Matt Birney

Mineral exploration company, PolarX has wrapped up a quartet of significant exploration programs in as many months at its Caribou Dome copper project in Alaska and its Humboldt-Range gold-silver project in Nevada. The company has confirmed visual mineralisation across a number of exploration programs and assays are now pending and will be highly anticipated across all four programs.

Superior Resources has intersected sulphide mineralisation in its first two drill holes targeting a large, induced polarisation anomaly at the company’s Bottletree Copper prospect within its Greenvale project in Queensland. The company believes it may be onto a potential porphyry system west of the induced polarisation anomaly indicated by an enormous 1.5 kilometre by 1km intense copper and gold soil anomaly coincident with a large magnetic feature.

Galan Lithium has tabled a stunning set of numbers in an economic assessment study that shows its Candelas lithium brine project in Argentina will make A$265m a year for 25 years for a net present value of A$1.7b at today’s USD exchange rates. The economic evaluation of Candelas adds to Galan’s nearby Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project where a 40 year mine life has already been envisaged.

Torian Resources will look to up the ante at its Mt Stirling Gold project near Leonora in WA after the first its batch of drill results from a 17,500 metre drilling campaign drew some enviable results. Hits from drilling at the Estera Lode at Diorite North included a 3m intersection grading 9.46 grams per tonne gold from 37m.

Strickland Metals has nailed its first pass drilling campaign at its Dusk til Dawn prospect in WA with a stellar first up result of 33m going 3.6 g/t gold. Strickland believes the maiden drill results confirm its new mineralisation modelling that could potentially boost the 109,000 ounce gold resource discovered by previous owners. It says up to 20 lookalike targets have now also been identified nearby.

Blackstone Minerals has intersected copper-nickel-cobalt massive sulphides in its first pass drill hole targeting a large, induced polarisation anomaly at its 100 per cent owned Jewel prospect in British Columbia. Significant copper, nickel and cobalt mineralisation has been confirmed by portable XRF examination of the diamond drill core and follow-up drilling is being planned to target extensions of the mineralisation discovered in the first drill hole.

Comet Resources has managed to produce industry standard “spherical graphite” in tests designed to determine if its Springdale Graphite Project in WA can supply graphite for lithium battery anodes. Following on from testing in 2019 and 2020, Comet says it has now navigated this challenge and the latest process has increased the yield of spherical graphite from 40 per cent to 60 per cent.

Trigg Mining has launched a gravity survey over its Lake Yeo sulphate of potash fertiliser project in WA. Via the survey, Trigg seeks to pinpoint drill targets and evaluate the project’s potential to represent a repeat of its nearby Lake Throssell potash deposit where a 21 year mine life generating $97m a year in EBITDA was recently estimated in a scoping study.

Venus Metals Corporation has tabled another batch of high-grade drill strikes adding to the company’s rapidly growing gold resource at its Link prospect within the Youanmi joint venture gold project in WA. Significant results from the latest round of resource drilling include a 3 metre hit grading 9.35 grams per tonne gold from 182m, 2m at 12.59 g/t gold 235m and 2m going 7.93 g/t gold from 279m.

Image Resources will pay $24m for Sheffield Resources’ 211 million tonnes of mineral resources grading 3.0 per cent total heavy minerals for 6.3 million tonnes of contained total heavy minerals. Image now has a binding agreement to pick up around eight exploration licences, three mining leases and one retention licence from Sheffield that will see the mineral sands miner effectively double its existing resource.

Kingwest Resources has drilled 107 holes at its Sir Laurence gold discovery near Menzies with significant “bedrock” mineralisation reported on every line over a 1km trend that remains open along strike and down dip. Diamond coring operations have commenced with initial results expected before Christmas. The company anticipates assays from a remaining 63 holes will also arrive in time for some holiday cheer.

Exploration company, Tambourah Metals is getting set to pump out the drill metres at its namesake gold project and its Cheela gold project in the Pilbara region after securing relevant ‘programme of work’ approvals from the WA Government. Historical drilling at the company’s Tambourah project returned multiple high-grade intercepts including a sublime 10 metres at 10.8 grams per tonne gold and an impressive 8m at 13.6 g/t gold.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has nailed a grab bag of wide, shallow gold intercepts in its first up drill program at the company’s flagship Bulong Taurus prospect just 35 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie. Notable intercepts include a thick 18 metre hit grading 1.23 grams per tonne gold from just 1m downhole, 10m going 1.29g/t from 23m and 10m at 1.16g/t gold from 52m.

AVZ Minerals has joined the newly established DRC Battery Council creating a strategic opportunity to promote battery, electric vehicle and renewable energy sector development in the DRC and Africa. AVZ was the only aspiring mining company invited to join the DRC Battery Council that is presided over by influential leaders including the President of the DRC.

Junior explorer, Victory Mines has unleashed the drill rig for a 3,000 metre drilling romp as it looks to grow the already hefty one kilometre mineralised strike extent already defined at its Coogee gold and copper project near Kalgoorlie in WA. The company’s fourth phase of drilling at Coogee will follow up on recent high-grade gold hits including 4m going 9.34 grams per tonne gold.

Shares in Altech Chemicals soared by 50 per cent in intraday trading Thursday after the ASX-listed company delivered a breakthrough in utilising silicon in lithium-ion batteries. Altech says it has broken the “silicon barrier” by successfully applying its proprietary coating technology to produce a series of lithium-ion battery anode materials with a 30 per cent higher retention capacity than existing anode materials.

