Matt Birney

Aruma Resources has returned high-grade lithium and rubidium results from a surface rock chip sampling program at its fully owned Mt Deans lithium project in south-eastern WA. Results included high-grade lithium of up to 1.96 per cent lithium oxide and very high-grade rubidium of up to 1.42 per cent rubidium oxide. A total of 11 samples were taken along a 500m strike.

Adriatic Metals has its foot down on construction of its Vares high-grade zinc-silver project in Bosnia and Herzegovina as it works towards opening its namesake mine and processing plant next year. The company says a newly appointed drilling contractor has delivered a dramatic increase in productivity in converting the Rupice ore body, increasing confidence in its mineral resource.

After an air core drilling campaign, mineral explorer Meeka Gold Limited has detected grades of up to 5791ppm TREO over an expansive 1143 square kilometre region at the company’s Cascade rare earth elements project in WA. The assays reveal shallow and high-grade mineralisation up to 24m thick, with a standout strike of 4m at 5791ppm TREO unearthed within a 16m zone running 2223ppm TREO.

Junior explorer Emu NL has plans underway for further RC drilling at its Flying Emu prospect at Badja gold project near Yalgoo in Western Australia after early positive results. The first hole targeted from Emu’s stage three-drill program in April recorded a 9m hit at 3.44 g/t gold from 39m downhole, including 2m at 10.14 g/t.

Initial assays from gold and nickel explorer Metal Hawk have come up trumps, with results from five diamond drilling holes from its Commodore prospect at the Berehaven project in WA returning gold hits, its best zone grading 38.5 grams per tonne. Nickel was also discovered with the company saying the result demonstrates a link with both the gold and nickel sulphide zones announced in February.

Godolphin Resources is one step closer to starting a proposed diamond drill program at its Narraburra rare earth project in NSW following its submission to the State regulators. The six-hole program has been fast-tracked after previously approved air core drilling was postponed because of waterlogged land conditions. Diamond drilling will start once approval is received.

Pirra Lithium, one of Australia’s newest lithium explorers, has started drilling at its Spear Hill project in WA’s Pilbara Craton region, testing a 1.2km stretch of outcropping lithium pegmatites where rock chips previously returned assays grading up to 2.34 per cent lithium oxide. Pirra is a 50-50 JV between Calidus Resources and Haoma Mining.

Mineral explorer Aurumin has kicked off a barrage of diamond drilling after completing the RC portion of its exploration campaign at the company’s 784,300-ounce Central Sandstone gold project in WA. Nine holes for 1245m of RC drilling on the project’s 86,500-ounce Shillington deposit have been completed in addition to five RC “pre-collars” for the explorer’s Two Mile Hill tonalite deposit.

ASX-listed explorer Kalgoorlie Gold continues to expand the size of its La Mascotte discovery in WA’s goldfields, with the prospect now extending to a 700m strike length. The company says the mineralisation remains open in every direction. Only last month KalGold doubled the strike length of La Mascotte to 500m on the back of rich results going 16 grams per tonne gold.

Venus Metals Corporation has hit returns of 5.8 and 3.6 per cent lithium dioxide from the latest round of exploration at its Henderson tenements near Menzies in Western Australia. Following the discovery of lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatites at Henderson in February, assay results from 89 rock samples showed 29 had more than 100 parts-per-million lithium dioxide.

After collecting lithium-rich soil samples from Askari Metals’ Barrow Creek lithium project in the NT’s Arunta pegmatite province, the company has now found lithium in its samples of rocks protruding through the soils. The find validates an extension of its interpreted zone of lithium mineralisation to a strike length of 3km.

Revitalised explorer Oar Resources is preparing for a 5,500m air core drilling program to flesh out the Oakdale graphite project in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. The company is aiming to upgrade Oakdale’s 2015 initial combined indicated and inferred JORC resource figure of 13.47 million tonnes at 3.3 per cent total graphitic carbon. Purified spherical graphite recently joined the Federal Government’s suite of critical minerals.

Toronto-listed Novo Resources has confirmed a 16km lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite swarm about 5km north of the Kurrana granite complex that it says hosts significant lithium-tantalum potential. According to the company, the Kurrana pegmatite trend is open to the south-west and to the east of the currently defined 16km prospective zone, potentially covering over 25km of strike length.

As its mammoth 23,000m RC and diamond program continues, ASX-listed gold junior Strickland Metals has confirmed surface laterite gold mineralisation directly above a northern section of its Millrose mineral resource at the company’s broader Yandal gold project in WA. Among a broad array of holes probing the shallow mineralisation, standout intercepts include 5m at 3.6 g/t gold and 4m at 3 g/t.

After drilling the first 12 holes of an RC campaign at its Yidby gold project in WA, Surefire Resources is now planning to kick off work with RC and diamond rigs at its advanced WA vanadium and iron assets. The company reports the holes at Yidby designed to test gold anomalies and step-out from previous exploration has now been completed with assay results pending.

A resource upgrade appears to be on the horizon for Kairos Minerals after receiving positive assay results from its RC drilling efforts at the company’s 873,500-ounce Mt York gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The explorer says its latest results are “highly encouraging” as it expects the broad grades to have a positive impact on the next resource estimate.

