Matt Birney

Aurum Resources is set to hit the boards at the ASX after an oversubscribed initial public offering of nickel-copper explorer Aldoro Resources’ gold assets. Aurum has raised $5 million to fast track the development of its underexplored gold projects in WA’s East Murchison region. Aurum will prioritise its Penny South gold project that already has some cracking drill results that were inexplicably never followed up.

Estrella Resources has intercepted three zones of nickel-copper sulphides with a 60 metre step-out diamond drill hole below its T5 nickel-copper discovery near Kalgoorlie in WA. The company says each of the three zones contained thick widths of massive sulphides over the last 170m of the drill hole.

The rods are spinning at Aruma Resources' Salmon Gums gold project in WA’s goldfields region. The Perth-based junior explorer has planned up to 5,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling in its maiden drill program that will test multiple geochemical targets over an 8.5km stratigraphic trend that is directly along strike from JV partners Pantoro-Tulla’s high-grade Scotia Gold project.

Oar Resources has kick started a maiden diamond drilling campaign at its Douglas Canyon gold project in Nevada, USA. The company has initiated a four-hole, 1000m program targeting near-surface mineralisation in the first two holes and testing down dip depth extensions with the latter two holes. Results from previous exploration at the project include grades as high as 18 grams per tonne gold and 398 g/t silver.

Industrial innovation specialist Aurora Labs has hit an important milestone in the development of its signature 3D metal printing technology, with an independent evaluation demonstrating its effectiveness and the company declaring the product “commercially ready”. Aurora has completed successful trial printing of stainless steel components for customers that include BAE Systems Maritime Australia for the Navy’s Hunter Class Frigate Program.

Blackstone Minerals has attracted $55 million in fresh funding, courtesy of a seriously oversubscribed placement to help realise its dreams of establishing an integrated “green” nickel project in Vietnam. The placement was backed by Shaw & Partners, Evolution Capital & PAC Partners, all of whom acted as joint lead managers to the placement.

ASX-listed junior explorer, Latitude Consolidated is cranking through its reverse circulation drill program at its Turnberry South project in WA where it has hit visible gold in one hole associated with silica-chlorite-epidote altered siltstone. All holes drilled as part of the second phase have intercepted a veined and strongly altered zone at the target depth with sulphide mineralisation observed in the rock chips.

Galan Lithium is moving ever closer to commercialisation and becoming Argentina’s next lithium producer. The company reported it has now received critical government permits that allow it to commence building Stage 1 of its pilot plant and new camp accommodation at its flagship Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in South America’s prolific ‘Lithium Triangle’.

Aldoro Resources has intersected 6.7 metres of strong magmatic sulphide mineralisation in diamond drill core at its Narndee Igneous Complex tenements located 90 kilometres south-southwest of Mount Magnet in WA. An RC rig has now mobilised to Narndee to commence infill drilling between the existing diamond drill holes to achieve a JORC compliant resource.

Bardoc Gold is continuing to deliver significant shallow gold intercepts at its North Kanowna Star project near Kalgoorlie. Noteworthy drill results include 9 metres grading 2.45 grams per tonne gold from 61m, 1m going 18 g/t gold from 47m and 3m grading 5.63 g/t gold from 69m. North Kanowna Star is 29 kilometres southeast of Bardoc’s 3 million ounce namesake project.

Tambourah Metals has put its foot on an additional 381.5 square kilometres of exploration ground prospective for copper, gold, nickel and platinum near Chalice Mining’s exciting Julimar discovery. The company’s landholding in the area is now set to cover a whopping 780 square kilometres with the new ground also very close to Caravel Minerals’ namesake copper project that hosts a massive 1.86 million tonnes of contained copper.

Empire Energy looks to be making a lot of powerful friends after rubber-stamping a memorandum of understanding with Northern Territory Government-owned Power and Water Corporation for the potential sale and transportation of gas from Empire’s NT assets. The budding partnership could see Empire leverage Power and Water's McArthur River Gas Pipeline that intersects its Carpentaria-1 and Carpentaria-2H wells.

Todd River Resources has unveiled a trilogy of anomalous PGE hits from a five-hole reverse circulation drilling program at its Nanutarra nickel, copper and PGE project in the Gascoyne. The company says one of the holes intersected a strong PGE anomalism that is believed to be linked with elevated nickel and copper and correlates with anomalous values identified in historic shallow drilling.

ABx Group has secured $4 million from existing shareholders through a share purchase plan to advance its Deep Leads rare earth element project in Tasmania. The money was raised off the back of a bonanza rare earth drill hit going at 3,306 parts per million total rare earth oxides.

Venture Minerals could be in for a memorable Christmas after a downhole transient electromagnetic survey at its Orcus prospect within the Golden Grove North project in WA’s Mid West uncovered a mammoth 500m long by 240m deep conductor under high-grade zinc-copper-gold intersections. It produced assays up to 7.6 per cent zinc, 1.3 per cent copper, 2.2 g/t gold and 22 g/t silver.

ASX-listed Great Southern Mining is looking to close the year on a high as it looks to follow up some intriguing gold sniffs at its 1,000 square kilometre Edinburgh Park project in north Queensland. The company’s landholdings in the sunny state are within shouting distance of Evolution Mining’s million-ounce-plus Mt Carlton gold-silver-copper mine.

