Matt Birney

Meeka Gold Limited has discovered a new, shallow lying oxide gold lode amongst a slew of other high grade hits, adding to the company’s ongoing success with the drill bit at its Murchison gold project in WA. Excellent shallow intercepts from recent drilling include 16 metres grading 6.67 grams per tonne gold from just 20m downhole with a 4m internal section going 24.1g/t gold.

If billionaire “prospector” Mark Creasy has the Midas touch when it comes to divining lucrative mineral deposits, Paul Hopper just might be the man who wields the mythical rod of Asclepius - the Greek God of medicine - when it comes to the equally lucrative ASX-listed biotechnology space. By any measure Hopper has experienced success listing and developing biotech companies on the ASX – and the last year was a good one.

Classic Minerals has only one hurdle left to clear now to develop its Kat Gap gold mine near Southern Cross after being given a permit to clear native vegetation for its mine and processing plant in WA’s goldfields. The company only needs regulatory approval for its mining proposal now including the mine closure plan before it can kick its operation into gear.

Strickland Metals’ second-string Iroquois project in the northern goldfields is continuing to jostle attention away from its better addressed Yandal greenstone belt Strickland stablemates, the Horse Well and Millrose projects. Iroquois has been throwing up some impressive zinc hits to back up last year’s initial discovery and it appears that Strickland now has yet another serious project on its books.

ASX-listed explorer Zuleika Gold is set to embark on major expansionary drilling programs across its Kalgoorlie gold projects. After a significant effort in 2021, the company is gearing up to plough an additional 20,000 metres into the ground for what will ultimately be a serious 40,000m campaign over two years for the Mark Creasy backed junior.

ASX-listed American West Metals has made a promising start to its US metals hunt after spotting extensive visual zinc and copper mineralisation in the first diamond hole at its West Desert project in Utah. The discovery forms part of an inaugural 7,500 metre probe at the project aimed at testing the continuity of the high-grade mineralisation.

ASX-listed junior explorer Metal Hawk has hit serious paydirt again at its Berehaven project, 20 kilometres south-east of Kalgoorlie in the West Australian Goldfields. Assays have confirmed a high-grade gold zone of five metres grading 7.2 grams per tonne gold is sitting below the company’s high-grade nickel zone identified last year. Promisingly, mineralisation remains open in all directions.

Junior gold explorer Great Southern Mining says a two-hole probe of its Southern Star deposit has confirmed a significant mineralised system. The deposit forms part of the Duketon gold project about 45 kilometres north of Laverton in WA. The company says both diamond holes intersected a mineralised quartz dolerite unit and gold-bearing assemblages that could be part of a larger system.

Trigg Mining has placed an additional $700,000 worth of shares following an oversubscribed $3.3 million share placement that received attention from new and existing investors, boosting the total capital raise to $4m. The extra proceeds will increase Trigg’s cash reserves to a formidable $7m, putting it in a strong position to progress its pre-feasibility study at the company’s Lake Throssel sulphate of potash project in WA.

DiscovEx Resources’ and joint venture partner Carnaby Resources’ remarkable Nil Desperandum prospect within the Greater Duchess copper gold project is looking like the gift that keeps on giving after the duo announced an extension of wide zones of copper mineralisation. Carnaby, the majority owner of the project in Mt Isa, Queensland, says the copper grades look to be increasing at depth.

Base metals and gold junior Todd River Resources has joined the ever-increasing ranks of explorers suffering from slowdowns at Australian assay labs as it waits for results from recent drilling. The company is eager to get follow-up work on the Berkshire Valley project underway prior to the start of this year’s crop seeding season as its nickel copper palladium group project sits in WA’s wheatbelt.

Aurum Resources has hit sulphides in all drillholes bar one as part of a maiden drilling campaign at its Penny South gold project. The activity is targeting structural anomalies along strike from the high-grade Ramelius owned Penny North deposit and the historical high-grade Penny West mine. The company is currently halfway through an 18 hole program for a total of 5,000 metres.

ASX-listed junior explorer Askari Metals is enjoying some early success at its newly acquired Barrow Creek Lithium Project in the renowned Arunta pegmatite province of the Northern Territory. Spontaneous sampling whilst the company was performing due diligence in its acquisition of the project revealed rocks running at an encouraging 817 parts per million lithium oxide. Askari is now gearing up for further exploration.

Image Resources has announced its intention to pay a 2 cent fully franked dividend after it receives the final results from the 2021 calendar year which it says are strong. The continued solid demand for Image’s heavy mineral sands from its Boonanarring project 80km north of Perth along with buoyed mineral sands prices and some cost control has resulted in a bumper calendar year for the Perth based company.

Infinity Lithium has chalked off another breakthrough at its San José lithium project in Spain after a metallurgical test work program proved successful in scaling up the production of battery-grade lithium carbonate and hydroxide ahead of a looming feasibility study. The work is funded by EIT Innoenergy and aimed at developing a more sustainable refining technology for lithium mineralogies.

Podium Minerals has upgraded its mineral resource estimate at the company’s Parks Reef platinum group metals project near Meekatharra in WA boosting its previous PGM estimates by 28 per cent to 2.8 million ounces grading 1.56 grams per tonne PGM. The copper estimates also experienced a healthy boost rising by 31 per cent to 27.8m tonnes at 0.24 per cent copper for 104,000 tonnes of contained copper.

