Matt Birney

Gold-focused explorer Classic Minerals is energised in its final run to production at its flagship Western Australian project after receiving approvals from the state regulator to assemble its gold processing plant and drill a water bore. Given water is required to run its plant, Classic sees the approval as an essential milestone towards processing.

Wiluna Mining Corporation has notched up a win in WA after its farm-in and joint-venture partner A-Cap Energy scored a series of positive nickel and cobalt results from a recently completed diamond-drilling program at its Wilconi project near Wiluna. According to the company, the probe took in roughly 1490 metres and represents a crucial milestone as it works towards a pre-feasibility study at the venture.

Off the back of strong vanadium demand, multi-element explorer Surefire Resources is looking to kick start its vanadium project in WA’s Mid West region. The company’s Victory Bore and Unaly Hill inferred resources combine to form a whopping 237Mt of ore going 0.43 per cent vanadium pentoxide and 5.9 per cent titanium dioxide with iron credits.

ASX-listed explorer White Cliff Minerals has boosted its WA-focused battery metals armoury after sealing a binding agreement to acquire explorer Abraxis Mining and its trio of adjacent tenement applications in the Pilbara that are considered highly prospective for lithium. The new ground spans 294 square kilometres and importantly borders two promising lithium projects.

Metal Hawk has seen early results from a recent air-core drilling program back up its geological modelling for the Commodore nickel sulphide discovery. The work at the mineralised komatiite system defined several nickel zones matching features mapped in a moving loop electromagnetic survey last month. It has now started a 3000 metre RC drilling program to bedrock-test priority nickel sulphide targets near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

St George Mining has nailed 5.2m of nickel copper sulphides in its very first drill test of downhole electromagnetic conductor targets at its Mt Alexander project. The company said the new intersection extends the high-grade Stricklands deposit 35m further northwest and confirms the extension of mineralisation down dip. Similar looking conductors are also scheduled to feel the drill bit along the 5km strike of the company’s Cathedrals Belt.

Fresh from discovering its own 330m tonne ore body, sharemarket darling Chalice Mining is set to get the rods spinning again – this time to test farm-in partner Venture Minerals’ conductors in the same geological province. Previous work at Venture Minerals’ South West project revealed multiple EM anomalies scattered across the 20km long Thor magnetic anomaly target area.

Valor Resources has mapped out five promising spectral anomalies at its Picha project, with trademark porphyry signatures indicating the explorer may be tantalisingly close to unearthing a porphyry-style deposit in its Peruvian precious metal hunt. The company’s project lies only 17km from Chucapaca, Peru's largest goldmine, where close to eight million ounces of gold equivalent has been defined.

Galan Lithium is pulling out all stops to get a DFS tabled for its massive lithium brine play in Argentina by the end of the year and the company expects to update its resource by quarter three this year after discovering potentially new mineral resource zones courtesy of a Transient Electromagnetic geophysical survey. The project already boasts a US$2.2b net present value and a seriously impressive set of pre-DFS numbers.

Gold and nickel explorer Great Southern Mining is bringing the drill back to its 100 per cent owned Duketon gold project to commence a 5000 metre RC program on the Southern Star orebody, where previous exploration yielded stunning results up to 56 g/t gold. The company is looking to focus on a southern extension of a lookalike magnetic high feature similar to the existing orebody.

Twenty Seven Co has entered an agreement with mega-miner Rio Tinto’s exploration arm covering a six month exclusive option period to explore for non-gold minerals at its North Rover project near Sandstone in WA. Rio can earn an 80 per cent interest in non-gold minerals at the tenement by spending $5 million on it.

Multi-element explorer Horizon Minerals has netted $2m in cash by divesting assets as it continues its expansive exploration campaign in WA. The company shed its shareholdings in Red Dirt Metals and Cyprium Metals in addition to the non-escrowed portion of Metal Hawk. The earnings pocketed from monetising its assets will be used to fund part of its ongoing large-scale multi-commodity drilling program.

It may be over half a century on but kick-starting gas supply out of the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin and the historic move to get oil flowing from the Bass Strait share similar themes. There’s an interesting discussion happening in Australia regarding energy security right now that assumes greater importance during times of high energy and/or geopolitical instability.

Gold developer Brightstar Resources has a rig in the wings for a 10,000m reverse circulation drilling program at its Cork Tree Well project in WA’s highly prospective Laverton gold belt. The company says the planned work is designed to significantly grow its resource in addition to hitting a new target that has historically recorded a 2m hit going 27.87 g/t gold.

Memphasys Limited has sold more units of its sperm separation system known as “Felix” to two of its current customers, Diagens Biotechnology Company in China and the Indian Women’s Centre IVF clinic in Coimbatore, India. According to the company, receiving repeat orders from patrons within its existing consumer base validates its business model and confirms its products efficiency across both research and clinical platforms.

Nickel-focused Estrella Resources continues to intersect more nickel-copper sulphides in drilling at its Carr Boyd nickel project 80km north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The company says it has hit a cumulative 17.5m of disseminated and blebby sulphides within a broader zone about 24m wide. The finding comes from 782m down a deep hole targeting below the company’s T5 nickel discovery.

