Matt Birney

Test work on rare earths samples collected from ABx Group’s Deep Leads and Rubble Mound deposits in northern Tasmania have delivered Australia’s highest reported clay-hosted rare earths extraction rates with returns of up to 83 per cent. In addition, the program unearthed a wave of potential extensions to the zones’ mineralisation and the company has now mobilised a drill rig to test the newly identified zones.

Green energy metals explorer and developer Octava Minerals and its JV partner Future Metals have received an early boost from their freshly minted joint venture. Future Metals has identified broad zones of disseminated magmatic nickel-copper and platinum group elements sulphides at its Panton project that crosses into the tenement they share, Panton North, which is located in a Tier 1 nickel sulphide-PGM province in the East Kimberley region of WA.

Perth-based minerals explorer Surefire Resources has appointed as managing director a highly experienced resources executive with a 30-year career in exploration and mining. Paul Burton is a geologist with an MSc in Mineral Exploration from McGill University, Canada and was recently the MD of Tivan, formerly TNG. His experience in vanadium will be welcome at Surefire which has massive vanadium resources in WA.

St George Mining has entered into a binding agreement for an option to pick up the Woolgangie critical metals project that covers around 1200 square kilometres in the Goldfields region of WA. The company says Woolgangie is prospective for lithium, nickel-copper sulphides and ionic clay-hosted rare earths mineralisation. The package includes nine granted or in application exploration licences and extends south-west of Coolgardie and west of Kambalda.

Askari Metals has commenced a project wide mapping and sampling program across part of its Uis lithium project in Namibia after its first phase of drilling hit visible lithium in addition to tantalum and tin. The company says most of the project remains unexplored, something the current program will be looking to rectify before the company launches its second phase of drilling.

Legend Mining has declared a maiden nickel-copper-cobalt resource at its Mawson deposit in the Fraser Range that it says still has plenty of room to grow and is currently comparable to about a year’s worth of production from heavyweight Fraser Range neighbour IGO’s Nova discovery. The initial estimate clocks in at 1.45Mt at 1.14 per cent nickel, 0.74 per cent copper and 0.07 per cent cobalt.

DiscovEx Resources’ JV partner, Carnaby Resources continues to kick goals in Queensland announcing a suite of prominent precious and battery metal strikes at the duo’s Greater Duchess project in the Mt Isa region. The campaign was headlined by a 6m parcel grading a sky-high 6.7 per cent copper and 1.2 grams per tonne gold from 77m at the emerging Burke & Wills discovery.

Brightstar Resources is set to kick off a fresh 6300m RC drilling campaign at its flagship Cork Tree Well project as it looks to extend its gold mineralisation along strike to the north and at depth. The company says the 30 hole program will also include infill drilling at the project’s main structure as it looks to convert inferred mineralisation into indicated JORC resource status.

Queensland-based and WA-focused explorer Infinity Mining has wasted little time getting boots on the ground for what promises to be a big year of drilling, opening its 2023 campaign in the Central Goldfields. On the look-out for gold, lithium and rare earths, Infinity has about 2000m of RC drilling planned for this year across several of its WA tenements.

Minerals explorer Godolphin Resources is pocketing a handy $100,000 grant from the NSW Government to help fund its next drilling campaign at its promising Cyclops copper prospect north of Yeoval in the state’s central west. The grant comes from the Government’s New Frontiers Exploration program as part of the NSW Government’s Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy.

Middle Island Resources is widening its copper-gold chase at its Barkly project in the NT with its maiden drilling program throwing up all the trademarks of an iron oxide-copper-gold style mineralisation. The company has been on the hunt for all available sources of data to build into its geological model as it awaits final assay results from the four-hole probe.

Surefire Resources’ Victory Bore deposit in WA’s Mid West, is looking like the gift that keeps on giving after a program of 62 RC holes for 5189m delivered a 56 per increase in the operation’s already hefty vanadium resource. The asset now tips the scales at 235 million tonnes at 0.39 per cent vanadium pentoxide.

Mineral sands producer Image Resources has posted a productive quarter with higher ore tonnes processed than forecast at its flagship wholly owned, high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project, located 80km north of Perth in the North Perth Basin in WA. Lower ore grades were partially offset by the higher production and heavy mineral concentrate sales were in line with forecast.

ASX-listed Sydney-based reproductive biotechnology company Memphasys has received a tick of approval for its trademarked sperm separation device, Felix, in an article published by a leading medical magazine specialising in male reproductive and urological issues. Felix has been nominated by Memphasys as one of its three priorities in 2023 to deliver the highest and quickest commercial returns.

Ora Banda Mining is steadying itself for a year of strong gold production with lower costs at its mining operation in WA’s Goldfields. The company’s ongoing improvement strategies have boosted its key performance indicators by increasing mining productivity and ounces mined. A string of strong exploration results will feed into an updated mineral resource estimate slated for February this year.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia has enjoyed a record-setting December quarter with the company increasing revenue from customers by more than $200,000 to $1.261 million in addition to a significant reduction in operating costs. The latest figures are more than double the $488,000 made in receipts from customers in the corresponding December quarter of 2021 and appears to be a record for Lithium Australia.

