Matt Birney

Venus Metals Corporation has quickly moved onto the second phase of its lithium chasing reverse-circulation drilling campaign at its Henderson project near Menzies in the eastern Goldfields region of WA. The company recently hit returns of 5.8 and 3.6 per cent lithium dioxide at its Emerald SE prospect whilst results from 89 rock samples showed 29 had more than 100 parts-per-million lithium dioxide.

Canadian listed Novo Resources Corporation is forging ahead with a feasibility study on the more-lucrative fresh rock gold resource at its Beatons Creek project in the Pilbara after spending the pa

Cancer fighter Radiopharm Theranostics has inked a deal for the supply of a key component needed to develop its pipeline of radiopharmaceutical therapy products. Radiopharm says its agreement with Israeli company Isotopia Molecular Imaging for a high-quality radioisotope called Lutetium-177 will enable it to accelerate its diverse clinical pipeline of radiopharmaceutical products slated for the multi-billion-dollar oncology market.

Great Southern Mining is ready to start drill testing at its wholly owned East Laverton nickel project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region next month. The company has booked a diamond drill rig and reverse-circulation gear for its first drilling program to test the nickel-copper-PGE prospectivity of its Diorite Hill magmatic complex.

Explorer Horizon Minerals has completed the restructure and demerger of its 25 per cent interest in the Richmond vanadium project in central north Queensland with joint venture partner Richmond Vanadium Technology. The move comes after the pair’s decision that Richmond will be the dedicated IPO vehicle to drive the 1.8 billion-tonne project into completion.

Infinity Lithium has pivoted to an underground mining plan in a bid to win local support for its proposed San José lithium project near the city of Cáceres in the Extremadura region of Spain. The company has been formally invited to present its redesigned development proposal to the Extremadura Regional Government and the Cáceres City Council.

Indonesia-focused explorer Sihayo Gold has followed up its recent high- grade surface samples with strong diamond drilling assays from a 30-hole exploration program that has extended its Sihorbo South target and firmed up the modelling for its maiden mineral resource estimate. Sihorbo South is now shaping up as a satellite operation to the company’s main Sihayo Starter project.

In what is likely to quicken pulses around the ASX floors, Galan Lithium has drawn first blood at its Greenbushes South project in WA, with recent airborne radiometric, magnetic and digital elevation modelling survey data unveiling the first pegmatite lens at the operation. The discovery has the added allure in that it is a mere 15km from the Greenbushes mine, the world’s largest hard-rock lithium deposit.

Meeka Gold looks to be riding a winner after recent RC drilling at its Circle Valley project unveiled another thick zone of shallow gold that continues to highlight the precious metal potential of the site about 85km south of Norseman in Western Australia. The probe was aimed at testing the prospectivity of a patch of dirt below a 1.2km by 400m zone of regolith gold.

Gold and critical minerals explorer Tambourah Metals has confirmed gold-bearing quartz veins at its Tambourah King prospect in the Pilbara after receiving early assay results from drilling completed in March. Results include one hole going 22m at 2.83 grams per tonne gold from 22m, containing 9m at 6.46 g/t from 35m and 1m at 9.86 g/t from 39m.

Okapi Resources is set to dive into a maiden exploration program across a range of projects at its Athabasca Basin uranium tenements in Canada. The company has recently completed a comprehensive analysis of satellite image data from its Newnham Lake and Perch projects showing a bevy of attractive targets that call for a closer look.

Chimeric Therapeutics has cut out significant global supply chain problems facing the cell therapy industry by developing its own viral vector system to deliver its patented treatment for killing brain tumours. Viral vectors are tools commonly used by molecular biologists to deliver genetic material into cells.

Strickland Metals has received higher-than-expected assay results from recent diamond drilling at its Millrose gold project about 85km north-east of Wiluna in WA that suggest it is part of a very large gold system. Mineralisation at Millrose North is now defined over 300m whilst remaining open at depth and along strike.

ASX-listed Radiopharm Theranostics is moving quickly to add another cancer-fighting weapon to its diagnostic armoury after penning a sub-licensing agreement for a promising radiopharmaceutical agent with a US company. The Melbourne-based biotech company believes the agent can target several tumour types, including gynaecological cancers however the company is focusing first on its possibilities for detecting and treatment of aggressive brain tumours.

Lithium Australia’s joint venture partner Charger Metals is poised to fire up the drill rig at its Medcalf prospect, part of the larger Lake Johnston project about 450km east of Perth in WA after confirming a significant lithium system at the site. The looming campaign will follow work at its nearby Coates and Bynoe projects where an imminent delivery of drilling approvals is expected.

Australian reproductive biotechnology company Memphasys is taking advantage of the worldwide easing of travel rules to turbocharge its trademarked Felix System into global in-vitro fertilisation markets. Memphasys has announced a targeted sales push, with the first pitch aimed at India, where Felix late last year scored its breakthrough commercial sales deal.