Battery metals explorer Askari Metals is scoping several significant lithium exploration zones after project-wide targeting and modelling at its Yarrie Lithium project in Western Australia. The company says it plans to put its model to the test with an upcoming foray into the field as early as mid-April. During the program, Askari will sample in a variety of ways, including stream sediments and rock chips in addition to mapping.

American West Metals continues to put runs on the board after it stumped up a whopping 157-metre intercept of visual zinc and copper massive sulphide mineralisation from its fourth diamond drill hole at its West Desert project in Utah. The company says the rods are still spinning in its quest to expose the full extent of the underexplored resource.

Horizon Minerals has released positive results from a pre-feasibility study of its Cannon underground gold project. The project is projected to generate $10.1m of net cash flow over a 16-month mine life at a cost of $1873 per ounce of gold. Cannon is part of the company’s 1.15-million-ounce gold resource and ongoing cash flow is planned with the Cannon mine followed by further underground mines Penny’s Find and Rose Hill.

Venture Minerals has completed highly encouraging metallurgical drilling and appointed a senior mining engineer to complete its feasibility study for a new underground tin mine at Mount Lindsay, Tasmania. The undeveloped tin project is one of the largest in the world with more than 80,000 tonnes of tin and a globally significant critical metal content of 3,200,000 metric tonnes of tungsten.

Twenty Seven Co. has completed a 335-hole auger drilling program at its wholly-owned Yarbu gold project. Drilling targeted soil gold anomalies with more than 20 parts per billion gold in soil, where combined lead-zinc values were also anomalous. The highest priority target was a soil gold anomaly with dimensions of 1.9 km by 1.4km returning gold results up to 164 parts per billion.

Battery metals trailblazer Neometals and its partner SMS Group, have cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the joint venture’s lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Germany, marking the transition from a research and development program to a fully-fledged commercial enterprise. The partners are gearing up to recycle as much as 10 tonnes per day of battery feedstock, sourced from a German battery waste company.

Si6 Metals has unearthed promising hints of gold from an air core drilling blitz across a plethora of underexplored targets at its Monument gold project. The company is on the hunt for bulk-tonnage, syenite or ‘intrusive’ igneous rock-hosted gold mineralisation similar in style to the geological setting hosting Gold Field’s nearby seven-million-ounce Wallaby gold deposit, also in the Laverton Tectonic Zone in Western Australia.

St George Mining has identified five new nickel copper targets at its Mt Alexander project. The company said the conceptual targets are large and compelling, with little or no previous drilling. Seismic surveys are to be expanded to cover the new zones. Infill and extensional diamond drilling is also aiming at known, high-grade mineralisation in a bid to expand the Investigators and Stricklands deposits.

West Australian iron ore player CZR Resources has received more assays that seemingly support its strategy to grow mine life and production rates at its Robe Mesa iron ore project in the west Pilbara. The company says the project is poised for significant growth as the latest assays continue to reveal extensive direct shipping ore mineralisation from the surface and outside the resource area.

Podium Minerals has returned a set of exciting values in a re-assay of historic platinum group element intercepts that confirm high levels of rhodium and iridium mineralisation at its Parks Reef PGM project in WA. Assay results from 31 historic holes for over 700 samples confirm high-grade and high-value rhodium levels with more than 2,100 samples still awaiting assay results.

Neometals continues to lead from the front in the developing battery-chain supply network, sinking US$500,000 into private US battery start-up, Tyfast Energy Corp. A spin-off from the University of California, San Diego, Tyfast is the keeper of a proprietary vanadium-based anode technology set to drastically reduce charging times without compromising the high-energy density found in state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries.

Coda Minerals is finding further potential at its flagship Elizabeth Creek copper project in SA’s world-class Gawler Craton. The latest drill hole intersected a distinct copper-rich zone, indicating a possible southeast expansion of the interpreted IOCG mineralisation. It says a geologically distinct, copper-rich ‘bornite’ dominated zone was intercepted and an independent re-evaluation of the emerging area demonstrates its potential for more.

Infinity Lithium is on the front foot in developing the skills it will need as it pushes forward with developing its San José industrial lithium processing project near the Spanish city of Cáceres. The company has signed a collaboration agreement with the Extremadura Electric Mobility Cluster and the local business association LOABRE to provide training for local members within the framework of renewable energies.

Torian Resources has racked up additional significant gold intercepts that extend the resource boundaries at the company’s flagship Mt Stirling project just 8km from Red 5’s King Of The Hills gold mine in WA that has produced more than one million ounces of gold. Significant drill results recently returned include 33 metres grading 1.78 grams per tonne gold from 196m downhole.

Having just received the keys to its Sandstone project in Western Australia, gold developer Aurumin Limited is gearing up to begin systematically exploring with an initial round of auger drilling. The vehicle-mounted program, due to kick off next week, is designed to build on five near-mill targets handed over from the previous owner – plus test a further 36 targets generated by the company.

Aurum Resources has submitted its samples for assay from a maiden 18-hole drill program at its Penny South gold project located on the same interpreted structure as the Ramelius Resources owned Penny West and Penny North deposits in Sandstone, Western Australia. The company has opted for the fast-track photon assay process that cuts turnaround times from 6-12 weeks to just two.