Matt Birney

Venus Metals has bagged up 1500 soil samples and 58 rock chips that it will now lab test for nickel, copper, rare earths, gold, platinum, lithium and related minerals at its Managaroon north project in the Gascoyne region of WA. The samples have since been submitted for the multi-element analysis and the company is planning a follow-up program based on the results.

ASX-listed Surefire Resources has unearthed three “exciting” new bedrock conductors at its Kooline lead-silver project in WA after modelling up old airborne electromagnetic data. The company says the conductors, that have never before seen any drilling, are linked to historic, high-grade lead-silver mines. Surefire is now planning a follow-up ground electromagnetic survey and has recently secured government funding for the subsequent drilling campaign.

Aldoro Resources has hit sulphides in two diamond drill holes into the VC11 target at its flagship Narndee project, 400 kilometres north-east of Perth. The presence of sulphides and prospective host rock units in diamond core has given the company the confidence to extend the nickel prospectivity of the Narndee project out to the VC11 prospect, a whopping 7km north northwest of the VC1 target.

Multi-metals exploration company, Conico Limited has finalised its maiden drill season at the Greenland Ryberg base and precious metals project with data acquisition now in progress. Drill core samples for assay are due to arrive at the lab in Spain later this week and all core trays, totalling 3480m of core, will land this week in Portugal where further analyses will be conducted by Longland, Conico’s wholly owned subsidiary company.

ASX-listed software-as-a-service provider, K2fly has tabled a record 79 per cent growth in annual recurring revenue in the September quarter this year when compared to the corresponding quarter in 2020. The boost to the company’s top line follows the signing of three major long-term contracts that also lead to a record 125 per cent growth in total contract value in the period.

Brisbane based miner, Superior Resources has enjoyed some serious success with the drill bit at its Steam Engine prospect within the broader Greenvale project in Queensland recently. The company’s latest drill campaign produced a best result of 5m at 24.9 g/t gold including a 1m intersection going a whopping 115 grams per tonne gold from just 29m down-hole.

ASX-listed Emu NL has completed the acquisition of the Sunfire nickel-copper-PGE prospect near Bridgetown in WA. Located in the emerging South West mineral field, the Sunfire project hosts a suite of mafic-ultramafic intrusions that display a similar electromagnetic signature to Chalice Mining’s coveted Julimar discovery and it is adjacent to Venture Minerals and Chalice Mining’s evolving Thor JV.

ASX-listed junior explorer Native Minerals Resources has opened a new exploration frontier in Western Australia’s Nullabor region after being granted two key tenements in the region. The company will immediately commence a high-resolution magnetic survey over its new leases to help define new drilling targets over the 195km2 slice of the remote Nullarbor Plain.

ASX-listed Kula Gold is looking to head into the new year with a slurry of results from six months of drilling across its expanding tenement package in key prospective West Australian terranes, including the developing South West terrane and West Yilgarn nickel, copper and PGE province. A follow-up program at the company’s recently discovered Boomerang kaolin-halloysite project near Southern Cross is high on the company’s agenda.

Venus Metals has encountered platinum group element, copper and nickel mineralisation at its Youanmi project in WA after probing a promising electromagnetic conductor. A seven hole, 734 metre drilling program has extended the mineralisation at the project with a 7m intersection going 0.85 g/t platinum, palladium plus gold from 124m. The 7m hit also included a high-grade interval of 2m at 1.44 g/t platinum, palladium plus gold.

Infinity Lithium has estimated the net present value of its proposed San José lithium mine and hydroxide plant in Spain at US$811.7m, which translates into a whopping $1.094 billion in Australian dollars. The company says the project will spit out US$190m a year for 26 years in net cash flows from the production of 19,500 tonnes of battery grade lithium hydroxide annually.

Strickland Metals saw its share price surge by more than 60 per cent in intraday trading following discovery of broad, shallow and high-grade zinc and lead mineralisation in the Earaheedy Basin, directly along strike to Rumble Resources’ celebrated Chinook zinc and lead discovery. The first two drill holes of an initial five-hole campaign at Strickland’s Iroquois prospect returned thick mineralised hits, including 23m at 5.5 per cent zinc and lead.

Assay results from Askari Metals’ drilling at its WA Burracoppin gold project have confirmed several high-grade intercepts with a broad low-grade gold halo seen in many of the other holes. Additionally, the company has identified a new prospect east of the current system. Askari plans to follow up this area which has the potential to positively change the size and the scale of the Burracoppin project significantly.

St George Mining has launched into another round of diamond drilling on the hunt to find deeper targets identified by compelling electromagnetic survey results at their 100 per cent owned Mount Alexander nickel-copper project in the north-eastern goldfields. The company is also targeting down plunge continuity following an enticing 11.07 metre drill hit grading 1.58 per cent nickel and 0.71 per cent copper from 333.5 metres.

Recent assay results from ABx Group’s Deep Leads rare earth element discovery in northern Tasmania have proven the mineralisation extends over an area greater than 3km. Importantly, results from one hole set a record with the highest grade of total rare earth elements from Deep Leads, returning a whopping 3,306 parts per million TREO. The company has just commenced an extension drill program.

Reconnaissance sampling by ASX-listed, King River Resources has unveiled elevated levels of gold, copper and silver from several areas scattered along more than 150km strike of the prospective Whitewater Volcanic rocks. Located at the company’s Mt Remarkable tenure in the Kimberley region of WA, grades going as high as 7.01 grams per tonne gold and 2.3 per cent copper were returned.