American West Metals says early findings from the first exploration drill hole completed at its fully owned West Desert project in Utah, United States show the possibility of a significant extension of the site’s known deposit. Geological logging and portable X-ray fluorescence results indicate broad intervals with elevated levels of zinc, copper and silver punctuated by high-grade zinc and copper zones.

St George Mining has launched an 18-hole diamond core drill search for copper and gold at its Paterson project in Western Australia’s East Pilbara region, aiming to prove up encouraging preliminary results from its maiden air core drill program last August. The company has already gone over the ground with airborne, electromagnetic and ground gravity surveys.

Diamond junior Newfield Resources has sold its first lot of diamonds produced from its mine in Sierra Leone for US$1.44 million at an average price of US$269 per carat. A total of 5330 carats were sold by tender, with single stones up to 9 carats in size. The sale was conducted by Bonas Group, the world’s largest global independent diamond and gemstone auction house.

North America-focused explorer Okapi Resources has extended the option date of its proposed acquisition of the Hansen uranium project in Colorado, US by 30 days to give both parties time to finalise and execute a definitive deal. The binding agreement with STB Minerals will allow Okapi to stretch its Tallahassee project resources by 81 per cent to 49.8 million pounds of triuranium octoxide.

Successful trials of one of its cancer killing technologies has given Chimeric Therapeutics the confidence to lock in a clinical platform deal that targets blood cancers and solid tumours. The company plans to convert the option it had over the Clinically validated, Off the shelf, Robust, Enhanced Natural Killer, or “CORE-NK” technology into an exclusive licence to develop multiple next- generation products.

Buru Energy and Chris Ellison’s Energy Resources have agreed to restructure their interests in the area known as Permit L20-1 in the Carnarvon Basin through a farmout by Buru to Energy Resources. Buru will assign an additional 25 per cent interest and operatorship of the area in the onshore Carnarvon Basin to EnRes. The resulting permit interests will be Buru 25 per cent and EnRes 75 per cent.

Meeka Gold has appointed Paul Chapman as Chairman, succeeding Tim Moore in the role. The gold and rare earths company has also elevated Chief Executive Officer Tim Davidson to Managing Director, in addition to CEO. Both appointments are effective immediately. Chapman is a chartered accountant and resources sector veteran with more than 30 years’ experience in Australia and the United States.

Gold and lithium explorer Ora Banda Mining has identified five new gold targets from a detailed mapping and rock chip sampling program in the Greater Callion area of the North-Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The targets will be tested with a reverse-circulation drill rig as early as possible in the coming financial year. A mapping and sampling program is continuing to further delineate the geological and structural settings.

Venus Metals has begun a 2500m drilling program at its Pincher Well zinc-copper prospect that is part of its Youanmi base metals project 600km north-east of Perth. The RC drilling will target an historically strong induced polarisation anomaly. The anomaly is just south of previously drilled high-grade zinc mineralisation that threw up a 10m hit going 7.31 per cent zinc from 52m.

With the humble home getting smarter and smarter, the opportunities associated with smart home products are endless and ASX-listed Zimi Ltd has positioned itself in the vanguard of the new wave of players. Zimi’s smart power points and switches are next level and the company already has product in the market via distribution agreements with a seriously big retailer and a wholesaler that supplies almost 1000 stores.

Estrella Resources has begun resource confirmation drilling at its Spargoville nickel project in Kambalda as it prepares to produce a definitive feasibility study of its 5A nickel mine resource. Drilling contractor Topdrive Drillers Australia has mobilised at the project, that Estrella acquired in late 2017 with planning ongoing for an open pit cutback at the site’s 5A nickel mine.

Asra Minerals, formerly Torian Resources, has announced new high-grade gold hits at its Mt Stirling project near Leonora in WA, setting the scene for an anticipated resource upgrade, expected later this month. Following the discovery of rare earths at Mt Stirling back in January, Asra has opened up a second front at the project that is rapidly becoming a multi-mineral play.

ASX-listed Quantum Graphite has executed a binding offtake agreement with Swiss-based global metal and minerals trading group MRI Trading AG for 100 per cent of stage 1 production from its Uley 2 flake graphite mine. The five-year agreement will add flake graphite to MRI’s existing mineral coverage and provide Quantum with access to the trader’s customer base across Europe and Japan.

Gold explorer DiscovEx Resources has discovered multiple gold anomalies at its Sylvania project, 15km south-west of Newman in WA, after combing through its ground with a geochemical surface sampling program. Multiple trends above 15 parts per billion gold at the company’s newly identified Contact prospect were delineated over a 2km strike length within prospective Archean greenstone rocks.

Estrella Resources says an appreciation in nickel prices will see it accelerate development plans for its Spargoville project located about 20km southwest of Kambalda, WA. The company picked up the rights to the operation during a lull in the nickel price and believes under current conditions it could be scrubbed up to be a lucrative play that warrants the mine's development.

Image Resources has revealed a more than ten-fold increase in its total mineral sand stocks in an updated mineral resource estimate following its acquisition of the McCalls project near Gingin in WA. The company’s holding now stands at 6.4 billion tonnes after securing the asset in March in a deal worth $12 million.