Matt Birney

Results from Askari Metals’ recent soil sampling program have grown the extent of mineralisation at the company’s Barrow Creek lithium project in the NT. The mineralised zone containing multiple lithium-caesium-tantalum type pegmatites has now been extended to an area of 2.8km by 1.9km and remains open in all directions. Notably, significant surface strike extensions of the fertile pegmatite zones identified in the first phase of exploration have been made.

Calidus Resources’ recent spin-off Pirra Lithium has produced another grab bag of high-grade results from its latest rock-chip sampling and mapping program at the company’s Spear Hill discovery in WA’s emerging East Pilbara lithium field. The recently identified pegmatite has been mapped out over 2.5km in strike with assays yielding up to an impressive 2.75 per cent lithium oxide.

Kula Gold’s first pass soil sampling over its wholly-owned Brunswick project in WA’s southwest has returned gold, platinum, palladium and copper anomalies over a magnetic feature it has dubbed the Hippy Lady prospect. The company believes the target is prospective for Julimar-style mineralisation and is now planning a follow up infill soils program to home in on future drilling locations.

Surefire has used a historical data review to light up 15 priority gold and nickel targets at its newly granted Perenjori West tenure, 300km northeast of Perth. The under explored tenure lies within the West Yilgarn nickel-copper-PGE province that has been the recent focus of intense exploration following the discovery of Chalice Mining’s world-class Julimar PGE deposit.

Wiluna Mining’s foray into drill-testing the down-plunge extensions of high-grade gold mineralisation at the historically-significant East Lode has come up trumps, returning an impressive 9.4 metres at 4.87 grams per tonne gold that included 1.8m delivering 9.74g/t of the precious yellow metal. The mineralisation was reportedly intercepted 200m below historical workings and the current mineral resource envelope.

King River Resources says salt roast test work with Murdoch University has delivered exceptional first-pass extraction results of up to 92 per cent vanadium concentrate using ore from its Speewah deposit in the Kimberley region of WA. The company is currently hammering away on a new green process flowsheet to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide, vanadium electrolyte, titanium dioxide and metallic iron from the deposit.

Mineral explorer Aurumin has completed a lithium-focused drilling program into its Mt Palmer gold project in WA, coinciding with the return of positive soil sample results. The 12-hole program drilled 1212m into target B of the Vickers Find South prospect and intersected pegmatites ranging from one to 40m in thickness in 11 of the 12 holes. Assays to reveal the lithium content are currently pending.

88 Energy’s hunch reservoirs charging an adjacent oil discovery might continue into its Icewine project acreage on the Alaskan North Slope looks to have paid off with third-party mapping interpreting three target reservoir units extending into the company’s permit areas. An in-depth petrophysical re-evaluation of Icewine-1 and the broader area has been carried out by independent petrophysical consultants.

Mining software developer K2fly has sealed a one-year deal worth $2.12 million with BHP to roll out its ground disturbance solution data management system to the mega-miner’s iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The company now provides its ground disturbance solution to the three biggest iron ore players in WA, with Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group also on the roll call.

Junior explorer Twenty Seven Co has unveiled a slew of gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies at its Yarbu gold project, 160km northeast of Southern Cross in Western Australia. The latest round of auger drilling has confirmed three previous anomalies etched out from last year’s program along with highlighting a new target area with samples grading up to 92.7 parts per billion gold.

Shares in DiscovEx Resources soared more than 20 per cent on intraday trading after its JV partner Carnaby Resources seized another stunning set of drill results from ongoing work at its Greater Duchess copper-gold project near Mt Isa in Queensland. Amongst the most recent figures was a 42m section going 3.6 per cent copper and 0.5 grams per tonne gold from 63m.

Five years ago Calidus Resources pulled off what many thought was an impossible task – the bringing together of multiple disparate parties who owned gold leases in the Pilbara within cooee of each other. Since then, Calidus has exquisitely executed a strategy of drilling out those leases, pulling together a resource and a reserve and this week, the company managed to achieve what many others could not – a maiden gold pour.

DiscovEx Resources has revealed a highly-encouraging gold in soil anomaly through geochemical sampling at its Edjudina project 250km northeast of Kalgoorlie, WA. The delineated zone exhibits more than 50ppb gold continuously for 1.3km with some results going as high as 100ppb. The company’s newly-defined zone has been coined the Spartan prospect and sits within a broader 1.8km anomaly of 25ppb gold.

Terrain Minerals has been granted three new exploration tenements covering 320 square kilometres of the highly prospective ‘rare earths province’ near Esperance. The largest new tenement is surrounded on three sides by Meeka Gold Limited that recently released results showing large areas of regolith hosted rare earths, including a strong and extensive anomaly adjoining Terrain’s ground to the south.

Multi-element explorer Askari Metals has wrapped up a project-wide exploration campaign at its Yarrie lithium project in WA, 50km northeast of Marble Bar. Viewing the project through a geological lens, the company previously revealed several significant and high-priority targets that have now all been inspected and sampled in the field. In total 129 rock and 238 stream sediment samples were collected.

Perth-based plastic pipe manufacturer Polyline Pipe Systems is gearing up to disrupt the industrial pipe industry with its revolutionary hi-tech “mobile pipe extruder”. The company is looking to list on the ASX next year and has already secured at least one ASX-listed mining client who says its onsite pipe manufacturing technology has “significantly reduced” transportation costs.

