus resource at the company’s Murchison project in Western Australia. Diamond drilling at its Turnberry deposit has delivered a slew of new high-grade gold intercepts including 1m going 62.8 grams to the tonne gold and a wide 51m strike grading 1.64 g/t gold from 264m. The impressive results are from outside the area of a planned open-pit mine, underlining the project’s growth potential.

Wiluna Mining Corporation’s concurrent discovery, resource development and grade control drilling programs have delivered high-grade sulphide gold intersections around current mining areas and new targets across the company’s mining operation in WA’s Mid West region. The onslaught of drilling is expected to translate into inventory growth and increased confidence in production forecasts for both volume and grade up until the end of next year.

Estrella Resources has recorded a 17m intersection of semi-massive to disseminated nickel-copper sulphides at its Broonhill deposit, part of the company’s Carr Boyd nickel-copper project near Kalgoorlie, in WA. The company says results show Broonhill remains open along strike, is increasing in scale and a separate deposit to the T5 mineralisation 1.5km to the south.

Godolphin Resources’ JV partner, Orange Minerals is poised to fire up the diamond drill rig for 1200m of exploration at its Calarie gold project in the Lachlan Fold Belt of NSW after finalising plans for a phase 2 probe. The campaign follows a December RC campaign that delivered a suite of “outstanding” intercepts, including 1m at 48.77 grams per tonne gold from 42m.

Junior explorer PolarX has hit a 9.1m intersection running a stellar 124 g/t gold from a shallow 27.4m in its maiden RC drilling campaign at the company’s Humboldt Range project in Nevada. The stellar intersection contained an exceptionally high-grade zone of 3m at 371 g/t gold and 143.5 g/t silver with the same hole going on to deliver another 73.2m going 0.28 g/t gold and ending in mineralisation.

Metallurgical testing using a high-pH caustic pre-treating process on Sihayo Gold’s starter project in North Sumatra has the explorer pointing towards a significantly better cashflow than forecast. The company says back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the improved gold recoveries could lift the life-of-mine pre-tax cashflows more than 75 per cent.

Coda Minerals has received encouraging metallurgical test results showing exceptional recoveries above 99 per cent from a concentrate sample taken at its Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit in South Australia. The company says the results show the potential for lower-cost on-site production of high-value goods from Coda’s Elizabeth Creek copper project, including the Emmie deposit, that can be sold into the electric vehicle and battery markets.

Altech Chemicals has executed a framework agreement with Fraunhofer IKTS to accelerate the testing and qualification process for its battery-boosting Silumina Anodes product. The company is looking to lather the silicone and graphite-infused substance over lithium-ion batteries to deliver battery anodes with a 30 per cent higher retention capacity over non-coated items.

West Australian gold miner Ora Banda Mining has pulled off a recruitment coup by appointing Northern Star Resources’ highly regarded former Chief Operating Officer, Luke Creagh as its Chief Executive Officer. Ora Banda Chairman, Peter Mansell said Creagh’s appointment was a major fillip for the company, adding: “We couldn’t be happier that Luke is joining us.”

Calidus Resources is moving fast towards steady-state production at its Warrawoona gold project in WA’s Pilbara region after pouring 8916 ounces of gold in the June quarter. The company tabled its impressive results just six weeks after pouring the first batch of gold from its carbon-in-leach circuit at its newly commissioned processing plant.

Kairos Minerals has backed up recent stellar assay results from its Mt York gold project in the Pilbara with a technical review, emboldening the West Australian explorer to chase a major upgrade in resource with an upcoming 15,000-20,000m drilling program. The review found mineralisation is continuous along a 3.4km trend, with substantial scope to grow the project’s 873,500oz resource at depth.

Lithium Australia is celebrating a major milestone after its recently acquired battery recycling company Envirostream received its first rebate from the Commonwealth Government-backed B-cycle scheme. B-cycle is a national battery recycling plan that provides rebates across collection, sorting and processing points to create a responsible battery lifecycle by keeping batteries out of landfill.

Classic Minerals has moved closer to full-scale production at its flagship Kat Gap project near Southern Cross in Western Australia after hitting a substantial body of water in its first exploratory hole. The company considers the discovery an important milestone given that water is an essential ingredient in treating the precious metal at the operation’s gold processing facility.

Allup Silica has revealed an updated inferred mineral resource estimate at its Sparkler silica sand project in WA’s Great Southern region the company says will help increase the purity of the final product. The updated in-situ resource now sits at 70 million inferred tonnes at an increased grade of 96.84 per cent silicon dioxide and a reduced iron oxide percentage of 0.34.

Adriatic Metals has unveiled more high-grade silver and zinc intercepts at its Rupice Northwest extension in Bosnia and Herzegovina that continues to expand the larger multi-commodity deposit’s mineralisation. One of the diamond holes returned a broad 30.9m section going 851 grams per tonne silver equivalent about 90 metres northwest of the company’s existing 12 million tonne resource going 149 g/t silver and 1.4 g/t gold.

Biotech company Chimeric Therapeutics has advanced its cutting-edge cancer-fighting work by expanding a licencing agreement with a top US university for breakthrough cancer treatment. The clinical-stage cell therapy company hopes the new agreement, through acquisition of critical know-how, will expedite its ambition to commercialise the treatment. Chimeric plans to use the treatment in a clinical study of patients with gastrointestinal cancers.

Estrella Resources says high-grade results from resource confirmation drilling at its Spargoville nickel project near Kambalda in WA highlight its best hope of transitioning to a producer in the near term . First assays from a hole drilled at the company’s 5A resource returned a 3.4m intersection recording 8.2 per cent nickel, 0.6 per cent copper, 0.2 per cent cobalt and 21.5 per cent sulphur from 65.16m.

Buru Energy is set for a bumper payday from the latest lifting from its flagship Ungani oilfield in WA’s Kimberley region. The company is anticipating a $5.5 million cheque from its 50 per cent share of the 75,000 barrels shipped out of the Wyndham port this month. The latest payment is likely to be more than $1m higher than its previous record in February and comes off the back of a very strong Brent oil price that is today sitting at around US$116 a barrel.

ABx Group has unveiled a 10-metre-thick channel of high-grade rare earth elements in northern Tasmania with the first batch of assays confirming an abundance of the most valuable minerals and a tripling of the prospective area’s size. One drill hole returned 10m of rare earths mineralisation, averaging 863 parts per million total rare earth oxides.