Venture Minerals has commissioned a feasibility study for an underground tin mine within its Mount Lindsay tin-tungsten resource near the high-grade Renison tin mine in northern Tasmania. The Australian government has declared tin a critical resource as global competition for the battery metal heats up. Tin prices soared to record highs recently, touching US$37,500 a tonne, up 180 per cent since 2016.

Multi-mineral exploration company, Oar Resources is about to hit the go button on a maiden diamond drilling campaign at the high-grade Douglas Canyon gold project in the US. The company is planning a four-hole, 1000 metre campaign in Nevada aimed at targeting near-surface mineralisation and testing down dip depth extensions where historical grades have tipped the scales as high as 18 grams per tonne gold and 398 g/t silver.

Toronto-listed gold producer Novo Resources has churned out 18,144 ounces of gold in the third quarter at its newly minted Nullagine gold project in the Pilbara that produced 14,890 ounces in the previous quarter. Gold sales generated C$43 million revenue for the conglomerate gold miner who finished the quarter with a hefty C$44.1 million in the kitty and an impressive C$135 million worth of liquid investments.

Buru Energy has completed another 74,000 barrels crude oil lift from its Canning Basin acreage in Western Australia that will be shipped out of Wyndham port and sold to BP Singapore who will deliver it to a refinery in SE Asia. Buru will pick up a handy $3.7m for its 50 per cent share of the oil.

Torian continues to uncover a swathe of decent gold grades across its Leonora-based Mt Stirling project revealing what it says looks to be one large connected ore system just eight kilometres along strike of Red 5’s four-million-ounce King Of The Hills gold mine. Notable intercepts include 10m grading at 2.05 grams per tonne gold from 34 metres and 1m grading 6.03 g/t gold from 3m.

Mineral exploration company, PolarX has staked an additional 15 claims in the heart of the historic US historic mining mecca state of Nevada. The company says it has now confirmed several large gold-in-soil anomalies at its new Black Canyon tenue, within its existing high-grade Humboldt Range where, amazingly past rock chip sampling returned multiple assays going more than 100 grams per tonne gold, including a spectacular peak value of 512.7g/t gold.

Aspiring miner Adriatic Metals has sealed a US$245 million finance package to fund the construction of its flagship Vares silver project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The deal, which includes an equity raising of US$100 million, signals a major step in the advancement of the project which is still subject to delivery of a definitive feasibility study.

Altech Chemicals may have raised the stakes at its Kerrigan kaolin deposit in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt with the discovery of halloysite in its analysis of samples from last year’s aircore drilling program. Halloysite is a tubular type of kaolin that attracts a premium price because of its value for a range of specialist uses.

ASX-listed gold explorer Si6 Metals has strategically positioned itself to extend the strike of its Monument gold project in Laverton by kicking off a government co-funded 5000 metre air core drill program. The program is targeting high level intrusive gold deposits analogous to the seven-million-ounce Wallaby gold deposit, also in the Laverton tectonic zone.

ASX newcomer, West Cobar Metals has unleashed the drill rig for the company's highly anticipated maiden diamond drilling campaign at its Bulla Park copper and silver project on the western edges of the mineral-rich Cobar Basin in NSW. The program will kick off with three holes at its namesake prospect, targeting a major copper-silver stratabound mineralised system where historical drilling returned thick copper intercepts at the margins of the system.

Junior explorer Victory Mines has judiciously applied for an additional five exploration licences around its Mt Ida-Ida Valley project, which will now share a tenement boundary with celebrated fellow explorer Red Dirt's newly acquired Mt Ida gold project. Victory says northward extensions of the recently announced lithium bearing pegmatites on Red Dirt's ground may creep up into its new tenure.

Gold explorer, Torian Resources has wrapped up an unusual equity swap and advisory services arrangement with blockchain outfit BullionFX that recently listed its "BULL" gold-backed token on cryptocurrency exchange Digifinex. Under the agreement, Torian acquired a 7.5 per cent stake in BullionFX and is set to receive 15 million BULL crypto tokens. Torian says each BULL recently traded up at about US$0.85, valuing its stake in BULL at more than US$12 million.

King River Resources has made a key appointment to lead its newly formed High "Purity Metals Division" as the company looks to lay the groundwork for building a processing plant for high purity alumina in Kwinana. According to the company, newly appointed CEO, Doug Flanagan has a pedigree in delivering base and precious metal projects, rare earths and oil and gas projects in Australia, Zambia, Malaysia and Central and North America.

Okapi Resources has acquired additional high-grade uranium pounds adjacent to its existing tenure on a new mining lease executed with the State of Colorado. Okapi has secured a 100 per cent interest in 640 acres of prospective acreage around the High Park uranium deposit. Black Range Minerals previously established a JORC 2012 resource of 2.48 million pounds U3O8 at 570ppm U3O8 in the new project area.

Mineral explorer, Strickland Metals has secured a milestone 'Native Title Land Access and Mineral Exploration Agreement' with the Tarlka Matuwa Parku Aboriginal Corporation to cover the company’s entire Yandal gold project tenure in WA. Strickland says the agreement will fast-track its exploration efforts at the project that already boasts a resource base of about 600,000 ounces of gold, taking in a touch under 2,000 square kilometres.

Twenty Seven Co is set to kick off reverse circulation drilling at its 100 per cent owned Rover gold project near Sandstone in WA next week that will test recent stellar soil sampling results including a 1.15 gram per tonne surface gold sample. Drilling will also test some exciting intersections at the Harmonic and Creasy prospects to get a better understanding of the potential scale of the mineralised system around them.