The Democratic Republic of Congo Minister of Mines has signed a ministerial decree to award a mining licence to AVZ Minerals and its flagship lithium and tin deposit – hailed as one of the largest undeveloped hard rock lithium deposits in the world. The inking of the decree was the last of the procedural hurdles ahead of the official award of the licence the junior explorer so eagerly awaits.

A pit re-optimisation, the inclusion of vanadium credits and a change of plant location has turbo-charged Toro Energy’s plan for its WA based Lake Maitland uranium project, leading to a potential 48 per cent hike in uranium production over the life of mine to 23.5 million pounds from 15.8 million pounds and potential vanadium oxide production of 12.2 million pounds.

Aldoro Resources is just days from starting to drill at its high-grade rubidium-lithium pegmatites at the company’s Wyemandoo project, 60km southeast of Mt Magnet in WA. Previous surface sampling returned high-grade rubidium to 1.82 per cent and lithium to 1.08 per cent. Metallurgical studies are underway to determine the most cost-effective beneficiation process and extraction efficiencies.

Si6 Metals is gearing up to spin the drill bit at its Monument gold project in WA. The 140-hole 5000m air-core program is expected to run for two weeks as the company tests its high-priority intrusive targets identified from the first air core campaign in late 2021. High-priority structural targets along major regional structures identified from geophysical interpretations will also be tested.

Great Southern Mining has been awarded a Western Australian Government Exploration Incentive Scheme grant for its East Laverton nickel project. The EIS grant will co-fund up to $220,000 for RC and diamond drilling of bedrock conductors prospective for massive and disseminated nickel sulphides. The two conductors identified from electromagnetic surveys present compelling targets for Nova/Bollinger nickel-copper and Voisey Bay nickel style deposits.

The final chapter of resource definition and expansion drilling at American West Metals’ West Desert project in Utah has ended with a bang after the latest two holes sunk at the venture delivered strong visual copper, zinc and molybdenum mineralisation. The venture believes its latest phase of drilling caps an impressive campaign that has underlined the quality and scale of the operation.

Surefire Resources says an updated beneficiation scoping study for its wholly-owned Victory Bore vanadium project, 530km northeast of Perth in WA, has underlined the economic viability of the venture. The company has its hands on a 151 million tonne resource at 0.44 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 25 per cent iron and 6.73 per cent titanium dioxide at the operation.

Cyclone Metals has started its maiden New Zealand exploration program at its newly-acquired Mareburn and Macraes South gold projects. The projects are located adjacent to OceanaGold Corporation's 10-million-ounce Macraes gold deposit currently producing 155,000 ounces per year. Geochemical sampling will target known gold mineralisation and favourable cross-cutting structures that may mimic the 80-million-ounce Carlin trend in Nevada.

Torian Resources has bolstered its heavy rare earths portfolio after a new discovery at its Mt Stirling project in Western Australia. The company believes ongoing work at the venture has identified additional yttrium oxide mineralisation and has labelled the new prospect Wishbone. Interestingly, the finding is within earshot of its recently announced Yttria heavy rare earths prospect.

St George has announced a major expansion of exploration for its four WA based projects. Work at Mt Alexander will test new nickel-copper-PGE targets and extensions to existing high-grade shallow deposits. The hunt for Winu style deposits at its Paterson project is planned to start in May. Whilst at the company’s Ajana and Broadview projects exploration will target Nova/Bollinger and Julimar style mafic intrusion hosted nickel-copper-PGE targets.

Blackstone Minerals has bolstered its engineering horsepower with GR Engineering Services as it heads towards the delivery of a definitive feasibility study into its upstream Ta Khoa Nickel Project. The ASX-listed addition is hailed as a ‘Tier 1’ process engineering, design and construction advisory company and will man the role of Blackstone’s primary consultant.

Gold-focused Horizon Minerals and joint venture partner Richmond Vanadium Technology have settled on the path forward for the development of the duo’s shared vanadium venture in central north Queensland. The pair have agreed Richmond will be the dedicated IPO vehicle to drive the project – that Horizon holds a 25 per cent interest in – to an ASX listing in September or October.

Infinity Lithium subsidiary Infinity GreenTech has inked a deal with Murdoch University that will see the duo form a partnership to commercially test work on a lithium chemical conversion process called ‘GreenTech RPK’. According to the company, a victory in the space could allow it to breathe new life into previously-unviable lithium deposits.

Strickland Metals says it has an emerging large gold system at its Millrose project as the explorer continues to find gold aplenty. The first hole north of known resources returned 54m at 1.8 g/t gold from 130m including 23m grading 2.4 g/t gold. Drilling beneath existing resources returned 95.5m going at 2.0 g/t gold including a high-grade intercept of 8m at 14.6 g/t gold from 215m.

Gold and rare earths explorer Meeka Gold Limited is aiming to bolt on another gold discovery to match its flagship Murchison gold project. The company is continuing to drill out its Circle Valley project in the Albany-Fraser Mobile Belt in WA’s south with the aspiration of transforming the project into one to match the nearby Tropicana mine.

Shares in gold explorer DiscovEx Resources vaulted more than 28 per cent on intraday trading following an announcement it had executed two binding-option agreements with Rio Tinto that allow the mining behemoth to acquire 100 per cent of the iron ore rights for four tenements within the Sylvania project, 15km southwest of Newman in Western Australia.