Matt Birney

Aldoro Resources has unveiled a suite of high-grade rubidium and some anomalous lithium results from a pegmatite rock chip sampling program at its Wyemandoo project approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Mount Magnet in WA. The company says the results that included peak grades of 1.82 per cent rubidium and 6600 parts per million lithium, have “exceeded” expectations.

An updated lithium price assessment of Galan Lithium’s flagship Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in Argentina has delivered a pre-tax net present value of nearly US$2.2b, a whopping 120 per cent increase on the US$1b projected in a previous evaluation. Galan is now predicting an increase in annual EBITDA of over US$100m a year for the 40 year life of mine to an impressive US$287m a year.

ABx Group’s 87 per cent-owned chemical refining subsidiary, Alcore, has commenced construction of a pilot plant that will look to produce precursor chemicals used to recover fluorine from aluminium smelter waste known as “excess bath”. The Sydney-based company believes Alcore’s proprietary technology for recycling excess bath into high-value products such as aluminium fluoride, could deliver economic and environmental benefits to Australian aluminium smelters reliant on international imports.

Calidus Resources continues to tick off the check list of the required development works for its planned Warrawoona gold mine in the Pilbara region of WA. It says construction of the processing plant is now 85 per cent complete, with overall progress importantly running on time and on budget. Warrawoona is projected to churn out up to 105,000 ounces of gold annually with production forecast to commence in the first half of 2022.

Great Southern Mining has identified multiple bedrock anomalies considered prospective for nickel mineralisation in its recent electromagnetic survey at its East Laverton Nickel project in WA. One identified anomaly spanned a massive 2km by 1km and lined up with the edge of a regional gravity anomaly that Great Southern says provides further evidence of a potential blind nickel sulphide discovery.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining, or KalGold has spotted a near surface open pit mining opportunity at its La Mascotte gold system near Kalgoorlie after reviewing a grab bag of historical bonanza near surface gold hits. Notable results identified include 7 metres grading 14.87 grams per tonne gold from surface and 2m grading a bonanza 141.15g/t gold or over 4 ounces to the tonne from 8m downhole.

White Cliff Minerals has launched a first-pass lithium and rare earths exploration venture at its Yinnetharra project that sits some 100 kilometres northeast of the Gascoyne Junction in Western Australia. The helicopter-supported field trip is part of the company’s plan to aggressively advance its recently swelled battery metal portfolio that could grow to include almost a dozen projects.

Godolphin Resources has fired up the RC drill rig at its Gundagai gold project in NSW, after a patch of unseasonal rough weather delayed the interrogation of its high-grade ground. The reignited campaign will see the gold explorer plunge 12 holes totalling 1,975 metres. To date, the company has completed five holes and intends to launch another half a dozen or so.

Radiopharm Theranostics’ research into the early-stage detection of a variety of cancers has been recognised after its paper was published in the prestigious medical journal Cancers. The pharmaceutical company has developed a world-class suite of medical products seemingly able to track and trace the movement of cancer molecules. The technology has also demonstrated an “outstanding” ability to break down a range of different cancer molecules.

Aldoro Resources is days away from firing up the rig to drill over 60 holes across its Niobe East, Niobe Southeast and Breakaway pegmatites in WA after completing a heritage site avoidance survey at its planned drill sites. The program follows a recently completed exploration campaign that saw Aldoro bag up close to 50 rock chip samples with elevated lithium pathfinder minerals.

Horizon Minerals has received a slew of high-grade gold assays from 31 holes of a 42 drill hole RC program to the north of the historic Golden Ridge mine and 4 kilometres south of its Boorara project in near Kalgoorlie. Significant drill intersections include a 4 metre section grading at a stellar 46.7 grams per tonne gold from 80m downhole.

Newfield Resources continues to hit paydirt at its Tongo diamond concessions in eastern Sierra Leone. The Perth-based budding diamond producer has unearthed more “gem-quality” diamonds in the Peyima kimberlite located only 5km southeast of the current mine development on the Kundu and Lando kimberlites where production is slated to commence in the early months of 2022.

Adriatic Metals has unearthed more high-grade silver and zinc from three step-out holes near its cornerstone Rupice multi-commodity deposit in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One diamond hole returned a broad 24.7 metre hit going 514 grams per tonne silver equivalent about 145m north-west of the company’s 12 million tonne resource grading 149 g/t silver, 1.4 g/t gold and 4.1 per cent zinc.

Twenty Seven Co has scoped out a grab bag of new follow up targets at its Rover gold project in WA from a spate of highly elevated gold in soil anomalies. Some samples graded up to 420 parts per billion. The company has noted a good correlation between the soil anomalies and interpreted regional structural features with RC drill testing of the identified targets set to commence this week.

Things are starting to get interesting for Coda Minerals at its recent Emmie Bluff Deeps IOCG style copper discovery in South Australia where a maiden drill hole into a targeted gravity anomaly hit 28m at 1.21 per cent copper. Four newly drilled holes have now intercepted thick intervals of copper-bearing sulphides that will likely extend the mineralised envelope in three directions.

Askari Metals has confirmed lithium mineralisation through laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of rock chip samples at its Red Peak pegmatite project approximately 130 kilometres northwest of Meekatharra. Assay results from the recent rock chip sampling program across eleven significant pegmatites are expected back from the lab within the next week with a follow up gridded rock chip sampling program also planned to commence within the next week.

