Matt Birney

Myanmar Metals has hit a 23m drill intersection in Myanmar that is brimming with lead, zinc, copper and silver with excellent grades. The company is now compiling its highly anticipated maiden JORC- resource for the project. Last week the company received Government advice allowing it to proceed with the exercise of the Bawdwin option, where it will acquire 85% of the project.

Draig Resources has grown its holdings in the northern Goldfields by over 2,000 square kilometres in a mining district well endowed with gold and base metals. Historical exploration was largely ineffective due to poor outcropping and masking cover that downgraded the potential. The company believes there is great opportunity for the discovery of new mineral resources on the new tenements.

Metallurgical testwork shows Galena Mining’s Abra deposit is not only one of the world’s most significant undeveloped lead-silver deposits in terms of tonnes and grade, but it also has the mineralogy to produce clean, high-grade concentrates. New testwork for the PFS shows lead recoveries of 90% plus and concentrate grades of more than 72%, well above the typical quality of other operating mines says Galena.

The election of a new pro-mining Government in Greenland might just be the enabler required for Greenland Minerals to fast track its massive rare earths and uranium project into production. The incoming Government has specifically expressed its support for developing Greenland’s rare earths and uranium riches, the largest and most advanced owner of which is Perth based Greenland Minerals.

Neometals has announced it has mined a bulk sample of high grade titanium-vanadium ore from its Barrambie project for dispatch to metallurgy research institutes in China. The material selected is potential ore feed for a future direct shipping operation and samples will undergo extensive beneficiation and pyrometallurgical test work to confirm the optimal processing pathway ahead of offtake pricing negotiations with the Chinese.

Galena Mining has commenced deep exploration drilling at its Woodlands copper prospect, 200km north of Meekatharra. The company is targeting two high priority electromagnetic targets delineated last year from heliborne geophysical surveys. The targets coincide with historical drill intersections that include 60m @ 0.3% copper from 505m and 3m @ 1.6% copper from 188m down-hole.

Emu NL says it might be on the cusp of an exciting gold-silver discovery at the Vidalita project, within the strongly mineralised Maricunga belt in Chile. The company has completed a drill campaign that identified wide intervals of rock types, textures and alterations that could represent the top of a high value, epithermal gold system. Visible sulphides were intersected beneath anomalous surface sampling.

Terrain Minerals is about to kick off its maiden drill program at the Red Mulga project, 100km east of Kalbari. The company believes that a large mafic-ultramafic geological complex may exist at the project, based on anomalous nickel, copper and chromium assays returned from surface sampling. Drilling will also target elevated gold, copper, silver and lead assays returned from extensive quartz veining.

Blackham Resources suddenly has more gold reserves available for processing through its existing Carbon in Leach plant at the Matilda-Wiluna project thanks to positive results from recent metallurgical testwork. The testing found that transitional ore between oxides at the surface and the bedrock sulphides is suited to CIL treatment, and can be processed at a 30% lower cost than previously thought.