Matt Birney

Newfield Resources has boasted higher than expected recoveries as it surges ever closer towards production at its Tongo diamond mine development in Sierra Leone. The ongoing works will enable access to the ore body and the establishment of the first mining stopes, signalling the transition from explorer and developer to producer. Initial production is slated to commence in June 2022.

Buru Energy has achieved a maiden natural gas flow from a conventional reservoir in WA’s Canning Basin. The Rafael 1 discovery produced a substantial gas flow with highly encouraging condensate co-production. Initial stabilised flows of 4 to 5 million cubic feet per day through a half inch choke included an estimated 20 to 30 barrels of condensate per million cubic feet of produced gas.

Gold explorer BMG Resources has wrapped up a diamond and aircore drilling blitz at its high-grade Abercromby gold project in the north-eastern Goldfields of WA. Drilling was designed to chase up a suite of wide gold hits from a previous reverse circulation campaign at the Capital prospect along with testing multiple grass roots targets generated from a recently completed ground geophysical program.

Alaska-focused oil explorer 88 Energy Limited is poised to spud the Merlin-2 well at its wholly owned Peregrine oil project in Alaska with mobilisation of the drilling rig to site complete. Merlin-2 is targeting a prospective resource of 652 million barrels of oil. Managing Director and CEO, Ashley Gilbert said success at Merlin-2 has the clear potential to be “transformational.”

Multi-element junior explorer Askari Metals has completed an expansive airborne reconnaissance site visit across its Yarrie lithium project in an escalation of its hunt for the highly sought-after white gold that sits at the heart of the EV minerals revolution. Located in Western Australia’s Eastern Pilbara, the project spans more than 1,700 square kilometres and is surrounded by some of the most significant hard rock lithium deposits in the world.

Mineral explorer Valor Resources has lit up an interesting geophysical anomaly at its Picha project in Peru. The 2km by 2km induced polarisation anomaly is believed to reflect potential copper-bearing sulphide mineralisation at depth related to a large porphyry body. The company has kicked up a clutch of compelling copper-silver targets from its combined geophysical and geochemical surveys that are begging to feel the drill bit.

Panther Metals has amassed high-grade nickel and cobalt zones in all drill holes assayed to date in a maiden program at the company’s flagship Coglia project just 70 kilometres east of Glencore’s Murrin Murrin mine about 880 kilometres east of Perth. Noteworthy results include 14 metres grading 1.17 per cent nickel from 49m downhole with an internal metre going 3.44 per cent nickel and 1,460 ppm cobalt.

Drilling by Javelin Minerals at its Coogee project 55 kilometres southeast of Kalgoorlie has delivered lower grade copper-gold hits over 40 metres wide and some shorter but very high-grade copper hits including two metres at 8.34 per cent copper. Another 19m intersection came in at 1.28 g/t gold and 0.15 per cent copper from 202m and included 9m at 1.75 g/t gold and 0.20 per cent copper from 202m.

Coda Minerals looks to be riding a winner at its Emmie Bluff Deeps IOCG-style copper discovery in South Australia after eyeing around 60 metres of chalcopyrite mineralisation in a recently completed step-out hole. The company says the cracking intercept has extended the strike length of the known mineralisation by nearly 60 per cent to 550m.

Calidus Resources has cleared its final construction hurdle on time and on budget, with commissioning now underway of its 100 per cent owned Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara region of WA. The company says it expects crushing and milling operations to start within the next eight weeks with first gold set to be poured approximately two weeks later.

Development of ASX-listed Adriatic Metals’ Vares high-grade silver project in Bosnia is accelerating with construction starting on time as the company firmly eyes production by the second quarter of 2023. Adriatic is in the throes of appointing mining contractors, engineering consultants and key personnel as it finalises test work and orders mechanical equipment.

Tambourah Metals is eyeing extensions to the known mineralisation at its Pilbara namesake project after recent soil sampling returned up to 3.05 grams per tonne gold. The project, located 85 kilometres southwest of Marble Bar, yielded plenty of other positive samples too with 177 of the 259 samples collected providing potential evidence of an extension to the existing mineralised zones.

Blackstone Minerals has tabled a stunning pre-feasibility study for its vertically integrated nickel mine and refinery project in Vietnam that shows a post-tax net present value as high as $3.57 billion at today’s nickel prices. Almost inexplicably the company says the US$854 million CAPEX required to build the project could be paid down in just 1.8 years from first production. It will churn out over half a billion US dollars a year in operating cashflows.

Aldoro Resources has uncovered a string of high-grade rubidium from a pegmatite rock chip sampling program at its Wyemandoo project approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Mount Magnet in WA. According to the company, the assay results pointed to “exceptional” grades of up to 1.24 per cent in individual samples and says lithium and tantalum were also present.

Soil assays from Strickland Metals’ Iroquois discovery show copper highs that map an interpreted feeder zone structure for zinc-lead mineralisation. The recent zinc-lead discovery is located on the western edge of the greater than 1.5km long feeder zone, creating excitement for the next round of drilling targeting the structure. Iroquois is in the Earaheedy Basin, WA’s newest base metals hotspot.

Meeka Gold has unveiled some strong rare earths numbers grading up to 2,563 parts per million total rare earth oxides after analysing historical drilling that had been testing for three of the 15 rare earth elements at its Cascade rare earth project in WA. 4,426 metres of reconnaissance drilling completed between 2012-2015 has been reviewed with the final metre of each drill hole previously assayed for only 3 of 15 rare earths.

