Matt Birney

BMG Resources is running through the gears at its Abercromby gold project in the Wiluna region of WA with the explorer onto its next phase of diamond drilling at the operation. The 8-hole diamond probe will take in around 3,700m and is aimed at defining new resources and extending the footprint of previously discovered lodes.

Podium Minerals says the latest batch of results at its Parks Reef platinum group metals project in the Mid West region of WA continue a 100 per cent hit rate of intersecting the site’s reef. The company recently received assays from two RC holes including highlights of a 13m intersection going 1.94 grams per tonne 3E PGM from 207m including 2m at 5.05 g/t. from 212m that support the expansion of its exploration target.

Great Southern Mining’s aggressive exploration approach at its Southern Star prospect near Laverton appears to be paying off, reinforcing what the company says is shaping up to be a very sizeable gold deposit. The latest RC drilling program continues to return wide and shallow hits at the operation in WA’s Goldfields region including one 69m intersection going 1.1 grams per tonne from 39m.

Aeramentum Resources has its hands on a treasure trove of old geological reports that point to historic occurrences of battery metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt and others across its ground on the island of Cyprus. The company will list its Cyprus assets on the ASX next month and will immediately set about applying modern exploration techniques to them with a view to immersing itself in the lucrative European electric vehicle markets.

Sydney biotechnology company Memphasys has passed another milestone by enrolling and treating the first couple in its new clinical study, en route to commercialising its unique reproductive technology device, Felix. The aim is to assess the safety and performance of Felix against two popular sperm selection techniques that isolate sperm from semen before they are used in assisted reproductive technologies.

Wiluna Mining Corporation’s joint-venture partner, A-Cap Energy has raised its stake in their Wilconi nickel-cobalt project in WA from 20 to 55 per cent after sinking $5 million into the project as part of its phase 2 earn-in milestone. The transaction comes after its initial $500,000 cash payment to Wiluna and follows a major resource upgrade at their project.

Junior explorer Askari Metals has completed a third phase of RC drilling at the company’s Burracoppin gold project in WA’s Wheatbelt region. The 40-hole 3639m campaign was targeting untested anomalies identified in earlier surveys and aimed to build on known gold mineralisation intersected in the previous two phases as the company looks to table a maiden mineral resource for the project.

King River Resources has returned high-grade results from RC drilling at its Tennant Creek gold project in the Northern Territory, including one hole recording a 1 metre intersection going 35.26 grams per tonne. A total of 34 holes were drilled at the project’s Kurundi Main prospect where rock chip samples returned multiple results between 10 and 17g/t gold along a previously undrilled 2km trend.

Panther Metals has exceeded its JORC exploration target by an impressive 40 per cent with a maiden mineral resource estimate of 70.6Mt at 0.7 per cent nickel at its Coglia nickel-cobalt project in WA. The company’s resource estimate is well above the 50Mt upper limit of its former JORC exploration target and has room to grow from its base of 70.6Mt at 0.7 per cent nickel and 460ppm cobalt for 476,000t of nickel and 32,200t of cobalt contained.

88 Energy has inked a licensing agreement with SAExploration that will see the explorer pick up a raft of 3D seismic data from a significant parcel of land at its Icewine East oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. The company says newly acquired surveys stretch from Pantheon Resources’ nearby acreage onto Icewine and covers a number of reservoir units that could host hydrocarbons.

IGO Limited has snapped up an interest in Venus Metals Corporation after acquiring nine million shares in the company and securing an exploration deal at its Bridgetown Greenbushes project in WA’s South West region. After spending $2.07 million at 23c per share, IGO will secure a 5.6 per cent stake in Venus, making it a substantial shareholder. The project takes in Venus’ Greenbushes East lithium project and its Bridgetown East copper-nickel-PGE project.

ASX-listed Okapi Resources has hit the go button on an 11-hole, 1800m diamond drilling campaign at its Sunnyside prospect, part of the larger Enmore gold project in northern NSW. The work is aimed at following up on a suite of “exceptional” hits scored in a maiden drilling campaign at the venture late last year.

Surefire Resources is keen to keep its drill bits spinning as it looks to bring in more rigs across the company’s gold, iron ore and vanadium projects in Western Australia. Having just wrapped up a round of RC drilling and a diamond hole at its gold and vanadium projects, Surefire is now lining up a rig for its iron ore venture.

Cell immunotherapy company Chimeric Therapeutics will launch the first-ever trials of its patented CORE Natural Killer cells with two complementary smart drug therapies — one to stimulate the body’s uptake of the treatment and the other to attack the defence mechanisms of colorectal cancer cells. The trials will be conducted at the UH Seidman Cancer Center in Ohio, USA.

St George Mining has tabled a flurry of exploration results across its WA portfolio, including the sighting of visual copper sulphides at its Paterson copper-gold project. The company has also identified a suite of priority drill targets at its Ajana and Mt Alexander nickel-copper-PGE operations through geophysical surveys.

Metal Hawk’s dominant partner IGO Limited will inject another $4 million into the duo’s Goldfields joint venture nickel operation. The stage 2 earn-in deal will give IGO an additional 24 per cent stake in the partnership. After spending $3 million at stage 1, the latest move will lift IGO’s interest from 51 per cent to 75 per cent.