Si6 Metals has unlocked a flurry of new high-quality untested anomalies through interpretation of recent audio frequency magnetotelluric survey data at its Maibele base metals project in Botswana. The company is utilising a variety of ground geophysical techniques designed to target deeper mineralisation that it plans to test with RC and diamond drilling once required approvals are in place.

Valor Resources has extracted a handy $5.4m from the market to throw at its Canadian uranium projects as it ramps up exploration activities amid strengthening uranium prices. The Perth-based explorer is knee deep in a flurry of exploration activities as the uranium price is spurred on by increased global demand for yellow cake.

Godolphin Resources has unveiled a suite of previously overlooked mixed metals and significant gold from a re-interpretation of soil samples pulled from its Lewis Ponds gold project in NSW. The company says its latest venture has led to the identification of more gold with coincident copper, barium, bismuth, molybdenum, tellurium and lead south of its main mineral resource.

Great Southern Mining is ploughing nearly 8,000 metres of aircore drilling into the Amy Clarke gold prospect within its Duketon tenements in Western Australia. Drilling is aimed at seeking out the source of a 4km long gold in soil anomaly that the company says exhibits uncanny similarities in size and tenor to Regis Resources nearby 2.1 million ounce Garden Well gold mine.

Bardoc Gold has nailed down a tranche of high-grade gold hits at depth that sit outside of the current underground resource at its Zoroastrian gold deposit near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Significant hits from recent drilling include a 7.22m section grading 3.45 grams per tonne gold from 214.9m downhole with a 0.2m super high-grade parcel grading a bonanza 166g/t gold, or over 5 ounces to the tonne.

Mineral explorer, Estrella Resources continues to hit nickel and copper sulphides at its enthralling T5 discovery located at its Carr Boyd project near Kalgoorlie in WA. A step-out diamond drill hole below the T5 discovery has intercepted three separate zones of nickel and copper sulphides, including a new mineralised zone where a 3m interval grading 1.76 per cent nickel and 0.66 per cent copper was returned.

Metal Hawk has mustered up a flock of high-grade gold strikes from its maiden RC drill campaign at its Kanowna East project just 8 kilometres from Northern Star’s 5 million-ounce plus Kanowna Belle gold mine. Amongst the assay results revealed were a 4m section grading a formidable 17.8 grams per tonne gold from 75m including a 1m parcel going a stellar 42.7g/t gold from 76m downhole.

88 Energy is gearing up to tap its Merlin-2 well at Project Peregrine in Alaska’s North Slope after pinpointing a spot from a trio of initially permitted locations. The Merlin-2 appraisal well is targeting 652 million barrels of oil with an independent geological evaluation giving it a better-than-even chance of success. The project stretches across almost 200,000 acres of land and is proximal to some bumper historic oil finds.

ASX-listed Aldoro Resources has the drill rig at the ready having received encouraging assay results from its recent sampling program over the Niobe East, Niobe Southeast and Breakaway pegmatites in WA. Almost 50 rock chips were collected with assay results confirming rubidium and lithium prospectivity beyond the Niobe main pit. Aldoro says it is now geared up and ready to unleash the drill rig once a heritage survey is completed.

Horizon Minerals is clearing a path towards a potential spin-off of its Richmond-Julia Creek Vanadium oxide project 400km east of Mt Isa in northwest Queensland having signed a process deed with JV partner, unlisted-Richmond Vanadium Technology. Under the terms of the potential deal Horizon’s 25 per cent interest in the Richmond-Julia Creek vanadium project will be demerged into a dedicated vanadium focussed IPO.

ASX-listed Okapi Resources has boots on the ground at its high-grade Rattler uranium project in Utah, USA with the Perth-based company’s first-pass exploration checklist at Rattler to include a detailed review of historical workings, geological mapping and rock chip sampling. Okapi anticipates wrapping up field work by the end of the year ahead of a drill campaign earmarked for early in the new year.

Junior explorer, Torian Resources has commenced a major 17,500m drilling blitz at its Mt Stirling gold project near Leonora in WA. The campaign will test multiple regional gold targets, including recent discoveries, whilst also looking to lift the company’s existing 100,000 ounce plus Mt Stirling inferred resource to the higher confidence indicated category. An updated mineral resource estimate is anticipated to follow early in the new year.

ASX-listed White Cliff Minerals looks set to bludgeon its way into the white-hot critical metals industry after completing the acquisition of two separate projects whilst advancing the pending acquisition of two junior explorers. As a result, the company may soon find itself with 10 additional lithium and REE projects on its books with its landholding poised to balloon by over 4000 square kilometres.

Indonesian-focused explorer, Sihayo Gold is off to a flyer from regional exploration drilling at its Sihorbo South epithermal vein gold and silver prospect on the island of North Sumatra. Results from the first three holes sunk into the prospect have returned bumper grade gold and silver, including a tasty one metre strike going 198 grams per tonne gold from 89m.

ABx Group has struck more success with best yet high grade rare earths intercepted in the first drill results from step-out drilling at its Deep Leads prospect in Northern Tasmania. The company has tabled multiple elevated rare earth hits including 493 parts per million neodymium and 1,878ppm total rare earth oxides over a three-metre mineralised section.

Askari Metals has completed a maiden lithium sampling program across its pegmatite targets at its Red Peak Lithium project approximately 130 kilometres northwest of Meekatharra in WA. 35 samples were collected across four different mapped pegmatites for assay in addition to a petrographic analysis that was undertaken to assist in understanding the zonation and fractionation grade of the pegmatites.