Matt Birney

St George Mining has announced that additional high grade nickel sulphides were intersected at the Stricklands prospect within its Mt Alexander project, near Leonora. The 16.1 metre combined intercept is true width, starting from 33.1m downhole and contains a 1.0m section with an average grade of 4.4% nickel using XRF analyses. The result confirms consistency of mineralisation for a further 50m.

Even though Neometals' massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium-iron resource in W.A is of a globally significant scale, it has flown under the radar given that Neometals is better known for its development of the equally significant Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie. The company surprised the market last week by announcing a 280m tonne Resource at Barrambie grading 9.18% TiO2 and 0.44% V2O5.

Northern Minerals has announced promising rare earth sample results from exploration conducted at its Browns Range project which is currently under construction. Sampling returned results of up to 6.4% total rare earth oxides and the discovery of a new prospect. The company is expecting first production of heavy rare earth carbonate at the mine in July, with ongoing exploration to extend mine life.

ASX-listed security surveillance company Spectur has nailed its first military order for the cutting-edge HD4 camera system after securing authorised supplier status with the Australian Department of Defence. The Department placed a $50,000 purchase order for the Perth-based company flagship security camera system and Spectur is confident of further orders for its innovative thermal camera system.

PharmAust has hit a major milestone, signing a landmark deal with US pharmaceutical giant Elanco to develop the company’s promising anti-cancer drug “Monepantel”. The deal will see Elanco supply PharmAust with high-grade Monepantel for use in clinical trials in dogs with cancer and in return Pharmaust will grant Elenco an option to negotiate a deal to take Pharmaust's IP to the global market.

Geopacific Resources has made its second high-grade gold and silver discovery in three months at its 85%-owned Kou Sa project in northern Cambodia and found more evidence that a large epithermal mineral system could be nearby. The latest discovery was made by an exploration program that returned gold assays up to 32.35 g/t and silver assays up to 2,300 g/t.

Perth-based Volt Resources is nearing the finish line for approvals on a number of fronts at its high-purity Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania. Environmental, mining and other approvals are now at an advanced stage and ready to drop according to the company. Stage two of Volt’s project could catapult it into the ranks of the world’s top tier graphite producers when operating at full tilt.

Greenland Minerals has announced a significant upgrade in its rare earth concentration grade to nearly 25% REO for the massive Kvanefjeld rare earths project in Greenland. Metallurgical test work results open up the option of direct shipping of high value concentrate, whilst lowering the operating and capital costs. The value of the concentrate per kilogram of REO exceeds commercial base metal concentrates.

ASX-listed Aspire Mining has received fresh support from its giant Chinese engineering partner for a 550km railway to bring its Ovoot coking coal deposit to market in China and Russia. Under a new MOU promoted by both the Chinese and Mongolian governments, Aspire’s Chinese partner aims to finalise its feasibility study on the planned railway as early as next month.