Battery metals developer AVZ Minerals is set to plough $25 million into an early works program and exploration drilling campaign at its Manono lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. The outlay follows a $75 million cash injection from a heavily oversubscribed capital raise and aims to fund the company’s shift to lithium production.

Torian Resources continues to rake in the high-grade gold hits at its flagship Mt Stirling gold project approximately 40km north-west of Leonora in WA. The results include an 8-metre intersection returning 8.26 grams per tonne gold from 153m, that held an impressive 5m running at 12.74 g/t from 153m. The company is set to deliver a global mineral resource estimate in the first quarter of this year.

ASX-listed ABx Group is targeting more metallics in Tasmania after unveiling a new high-grade rare earths prospect 52 kilometres east of its Deep Leads REE prospect in Tasmania. According to the company, the results from the newly discovered Portrush prospect include 581 parts per million neodymium and a solid 4,800 ppm total rare earth oxides over a one metre mineralised section from 11 metres.

Alaska-focused oil explorer 88 Energy will drill the highly anticipated Merlin 2 well in March following the completion of the access road to site and the commissioning of the contracted drilling rig. The well is the follow up to the 2021 Merlin 1 discovery that encountered multiple oil shows in the Brookian Nanushuk Formation – a significant production horizon in the North Slope area of Alaska.

Multi-commodity explorer Oar Resources has bolstered its coffers with a solid $500,000 injection following the sale of its ‘non-core’ Bramfield iron ore project in South Australia. The company plans to utilise the extra cash to focus on exploration efforts of its Crown nickel-copper-PGE project in the Julimar district in Western Australia where Chalice Mining recently made headlines with its behemoth nickel-copper-PGE deposit.

ASX-listed copper explorer Hot Chili has wrapped up drilling at its Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery ahead of an imminent resource upgrade for its fast-tracked Chilean project. The company is confident all three of the Cuerpos orebodies are linked to the same footprint. It says the significant extent of the porphyry mineralisation gives it versatile low grade, low-strip ratio sulphide mining options.

WA’s most recent rare earth explorer, Torian Resources has reconfirmed and upgraded significant Yttrium and other heavy rare earth element grades at its exciting Yttria discovery at the company’s evolving Mt Stirling gold project in WA. The company has utilised improved assaying techniques to reanalyse samples resulting in a 10 per cent upgrade in values.

Junior explorer Emu NL has received a double shot of good news with elevated tungsten values occurring in tandem with gold mineralisation in a recent drill campaign at its Monte Cristo prospect at the company’s flagship Badja gold project near Yalgoo in WA. Significant tungsten values intersected include 12 metres grading 0.12 per cent tungsten from 58m containing an internal metre going a whopping 0.64 per cent tungsten.

ASX-listed Surefire Resources has kicked off negotiations with a string of potential transport and off-take partners for its Perenjori iron ore project in Western Australia. According to the company, it has a hefty iron exploration target that ranges from 870 million to 1,240m tonnes at the project with grading between 29 to a stonking 41 per cent iron.

Junior gold explorer Askari Metals has swung the drill rig back into action at its Burracoppin gold project in Western Australia’s eastern wheatbelt following up a suite of shallow, high-grade gold drill hits from phase one drilling. Significant assay results include 4 metres grading 4.27 grams per tonne gold from 25m downhole with an internal metre going 14.6g/t gold from 26m.

The board of Torrens Mining has recommended the acceptance of a $23 million offer to merge with Coda Minerals, its partner in the Elizabeth Creek copper project in SA. The deal is now subject to the approval of the company’s shareholders. Coda is offering 0.23 shares to every Torrens shareholder to consolidate ownership of the project under one roof.

ASX-listed gold producer Horizon Minerals has boosted its bottom line by $1.35m after toll milling stockpiled low-grade ore from its Boorara open pit mine in the renowned WA Goldfields. The company says the processing of low-grade stockpiles via two campaigns totalling nearly 100,000 tonnes from the recent trial mining of the Boorara deposit is now complete.

Great Southern Mining is further investigating the size and extent of two bedrock conductors with a follow-up fixed-loop electromagnetic survey at its East Laverton project in Western Australia. The conductors eked out from the recent geophysical survey are considered highly prospective for massive nickel sulphide mineralisation. One identified anomaly spanned a massive 2km by 1km that the company says provides a “compelling drill target”.

A protein derived from scorpion toxin being used to spearhead Chimeric Therapeutics’ assault on brain cancer cells has delivered encouraging early results from a study being conducted at the world-famous City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles. Patients in the study responded well to the simultaneous introduction of the cell therapy by injecting it into both the tumours and the brain.

WA’s new quarantine laws have offered Buru Energy a project boost. The reduced 7-day isolation period now means the well test team currently stranded in Perth quarantine facilities can mobilise to the Rafael 1 well site to carry out the all-important flow tests of the ‘wet’ gas discovery in WA’s Canning Basin.

ASX-listed junior explorer Aruma Resources has launched a 3,000 metre RC drilling campaign targeting a previously identified pegmatite swarm at its Mt Deans lithium project approximately 170 kilometres south of Kalgoorlie. Pegmatite occurrences have been mapped over a 1km strike length and historically yielded high-grade surface rock chips grading up to 2.1 per cent lithium and 555.9 parts per million tantalum.