CZR Resources has been cleared to fast-track drilling after receiving heritage approval that it hopes will lead to a 1.6km expansion of its strike length at the northern extension of its Robe Mesa iron ore project in WA’s Pilbara region. The deposit forms part of CZR’s Yarraloola iron ore project, 120km south-west of Karratha. The company says heritage clearance allows it to drill along strike to the north of Robe Mesa’s current mineral resource.

DiscovEx Resources’ JV partner, Carnaby Resources has added to its exploration target list in Queensland, with recent geophysical work across its Greater Duchess copper-gold project near Mt Isa lighting up two deposit-scale anomalies. The induced polarised hits are inside a 3km corridor between Carnaby’s Nil Desperandum and Lady Fanny discoveries.

Multi-element explorer Askari Metals has turned up 31 gold nuggets using traditional gold loaming at its Horry copper and gold project 90km south-west of Halls Creek, in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. A high-definition magnetic survey was also completed over the project, lighting up multiple structures similar to the source area of gold. The explorer now plans a drilling campaign as soon as possible.

American West Metals is hunting down a suite of exploration targets as part of a maiden drill program at its Storm copper project on Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada. The campaign could start as early as next month and will focus on its highly prospective zone 2750N that previously delivered a set of solid intercepts, including 110m at 2.45 per cent copper from surface and 3.07 per cent copper from 12.2m.

Grade control drilling results have shown shallow mineralisation continuity at Venus Metals and Rox Resources’ Grace deposit that forms part of the joint venture’s Youanmi gold project near Mount Magnet in WA. The partners say the latest results reconcile well with the area’s resource model and further de-risk the deposit ahead of commercialisation.

Infinity Lithium Corporation has extended its Memorandum of Understanding with South Korean lithium-ion battery producer LG Energy Solutions for lithium hydroxide from its proposed San José project in Spain with the extension due to mature in December. The two companies originally signed a non-binding agreement in June last year that gives LG first rights to 10,000 tonnes per year of product, with additional volumes subject to negotiations and agreement.

Altech Chemicals is tantalisingly close to building a high-purity alumina coating pilot plant in the German state of Saxony after signing a final construction contract with developer Kuttner GmbH. The company’s glazing process uses silicone particles and graphite to treat anode materials, boosting the endurance of lithium-ion batteries.

Meeka Gold continues to record high-grade assays at its Circle Valley project near Esperance in WA’s south, including results up to 1748 parts per million total rare earth oxides. The assays also show values of up to 132 grams per tonne scandium — a valuable alloying metal used with aluminium the company says could provide a meaningful by-product for its operation.

Junior explorer Godolphin Resources will soon test the limits of its newly acquired Narraburra rare earths project about 15km north of Temora in central west NSW after securing government approval to launch a four-hole diamond probe. According to the company, the looming campaign is intended to sniff out mineralisation across a suite of prospective zones.

Buoyed by visible gold from its first diamond drill hole at the company’s Central Sandstone gold project, Aurumin Ltd has added another tenement to its land holding in WA’s East Murchison region. The move will lift the granted acreage at Aurumin’s wholly owned, historical Central Sandstone Gold Project to 126 square kilometres.

Superior Resources has pulled the trigger on a fresh eight-hole drilling program for a minimum of 3700m. The campaign is following up on the huge 632m copper intersections the company reported earlier this month from a large interpreted copper-gold porphyry system at its Bottletree prospect, part of its larger, wholly owned Greenvale project near Townsville in Queensland.

Coda Minerals has confirmed a new geologically distinct bornite zone in the southern part of its Emmie iron oxide-copper-gold prospect in South Australia. The company’s assay results include a best intercept of 16m at 2.66 per cent copper and 37.5 grams per tonne silver from 812m at the site that forms part of its Elizabeth Creek copper project.

Infinity Lithium continues to strengthen its green hydrogen credibility with the company’s wholly owned Spanish subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies, joining major regional energy transition group SOI H2-ALEX. The alliance is focused on the advancement of green hydrogen developments in the south-west Iberian Peninsula, specifically the Alentejo region in Portugal and the Extremadura region in Spain.

Shares in DiscovEx Resources leapt about 20 per cent on intraday trading after its JV partner, Carnaby Resources, rattled off another striking set of drill intercepts from rolling work at its Greater Duchess copper-gold project near Mt Isa in Queensland. The headline results include a 13m section running 4.4 per cent copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold from 122m.

After a recent high-profile multi-metal discovery only 200m from its boundary, Conico Limited has quickly seized the bit by booking a multi-purpose diamond and reverse circulation drill rig for a maiden, 5000m program on its Mt Thirsty project in search of platinum group metals 16km north-northwest of Norseman in WA. The company will also kick off a geological review in the wake of its neighbour’s find.

Triangle Energy Global and Key Petroleum have extended the completion of their onshore Perth Basin acreage sale until the end of September due to unforeseen delays, however the pair are confident the deal will be cemented before then. Triangle is soaking up Key’s interests in its L7 and EP 437 permits as the company refocuses its growth strategy from offshore Perth Basin oil towards big inland gas targets.