Matt Birney

St George Mining has kicked off a diamond drill program at its Mt Alexander nickel-copper-platinum group element project in WA with the first of several high-priority seismic targets in its crosshairs. Confidence in the Mt Alexander area has been strengthened by a recent St George and CSIRO research project that indicates the rocks hosting nickel mineralisation at the nearby Cathedrals belt are associated with Mt Alexander.

Meeka Gold has launched a 7,000 metre aircore and RC drilling campaign at its Circle Valley gold project in the Albany-Fraser Mobile Belt in WA following up multiple gold hits intersected in 2021 drilling. Drill targeting will chase up a mineralised area defined through previous drilling and soil sampling that spans 1.2 kilometres by 400m and produced some solid results.

Globe Metals & Mining has appointed a full time Africa-based CEO to develop its Kanyika Project in Malawi, promoting Grant Hudson from General Manager - Corporate Services to run the aspiring niobium and tantalum miner. Long serving managing director Alistair Stephens will become a senior adviser to the Board and Executive Management Team that Globe said would allow for a smooth transfer of responsibilities.

Aldoro Resources is set to sink over 60 holes totalling 3730 metres across its Niobe East, Niobe Southeast and Breakaway pegmatites in WA after a RC drill rig was delivered to the site. The program follows a recently wrapped up exploration campaign that saw the company bag up around 50 rock chip samples with elevated lithium pathfinder minerals.

West Cobar Metals has mobilised a diamond drill rig to its Mount Jack copper-gold project in New South Wales with an initial 500 metre hole planned to test a bullseye ‘Cobar style’ anomaly. Historical drilling in the area showed geochemical indications of copper and gold mineralisation in the cover rocks but failed to reach the modelled magnetic target interpreted to sit at approximately 200m depth.

Aspiring silver and base metals producer Adriatic Metals has completed the finance for its Vares silver project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, bedding down US$142.5 million of debt finance and putting it in line to be Europe’s next miner. Last month Adriatic reported more high-grade silver and zinc hits from step-out holes near its cornerstone Rupice multi-commodity deposit, part of the larger Vares project.

Middle Island Resources has defined multiple drill targets considered prospective for “IOCG” style copper-gold mineralisation at its Crosswinds project within the emerging Tennant Creek mineral hub in the NT. An induced polarisation geophysical survey identified the deep-seated targets below previously defined surface copper mineralisation. A recent cash injection has the company well-funded with plans now being drawn up to commence an aggressive drilling campaign of the area.

DiscovEx Resources looks to have scored more runs in Queensland after its JV partner, Carnaby Resources unveiled a 60.3m strike going 0.9 per cent copper at the Greater Duchess project where DiscovEx holds a ‘free carried’ 17.5 per cent stake. Carnaby Resources, which owns the majority rights to the project near Mt Isa, says the hit confirms the continuity of the high-grade breccia shoot.

Buru Energy is nearing completion of its Ungani 8H horizontal development well in the Canning Basin oil field of Western Australia, with the company reporting the drilling program has surpassed the 2,000 metre mark en route to its intended depth of 2560m. Buru’s latest drive is the eighth well it has sunk into the Basin, designed to further increase production levels.

Todd River Resources has re-commenced RC drilling at its Berkshire Valley nickel, copper and platinum group elements project following the recent Christmas break to chase up some sulphide occurrences and previously identified geochemical nickel-copper-PGE anomalies. Additionally, a moving loop electromagnetic survey is set to commence next week targeting conductors at depth in a newly identified area in the far north of the Berkshire Valley project.

Element 25 has roared back to life with record daily production after repair and modification works of the processing plant were completed at its Butcherbird manganese project in WA. The processing plant modifications, which were undertaken following a shaft failure late last year, delivered improved production volumes averaging 934 tonnes per day since kicking the plant back into action on 23 December 2021.

Troy resources is seeking shareholder approval for a series of agreements that would convert current debt into equity and raise funds to pursue its Smarts Underground project at its Karouni gold mine in Guyana and restart trading on the ASX. The company plans to convert approximately $18.7 million of debt to equity and issue shares at $0.022 to raise approximately $7.2 million to progress its South American mining operations.

Meeka Gold has made a promising start for the year intersecting thick gold mineralisation at its Turnberry South prospect, part of the larger Turnberry deposit in the Murchison region of WA. The company says its latest results add weight to its belief that it could have its hands on a sizeable mineralised system that extends over 5 kilometres.

Hot Chili, which took 100 per cent ownership of Cortadera last year - one of the two largest global copper discoveries since 2016 - has completed its journey to becoming a dual-listed company after its shares commenced trading on the Canadian TSXV this week. The C$30 million raised will underwrite 18-months of drilling and development works at its multi-deposit Costa Fuego copper-gold porphyry project in Chile.

Podium Minerals has kicked off the new year on a high after diamond drill holes sunk just prior to Christmas were shown to have intersected a thick sequence of mineralisation at its Parks Reef platinum group elements project in the Mid West region of WA. The news provided a perfect start for incoming CEO Sam Rodda who took up the reins on 1 January.

King River Resources has shored up its high purity aluminium precursor compounds in a bid to supply the increasing demand from the lithium-ion battery industry. A fourth run through of the company’s proprietary “ARC” processing technology using its newly commissioned pilot plant has now surpassed original expectations consistently creating a “Type 1” precursor aluminium salt grading exceeding an incredible 99.999 per cent purity.

