Matt Birney

Australian Potash has announced it has successfully transferred brine from a pre-concentration pond into a salt harvesting pond at its Lake Wells sulphate of potash project, located near Laverton in W.A. The company will produce 250kg of refined trade samples for delivery to its MoU off-take partners during the 4th quarter of 2018. The ongoing test work will feed into the company’s DFS.

ASX junior explorer Emu NL is planning to search for silver mineralisation at the Vidalita prospect in northern Chile after drilling indicated it is similar to other deposits in the Maricunga Belt that have large gold resources and significant silver credits. Follow-up drilling will also target the large zones of low grade base metal mineralisation – particularly zinc – that was outlined in the previous campaign.

Greenland Minerals has executed an MoU with major shareholder, Chinese global rare earths player Shenghe, to develop the flagship Kvanefjeld project in Greenland. The agreement covers off-take, sales and marketing of rare earth products and strategic project progression going forward. The partners have agreed to flexibility in off-take arrangements for the project’s output, being either rare earths in chemical concentrate or rare earths in mineral concentrate.

Ironbark Zinc has received a study indicating that there is valuable “germanium” present in the lead minerals at its Citronen project in Greenland and that the metal is likely to be part of the planned lead concentrate. The study by the University of W.A indicated that germanium is associated with the pyrite and the company is planning to carry out further test work to determine if the grades are payable.

The latest drilling results from Azumah Resources’ Wa East prospect in north western Ghana have confirmed the overall prospectivity of the region and will most likely have positive implications for future increases in mineral resources and ore reserves at the broader Wa gold project. Results up to 2.44m @ 7.12g/t gold from 106m and 20m @ 1.44g/t gold from 121m in the same hole, have extended mineralisation by 80m.

Calima Energy has raised $25m through an oversubscribed two tranche private placement of 462.97 million shares priced at 5.4c each to fund its upcoming drilling campaign in the revered Montney oil and gas play in Canada. The placement was corner-stoned by Australian boutique fund manager Tribeca Investment Partners, who has also agreed to arrange a project development finance facility of up to $40m.

Terrain Minerals has outlined a number of new gold exploration targets on its Wild-viper exploration licence that completely surrounds its Great Western gold project, north of Leonora in W.A. The company will shortly commence reconnaissance geological mapping and soil sampling programs over the areas of interest. Terrain also said this week that drilling results from its RC drill program at the Red Mulga exploration play near Geraldton are imminent.

Strike Energy’s Jaws-1 horizontal coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin of South Australia, is currently flowing water at a rate of about 1,100 barrels per day and rising with the electric submersible pumps operating near their lowest setting. This indicates significant reservoir inflow from the targeted Vu Upper coal seam and the company will continue to ramp up water production until sustained operations are achieved.

Myanmar Metals has commenced a 15,000 metre resource development drilling campaign at its Bawdwin polymetallic mine in central Myanmar. The program is expected to grow the project’s mineral resource estimates and define a large ore reserve, underpinning a feasibility study due for release in late 2019. The drilling will also allow a more thorough evaluation of the mine’s copper-cobalt-nickel potential and help delineate extensions of the existing lodes.