ABx Group has signed a joint venture agreement with Alumin to develop its Sunrise bauxite mine and port project. The mine is expected to have a 20-year life and provide 50 direct local jobs. Situated 115km from Bundaberg Port in Queensland it is anticipated the mine will initially export 500,000 tonnes per year of metallurgical grade bauxite, scaling up to 2 million tonnes per year.

After months of Covid-impacted labour shortages, Buru Energy has begun the process of well testing at its Rafael 1 oil and gas well in WA’s Canning Basin. The company has started the clean up process in anticipation of turning the taps on, opening up the valves and finally ascertaining definitive flow rates from November’s ‘wet gas’ discovery. A robust result could lead to Buru’s second major development in the area.

Canadian listed gold producer Novo Resources Corporation has struck high grade gold up to a serious 91 grams per tonne, or nearly 3 ounces to the tonne, through rock chip sampling at the historic Pilgrims Rest gold mine within the company’s Station peak prospect in Western Australia. Other notable high grade rock chips were 30 g/t gold, 13 g/t gold and 12 g/t gold.

Tambourah has captured 17 priority targets in its battery metals search after a detailed data analysis of the Wongan Hills South project in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The targets were generated using available geophysics and the project’s database. The Wongan Hills South project is part of Tambourah’s larger Julimar North project in what is fast emerging as Australia’s most exciting PGE-nickel-copper-cobalt mineral field.

Cyclone Metals has acquired six exploration projects in New Zealand covering gold, copper, nickel and platinum group elements. Highlights include the Muirs project containing 222,000 ounces of gold near the 45 million ounce Hauraki goldfield. At the Mareburn project drill hits include 10m at 2.4 g/t gold and it is only 8km from the 10-million-ounce Macraes gold mine.

CZR Resources has received assays from the first 55 holes of a larger drill campaign that indicate the potential for a massive upgrade to direct shipping iron ore resources at Robe Mesa in the Pilbara. Resource increases are anticipated from extensive mineralized hits outside current resource blocks and from the lower ore horizon below existing pit designs.

Trigg Mining is set to directly benefit from $678 million in government funding earmarked to upgrade “The Outback Way” linking Laverton in WA to Winton in Queensland. The funding will be used to seal the road extending from 40km east of Laverton to the WA-NT border, passing through Trigg’s tenure connecting the company’s developing Lake Throssel potash project with key domestic and international export markets.

ASX-listed Metal Hawk has lit up a string of bedrock conductors, potentially pointing to the presence of massive nickel sulphides following a ground electromagnetic survey at its Berehaven project located some 20km southeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Several of the identified conductors lie along strike from the company’s exciting massive nickel-sulphide Commodore discovery which has returned assays up to 5.89 per cent nickel.

Godolphin Resources has dated the mineralisation at its Turrawonga prospect within its Copper Hill East project in NSW which it says is remarkably similar to the massive Cadia and Boda copper-gold discoveries in the region. The company believes its porphyry intrusions date back to the Ordovician age, the same age as many major discoveries that hug the lucrative Molong Volcanic Belt in NSW.

Strickland Metals is hitting its Millrose gold project in WA hard with three drill rigs to remain on site for much of 2022. Drilling is currently focused on laterite hosted gold near surface and strike and depth extensions are key targets in a big push to add to the existing 603,000-ounce gold resource ahead of the development of a mining plan.

Surefire Resources may be poised to unwrap a parcel of polymetallic treasures after a high−resolution aeromagnetic survey and first-pass exploration work at its Kadji Project in the West Yilgarn region of WA confirmed the presence of nickeliferous ultramafic lithologies. The project is considered highly prospective for nickel, copper and platinum group elements and is in the same province as Chalice Mining’s Julimar Gonneville discovery.

Infill drilling by ASX-listed PolarX at its Caribou Dome copper deposit in Alaska has returned assays hitting an eye-watering 15 per cent copper underscoring the uber high-grade potential at the project. One notable intercept returned 19.09 metres at 7 per cent copper from 45m downhole and contained a high-grade interval of 3.98m going a staggering 14.8 per cent copper.

ASX-listed Okapi Resources has expanded its US uranium portfolio after staking more than 460 claims covering 3,600 hectares to acquire the high-grade Maybell Uranium project in Colorado. According to the company, the tenements boast historical production figures of 5.3 million pounds of uranium trioxide with a cracking average grade of around 1,300 parts per million.

Junior nickel explorer St George Mining has identified a strong off-hole conductor through down hole electromagnetic surveying nearby another at its Mt Alexander nickel-copper project in WA it believes may be a potential 70m long conductive horizon. The company says the off-hole conductivity readings are interpreted to be consistent with massive nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation and could represent an exploration breakthrough at the project.

Empire Energy’s exploration grants, rescinded by the Federal Court of Australia in late 2021, have been reinstated by the Federal Government providing almost $20 million in funding to Beetaloo Basin exploration. The package will cover 25 per cent of the cost of seismic data acquisition in addition to the drilling, fracture stimulation and flow testing of three horizontal appraisal wells.

ASX-listed junior explorer Askari Metals has capped off the second phase of drilling at its prospective Burracoppin gold project in Western Australia’s eastern wheatbelt. The company completed 1,300 metres over 13 reverse circulation holes following on from a number of significant strikes in the first pass. The junior has its eyes on a third round as it keenly awaits assay results.