Venture Minerals has ensured its Mount Lindsay tin-tungsten project in Tasmania is fully funded to completion after it netted $6 million from a heavily oversubscribed share purchase plan. The recently raised funds compliment a $4.25 million war-chest raised through a December private placement. The money will also go towards an updated feasibility study and additional testing of its Mount Lindsay targets.

ASX-listed Neometals is on course to enter the sizzling electric vehicle, or “EV” battery recycling market in North America after its joint venture company, Primobius GmbH rubber stamped an agreement to commercialise its recycling technology with Canadian steelmaking juggernaut Stelco Holdings. According to Neometals, the region is the fastest growing sector for lithium battery production.

Torian Resources has continued its run of gold hits at its 100 per cent owned Mt Stirling project in the Eastern Goldfields of WA that extends its mineralised gold envelope up-dip towards surface. The latest results from its massive 17,500m campaign include a 4 metre section grading 4.76 grams per tonne from 70m downhole, 4m going 1.97 g/t gold from 8m and 7m at 0.78 g/t gold from 42m downhole.

Surefire Resources is set to kick off the new year with a fresh bit of kit after picking up close to 160 square kilometres of prospective gold ground, some 300km from Perth. The company says its newly acquired tenement is significantly underexplored and that historical soil sampling delivered grades of up to 1 gram per tonne of anomalous gold.

Altech Chemicals has moved closer to the development of a battery material coating plant in Germany after its subsidiary, AIG inked a MoU with two European lithium-ion battery grade anode material suppliers.

Buru Energy remains on track with its drilling program at the Ungani 8H horizontal development well designed to lift production levels at its cash-generating Canning Basin oil field in Western Australia. The company reported it has now passed the 1000 metre mark towards a target depth of 2560m with operations proceeding as planned and there were no adverse incidents to report.

JV partners DiscovEx Resources and Carnaby Resources look to have made it onto Santa’s nice list after drilling at their Greater Duchess project near Mt Isa in Queensland outlined an “extremely” high-grade copper-gold discovery. ASX-listed Carnaby Resources, which owns the majority rights to the project, says the results are summarised as 41 metres at 4.1 per cent copper with 0.5 grams per tonne gold from 274m.

Triangle Energy, operator of the Perth Basin’s only offshore oilfield, is hoping the recent run of company-making onshore gas finds will breathe new life into the drilling prospects near its Cliff Head field. The Perth Basin ‘deep gas’ resurgence has reinvigorated exploration across the Basin, kicking off drilling programs, company takeovers and breathing new promise into a number of companies.

Newfield Resources has retired approximately $40 million worth of corporate bond debt and roughly $2.1m of associated accrued interest for its Tongo diamond mine in Eastern Sierra Leone. Additionally, the company raised $12.5 million through a capital raise with the combined exercise significantly strengthening its balance sheet and reducing long-term bond debt to zero.

Venus Metals Corporation has tallied some impressive gold recovery rates with an average of 92.2 per cent gold extraction from metallurgical testwork on its Youanmi Deeps mineralisation near Sandstone in WA. Venus, together with its joint venture partner, Rox Resources, trialled a series of treatment methods and decided the Albion process is the preferred treatment to deliver high gold yields with low overall cost.

Junior explorer, Torian Resources has scooped a slew of high-grade gold hits at its flagship Mt Stirling gold project, some 40km north-west of Leonora in WA. The company struck a 10m intersection at 3.59 grams per tonne gold from 12m including a 3m hit grading 7.9 g/t gold from 14m in the first planned drillhole at its Mt Stirling-Viserion resource.

Quantum Graphite will incorporate the 50 per cent return from its new joint venture partner, Sunland Co’s thermal storage media manufacturing business using Quantum’s flake graphite for assembly within its thermal energy storage cells. The technology is at the forefront of a blossoming ‘long-duration energy storage’ industry that is becoming central in providing stability and flexibility to energy grids increasingly reliant on renewable power.

ASX-listed Neometals has moved a step closer to production at its massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium deposit after commissioning a gravity beneficiation plant at Menzies in Western Australia to produce titanium-rich gravity concentrate samples for offtake evaluation trials. The company will produce and ship around 150 tonnes of the concentrate to Chinese titanium slag producer Jiuxing Titanium Materials for commercial scale trials early next year.

ASX-listed, Blackstone Minerals has delivered a cracking 73 per cent lift to its nickel resource base at its multi-deposit Ta Khoa nickel, copper and platinum group elements project in northern Vietnam. A global resource base at the project taking in four deposits now clocks in at a hefty 130 million tonnes grading 0.37 per cent nickel for an eye-catching 485,000 tonnes of contained nickel.

Twenty Seven Co has wrapped up a 31 hole RC drill program that intersected a 4m envelope of massive sulphides at its Rover gold project approximately 25 kilometres southeast of Sandstone in WA. The company says Rover has the potential to host volcanogenic massive sulphide targets given its similar geology and location only 30km north of Cobre Limited’s Perrinvale base metals project.

Toronto-listed conglomerate gold miner, Novo Resources has kicked off ‘Phase 2’ mechanical sorter trials of bulk samples taken from its Comet Well, Purdy’s Reward, Egina and Talga Talga gold projects in the Pilbara region of WA. The sorter and its infrastructure are designed for deployment at Novo’s array of projects to produce gold-bearing concentrates on site in a single pass for further upgrading or downstream processing.