Perth-based Buru Energy reeled in $3.7 million over the December period after exporting about 73,000 barrels of crude oil from the company’s Ungani oilfield near Broome in WA. The figure represents a 50 per cent slice of the producer’s operating interest in the conventional field with the balance filling the coffers of project partner Roc Oil Company.

Minerals explorer Auric Mining has uncovered significant enrichment of rare earth elements along a 7km-long strike at its Chalice West project near Norseman with a swag of assay results indicating the widespread rare earths mineralisation including valuable magnet rare earths critical for high-tech products. Auric says a prominent magnetic feature in the project’s centre is also promising and needs drilling.

DiscovEx Resources has lit up a geophysical target on a freshly granted patch of dirt along strike from Capricorn Metals 2.2-million-ounce Karlawinda gold project in WA’s Pilbara goldfields. Complementing the company’s extensive Sylvania land package near Newman, the company has wasted no time in getting boots-on-ground to complete a ground gravity geophysical survey in its hunt for the precious yellow metal.

With all assay results from its recent air-core drill program at its Chalice West project now back from the laboratory, Auric Mining says widespread gold and nickel mineralisation can be added to its rare earth elements discovery. The latest results include another five holes returning anomalous gold values and anomalous nickel intercepts were also returned in a further five drill holes.

Okapi Resources has engaged BRS Engineering to spearhead a technical study into its Maybell uranium project in Colorado which historically produced 5.3 million pounds of uranium. The company’s recent land grab at the project comes laden with key geological data and technical reports. Okapi has entrusted the US-based consultancy to sift through the valuable data as it looks to unlock the potential of the Maybell uranium project.

Panther Metals has been buoyed by initial testing results of samples from its Coglia nickel-cobalt project in the WA Goldfields that returned final nickel extraction levels of 92.6 per cent. The test work was based on a blended sample obtained from the company’s maiden drilling program. Panther says the high-pressure acid leach testing indicated the potential to further upgrade the nickel grade through beneficiation.

Ultrafine soil sampling results have revealed gold in soil anomalism generating several fresh targets on a recently acquired tenement along a 1.4km zone on the Sandstone Greenstone belt. The site, that sits in Aurumin’s Central Sandstone project and near its Two Mile Hill deposit lies about 520km north-east of Perth where the company says the newly generated targets will help inform planning for the next drill program.

Asra Minerals is putting the finishing touches on its 2023 exploration assault at its multi-commodity Mt Stirling project near Leonora in WA following extensive data compilation and a comprehensive technical review. The company’s vast land holding, in the shadow of Red 5’s King of the Hill gold operations, houses multiple gold resources along with multiple intriguing rare earths and critical metals discoveries at Yttria and Wishbone.

West Perth-based Zuleika Gold is itching to get the drill bit back in the ground after discovering a 3km-long gold-in-soil anomaly at one of the company’s prospects along the prolific Zuleika Shear zone in the WA Goldfields. Zuleika says geochemical results from 1100 soil samples at its Zuleika project are “very encouraging” and hopes to launch a drill campaign in March.

ASX-listed oil producer Triangle Energy has closed the book on a solid December quarter, tabling a host of milestones including its second oil delivery to a refinery in Thailand via an all-new shipping route, farming out two gas prospective permits to Talon Energy and raking in $6.6 million courtesy of oil sales associated with its Cliff Head joint venture partnership with Pilot Energy.

Neometals has forged links with a subsidiary of Australian Vanadium Limited to potentially establish a shared vanadium- titanium processing hub in West Australia’s Mid West region. The non-binding term sheet also allows the affiliate company the option to purchase and treat concentrate derived from Neometals’ massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium project near Sandstone in WA.

Altech Chemicals has finalised the design of a 100MWh battery plant capable of producing 60KWh battery packs that utilise table salt instead of lithium and other metals normally found in a lithium-ion battery after two workshops in Germany. The company says its devices offer safer, longer-term power solutions without the threat of price hikes and supply chain issues that plague the production of critical metal-infused products.

Kairos Minerals has landed a slew of anomalous lithium-in-soil results nestled within an emerging pegmatite province 100km east of Kalgoorlie and in the shadow of Global Lithium’s 32.7Mt Manna lithium deposit. The freshly minted “Crystal Palace” prospect has been etched out from the first batch of specimens from an extensive 6000-sample soil program the company is conducting over its Roe Hills tenure.

Meeka Metals has begun infill drilling at its Circle Valley rare earths project near Esperance as the company looks toward delivering an initial mineral resource for the site in the June quarter of this year. Last year the explorer produced some impressive results from its maiden drill program at the operation with highlights including one assay that went 12m at 2690 parts per million total rare earth oxides from 20m including 4m at a mammoth 6894ppm TREO from 24m.

Battery metal explorer Askari Metals has uncovered a mixed bag of anomalous rare earths whilst hunting for lithium at its Barrow Creek project in NT’s coveted Arunta Block, home to WA1 Resources major rare earths and niobium discovery. Recent rock chip sampling over a prospective lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite swarm returned the eye-catching results peaking at 4553 ppm total rare earth oxide.

Okapi Resources is set to become the single largest shareholder of a private Australian company developing and commercialising a bleeding-edge uranium enrichment technology after entering into a binding agreement with Ubaryon. Okapi currently has its foot on a suite of uranium assets in North America and says the investment will help it manufacture a processed form of uranium that is typically imported from Russia.