Infinity Lithium has entered a memorandum of understanding with global engineering titan, thyssenkrupp BU Mining to gauge the potential for green hydrogen to power a lithium chemical conversion process at its proposed San José lithium project in Spain. A recent scoping study evaluating underground mining and downstream lithium hydroxide production at San José envisaged 19,500 tonnes of annual battery grade lithium hydroxide production over 26 years.

Venture Minerals’ South West Nickel-Copper-PGE project that Chalice Mining has referred to as a Julimar “look-a-like” is starting to take shape. JV partner Chalice has unearthed multiple targets at the project and in doing so it has now completed stage one of its joint venture expenditure commitment with Venture. The agreement between the parties requires Chalice to spend a minimum of $300,000 on exploration activities at the South West project by the 30th of November 2021.

Panther Metals is set to hit the ASX with $5 million in the tin following an IPO that will focus on a plethora of walk-up targets at its nickel and gold assets in WA and the NT that look like they are begging to be drilled. London listed parent company, Panther Metals Plc, will spin out its Australian assets into the soon to be listed Panther Metals Ltd .

Brightstar Resources has received a flurry of significant gold assay results from recent drilling to the north along strike from a historical open pit mine at its Cork Tree Well prospect near Laverton in WA. Significant assay results returned from shallow RC drilling include a 16 metre hit grading 3.26 grams per tonne gold from 112m downhole and 12m going 4.25g/t gold from 131m downhole.

Kula Gold has successfully intersected multiple, thick kaolin sections at its Boomerang Kaolin prospect at the company’s Marvel Loch-Airfield gold project near Southern Cross where drilling is ongoing. Logging of 25 RC drill holes to date shows an average vertical thickness of 30m of white kaolin clays that start from approximately 6.5 metres vertical depth.

Valor Resources has unveiled a clutch of copper drill targets at its Picha copper and silver project in southern Peru courtesy of an ongoing ground geophysics program. According to the company, the geophysical anomalies correlate with surface mineralisation at the project and potentially point to mineralisation at depth. Valor is now planning a drilling campaign that will look to test the newly identified targets.

Things are moving fast for West Australian focused gold explorer, BMG Resources with diamond drilling at its Capital prospect near Wiluna intercepting multiple wide zones of alteration in lodes interpreted to host high-grade gold. Recent RC drilling at the prospect, located at the company’s Abercromby project, returned several eye-catching results including a scintillating 26 metre intercept grading 6.07 grams per tonne gold from 192m.

King River Resources’ newly commissioned laboratory scale pilot plant is off to a flying start after it delivered an ultra-high purity aluminium precursor compound for application in the lucrative lithium-ion battery industry. The company says an inaugural run of the plant using its proprietary “ARC” processing technology delivered a 99.9995 per cent purity “Type 1” precursor product.

Newfield Resources is pulling out all stops at its Tongo mine development in Sierra Leone as it gets set for a first run of diamonds. 845m of underground has now been dug and a return air way shaft is getting tantalisingly close to its targeted level. The Kundu decline is about to access the first mining level with services such as power, air and water pump stations constructed along the way.

Aurum Resources is getting set for a gold drilling blitz on two fronts in WA early in the new year. The explorer has slated up to 6000m of RC drilling at its Penny South project that sits adjacent to Ramelius Resources’ Penny North deposit where 306,800 ounces grading a remarkable 16.8 g/t gold have been defined. It also plans to drill-test its Ryan’s Find project north-east of Southern Cross.

Memphasys has successfully collected data from approximately 240 horse inseminations to test its novel “SAMSON” stallion fertility diagnostic device that may cut sperm diagnosis times down to a rapid 15 minutes. SAMSON measures the quality of semen and predicts the likelihood that it will achieve a pregnancy. Currently there are no other similar devices on the market and a 14 day wait is required to check for pregnancy through ultrasound.

Novo Resources has unveiled a suite of gold-copper and nickel-copper-cobalt targets in the West Pilbara region of WA. The company is now progressing EM surveys to advance its latest findings.

Gold developer, Calidus Resources is set to unleash the rig for a regional gold search aiming to grow its existing 1.7 million ounce resource base in the Pilbara region of WA. The company will drill-test multiple greenfields targets near its Blue Spec resource and in proximity to its multi-deposit Warrawoona project that is set to churn out 90,000 ounces of gold per annum from next year.

Meeka Gold has delivered a compelling scoping study evaluating the proposed production of gold at its Murchison project in WA. According to the company, it will pocket $457m over 8 years for a net present value of $124m. Significantly, the project has an IRR of 46 per cent and the company says it could advance the value of its project through systematic exploration.

Empire Energy could be gearing up for a busy end of year after its in-progress Carpentaria-2 well sniffed out a suite of thick liquid rich gas shales across four stacked Velkerri Formation pay zones in the vertical section of its Beetaloo Sub-Basin ground. The company is now set to tap the middle Velkerri B shale by drilling the horizontal section of the Carpentaria-2H well.

WA-focused nickel explorer, St George Mining has unveiled a large, compelling nickel-copper sulphide target beneath its Investigators prospect located at its Mt Alexander project in the north-eastern Goldfields. Previous drilling at the prospect delivered multiple shallower intercepts including a cracking 8.49m going 5.8 per cent nickel and 2.6 per cent copper from 183.9m. The company now plans to drill-test the deeper priority target early next year.