Mineral explorer Aurumin has intersected visible gold in its first diamond drill hole at the company’s 784,000-ounce Central Sandstone gold project 130km west of Leinster in WA. With the RC portion of its program completed, the diamond drilling aims to extend and better define the project’s premier underground resource, Two Mile Hill, of 14.2Mt grading 1.1 g/t and containing 500,000 ounces of gold.

Kalgoorlie Gold is looking to plumb the depths at its La Mascotte discovery in WA’s Goldfields region after extending the strike length of the prospect from about 250m to 700m after recent drilling. It also plans to test outlying gold targets recently found by the company’s prospecting partners just west of its current focus area.

Junior explorer Meeka Gold looks on track to beef up its one-million-ounce mineral resource at its Murchison project in WA after hitting the go button on a high-priority drilling campaign. According to the company, the program will help it vector in on shallow, high-grade gold at the venture’s St Anne’s prospect, that has so far not been included in its mineral resource estimate.

ASX-listed explorer Legend Mining has completed two holes from its diamond drilling program at its Mawson nickel, copper and cobalt discovery in the Fraser Range of Western Australia. The exploration intersected a largely prospective intrusive package below previous levels, confirming the Mawson mineralised intrusions extend at depth as predicted. Air core drilling and geophysical surveys have also been completed.

Triangle Energy Global hopes to increase production from its Cliff Head platform by replacing a downhole electrical pump that failed last year after 12 years in operation at the field, the only offshore producing facility in the prolific Perth Basin. The well was closed in September and the phased workover is expected to bring an extra 130 barrels a day.

Mixed metals explorer Oar Resources has intersected high-grade gold and silver at its wholly owned Douglas Canyon project in Southern Nevada, USA after completing a maiden drilling campaign at the operation. The company says the probe was aimed at testing the ground’s precious metal potential by evaluating depth extensions of outcropping mineralisation.

Podium Minerals has extended the mineralisation at its Parks Reef platinum group metals project in the Mid West region of WA following early results from its stage 10 drilling campaign. The company says drilling has confirmed its exploration target of 70-75 million tonnes at a grade of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per tonne 3E PGM. Early results show four holes hit PGM reef at 150m vertical — extending the resource to 250m vertical.

Allup Silica is seeking to prove up another silica prospect at its Pink Bark project, 110km from Esperance in WA. Preliminary surface sampling has returned silicon dioxide grades up to 98.82 per cent, with iron oxide levels ranging from 0.08 to 0.95 per cent. Further tests are underway to determine the potential for the sands to clean up into a suitable silica sand product.

Venus Metals Corporation and Rox Resources have continued their run of gold hits from the latest round of drilling at the companies’ joint venture Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet in WA. Results include 8m at 5.1 grams per tonne gold from 212m including 4m at 9.45 g/t from 212m in addition to 4m at 6.03 g/t from 140m in one hole.

Coda Minerals has identified multiple targets including outstanding anomalies from induced polarisation surveys at its Cameron River copper-gold project in north Queensland, with drilling set for August. The drilling program will target coincident geophysical and geochemical targets including a shallow chargeability anomaly at the site’s Rebound prospect.

ASX-listed Technology Metals has signed an agreement with energy infrastructure company, APA Operations, to start work on the Gabanintha gas pipeline. The proposed pipeline is less than half the length originally proposed, which should result in lower gas transportation charges. The pipeline will allow an option to source gas from the emerging Perth Basin, further reducing costs for the project’s gas.

ASX-listed American West Metals shares surged more than 70 per cent in intraday trading at the highest volume this year on the back of the company’s best assay results at its West Desert project in Utah, USA. Assay analysis of the 549.83m hole showed more than 105m of high-grade zinc and copper intersected within four major intervals, in addition to high grades of indium and silver.

Triangle Energy will bank almost $17 million from the latest oil sales from its share in the Cliff Head oilfield, offshore Dongara in Western Australia, after lifting more than 140,000 barrels of oil in the last output to be sold through BP’s Kwinana oil terminal before it is converted into a clean energy hub. Triangle shares the Cliff Head venture with Pilot Energy.

Perth-based nickel explorer Estrella Resources has struck nickel-copper sulphides in the first three step-out holes drilled at its T5 prospect 80km north-east of Kalgoorlie in WA’s Goldfields region. The company says the intercepts show mineralisation continues to the south beyond downhole electromagnetic plates from previous drilling of the prospect at its wholly owned Carr Boyd nickel project.

Perth-based Valor Resources has identified seven high-priority uranium targets at its Cluff Lake project in the western Athabasca Basin in Canada after an extensive data review. The company says it is well advanced and can start a ground exploration program this month, including mapping and sampling, in addition to planning a drilling campaign.

Altech Chemicals has set out to bolster the intellectual property of its silumina anodes battery materials technology and alumina coating process by filing an international application that allows it to file national submissions in up to 156 countries. The company has lodged patent tenders in the United States, Europe, China, Japan and Korea as it looks to protect its lucrative technology.