Matt Birney

Hammer Metals aims to continue its spectacular run of success with the drill bit with the start of a 13-hole RC program at the Jubilee copper gold prospect southeast of Mt Isa. Drilling began last week to follow up last month’s maiden drill program, which produced a stunning 5 metres at 7.35% copper and 3.75 g/t gold from just 35m down-hole. Investors are now eagerly awaiting results from the second RD program.

With first production from the Browns Range heavy rare earths project now within sight, Northern Minerals is turning its attention to the discovery of additional deposits in the region. New high-grade rock chip sample assay results from a variety of regional prospects have delivered exciting results and encouraged the company to get exploration rigs back on the ground in the June quarter.

Neometals’ big titanium-vanadium deposit at Barrambie in the northern Yilgarn is coming into its own thanks to surging prices for its two major products, titanium and vanadium. Favourable markets are creating a multitude of development options for Neometals at the project, with the company stepping up work on everything from direct shipping to downstream processing options.

Geopacif Resources shareholders can look forward to a flood of material news this year with a new resource and reserve estimate due out soon ahead of a DFS at the end of the year. The Woodlark gold project in PNG is also fully permitted to mine after passing all environmental, technical and social hurdles. The company is confident that development work in 2017 gives encouraging impetus for producer status in the not too distant future.

Revered UK online beauty store business Cult Beauty will distribute MGC Pharmaceuticals medical marijuana skin care products as part of an exclusive sales and marketing deal signed between the two companies. MGC said global distribution channels for its products had substantially expanded following an agreement that will bring many of its products to the fore on a global, web-based catwalk of quality cosmetic brands.

Strike Energy is preparing to push the envelope of wellbore capacity by drilling possibly the world’s deepest pure coal-seam well and the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere. The Jaws-1 well in the Southern Cooper Basin is set to spud in mid-February and is aiming to unlock a massive gas resource of up to 11Tcf to help Australia’s eastern states fend off a looming energy crisis.

After an impressive run of nickel-copper hits at Mt Alexander in the final weeks of 2017, St George Mining is now also focussing on its East Laverton project with the re-start of drilling at the X3 conductor. St George rates X3 as one of its best targets in the current drill program, partly because of its stand-out conductivity.

Perth-based Myanmar Metals is working hard to create a new chapter in the life of one of the worlds most fabled lead-zinc mines, the Bawdwin deposit in northeast Myanmar, where drilling began this week. A 5,000-metre drilling program is now underway to boost confidence in an already impressive estimate for the potentially world class lead/zinc resource.

Geopacific Resources has reminded investors there is more to the company than just their flagship Woodlark gold project in PNG with news of a gold-silver discovery at their legacy Kou Sa project in northern Cambodia. The epithermal gold specialist this week reported a number of drill hits of high-grade gold in unusually wide zones of mineralisation that suggested potential for a big mineral system.