Manganese producer, Element 25 has delivered multiple breakthroughs in its efforts to tap into the flourishing lithium-ion battery industry by producing a high-purity manganese product from its Butcherbird mine in WA. Optimisation test work on a flowsheet designed to convert manganese concentrate into battery-grade manganese material has reportedly reduced reagent consumption and residue production in the conversion process. The outcome could potentially slash operational and capitals costs of the venture.

Impact Minerals’ maiden soil sampling program has pleasantly surprised with a grab bag of noteworthy rare earth elements targets emerging across the Arkun project in southwest Western Australia. The soil anomalies occur over hundreds of metres and have snagged both light and heavy rare earths in an area that has never previously been explored for rare earths.

Comet Resources is set to become a key player in the lucrative downstream processing of lithium-ion battery anode material after vending-out its Springdale graphite project to International Graphite - an Australian manufacturer of high-value graphite products for supply to global markets. International Graphite plans to list on the ASX early next year with Comet in line to own a 25 per cent stake in the graphite manufacturer after the listing.

Perth-based Lithium Australia looks to have its eyes set on systematically progressing its battery production expertise with its wholly owned subsidiary, VSPC rubber stamping a three-way deal with the Australian Research Council and the University of Technology Sydney, to conduct research and development for solid-state lithium metal battery technology. The company says the technology will spearhead the next generation of lithium batteries.

Native Minerals has spotted what it believes to be a significant iron-oxide copper-gold anomaly from a maiden high-resolution magnetic drone survey at its 100 per cent owned Nullarbor tenements in WA. The new target area is perched on a low seismic zone with a large-scale structure and low resistivity readings, similar to the enormous Olympic Dam IOCG deposit. Drill target planning is currently underway.

Perth-based Venus Metals’ Henderson project north of Menzies in WA could turn out to be a triple header with the company recently completing a hard-rock lithium sampling and mapping program at the gold and nickel site. A suite of 97 rock samples were bagged during the renaissance trip which sought to review the lithium potential of the company’s landholdings with assays currently pending.

ASX-listed Aldoro Resources is concentrating efforts on exploring the Loop Pegmatite structure at its Wyemandoo pegmatite project in Western Australia. The exploration focus is following up a series of high-grade lithium and rubidium assays and completed satellite imagery which indicate a similar structure immediately to the south in the pegmatite swarm. Aldoro says the Wyemandoo pegmatites represent a new lithium-rubidium bearing-pegmatite field.

Nickel explorer, Estrella Resources has intercepted 12 metres of nickel-copper sulphides on previously untested ground, some 1.4 kilometres along trend from its striking T5 nickel-copper discovery near Kalgoorlie in WA. The company says the new intercept looks strikingly similar to the T5 discovery RC hole that returned 8m at 1.11 per cent nickel and 0.36 per cent copper in 2019.

ASX-listed Coda Minerals is narrowing in on a highly prospective 2km long copper-gold mineralised corridor at its Cameron River project near Mt Isa in Queensland. Systematic rock chip sampling over the Copper Weed and Rebound prospect areas have returned a bevy of high-grade results including 22.2 per cent copper and 2.74 g/t gold along with identifying several new targets.

Gold explorer, Torian Resources has upped the ante at its Mt Stirling gold project near Leonora in WA after early-stage auger vacuum drilling unveiled a 1km long gold zone, some 1.5km from its 100,000 ounce Mt Stirling gold deposit. The next day, about 10km further south, the company unearthed a bumper grade gold discovery with drilling intercepting 2m at a cracking 12.18 g/t gold.

Horizon and Metal Hawk have signed an interesting nickel rights option agreement on 12 tenements adjacent to Horizon’s Cannon gold project area approximately 20km east of Kalgoorlie. The agreement sees Horizon pick up an initial 1.5m shares in Metal Hawk with the option of another 3m more shares within 18 months and Metal Hawk taking up an option over the potentially lucrative nickel rights.

Barton Gold has revealed more stunning gold intercepts from its final 29 holes of the last drilling program at the Tarcoola gold project in the central Gawler Craton of SA including 5m at 48.9 g/t gold. The hits continue a run of success following the recent gold discoveries around the northern edges of the Perseverance pit and the gold zone discovered at Perseverance West last year.

Empire Energy is preparing to capitalise on the surging gas market after inking a transportation services memorandum of understanding with APA Transmission, a wholly owned subsidiary of APA Group. Under the agreement, the duo will explore opportunities to develop mid-stream infrastructure in the Beetaloo Sub-Basin to support the transport of hydrocarbons from Empire’s assets in the Northern Territory.

Mineral exploration company, Podium Minerals has commenced drilling two deep diamond holes to 750m to test for depth continuity of its flagship Parks Reef PGM deposit near Meekatharra in WA. The company recently delivered an updated mineral resource estimate for the project clocking in at a head-turning 40.2 million tonnes going 1.54 g/t 3E PGM for 2.2 million ounces of contained platinum, palladium and gold.

ASX newcomer, Tambourah Metals has launched an airborne gravity survey at its Julimar North project in the Wheatbelt region of WA. The survey will look to unveil ultramafic rocks prospective for nickel, copper and PGE mineralisation akin to Chalice Mining’s spectacular Julimar discovery nearby. The explorer recently pocketed $8m from an IPO for its listing on the ASX.

Middle Island Resources has been quietly beavering away, pulling together a swag of new gold prospects and a 2km long nickel anomaly at its Sandstone project in Western Australia. It has also increased its footprint around the newly discovered Crosswinds copper prospect in the Northern Territory.