Matt Birney

Kingwest Resources has produced an exceptional set of first pass drill results that appear to show a significant gold discovery lurking under the mineralised cover at Lake Goongarrie north of Kalgoorlie. Twelve holes intersected significant gold values across a 500 metre extent of the first drill line within Target A10 of the newly named Sir Laurence prospect under the lake at Goongarrie.

The first leach-test results from Abx Group’s rare earth elements mineralisation at its Tasmanian bauxite project have confirmed the rare earths can be leached by cold water, with enhanced reaction times and recoveries if ammonium sulphate is added to the mix. Importantly, the heavy rare earth elements are enriched in the precipitate and deleterious elements are depleted and only very low radioactive elements remain in the concentrate.

ASX-listed Terrain Minerals looks set to get the rods spinning again at its Smokebush project in Western Australia’s Murchison goldfield. A 3,600-metre reverse circulation drill program is slated to follow up recent “exciting” new gold zones. An additional 3,000 metres of air core drilling is also earmarked to test promising regional coincident gold-arsenic anomalies.

ASX-listed junior gold explorer Superior Resources has passed the hat around for $1.26 million to fund exploration at its fast-moving Steam Engine gold project and Bottletree copper deposit in Queensland. New drilling for 2,300 metres of diamond core is imminent on the Bottletree deposit whilst Steam Engine probably represents Superior’s best pathway to early production.

Hot Chili’s exploration success continues with more high-grade copper-gold intercepts across the northern flank of its Cortadera deposit in Chile. The new intercepts have effectively increased the width of the main porphyry, Cuerpo 3, by approximately 100m, demonstrating a strong continuity of high-grade mineralisation.

ASX-listed 3D metal printing group Aurora Labs has entered a pivotal point in its well flagged technology development pathway strategy as it prepares to take the next step towards commercialisation of its 3D printing technology. The Perth-based company says it is now on the verge of reaching the final technical milestone of the technology development pathway that signals commercial readiness of its suite of products.

Nickel exploration company, Estrella Resources has dished out numerous sulphide intercepts at its exciting T5 discovery near the historical Carr Boyd Rocks nickel mine north of Kalgoorlie in WA, where a discovery hole returned 13.9m at 1.07 per cent nickel late last year. The company is now set to launch a 7,500m drilling blitz that will look to grow the mineralised zone and test 3.5km of strike to the north.

Venus Metals and joint venture partner, Rox Resources continue to deliver the goods at their Youanmi gold project in the Murchison district of WA with latest drilling at the Link prospect striking more gold, including a bumper 7.25m intercept going 15.02 g/t gold. The duo is looking to uncover more ounces to add to the already impressive 1.66-million-ounce resource at the project.

Blackstone Minerals has continued to encounter massive nickel sulphide mineralisation at its Ban Chang prospect at the Ta Khoa project in northern Vietnam about 160km west of the country’s capital city of Hanoi as it heads towards a maiden resource estimate for the key deposit. The company says recent infill diamond drilling at Ban Chang intersected 5.35m of massive sulphide nickel in one hole within a broader 11.4m interval.

Toronto-listed conglomerate gold producer, Novo Resources is set to splash out a further A$2.5 million on near-mine exploration drilling as it looks to source more feed for its Golden Eagle processing facility at its Nullagine gold project in the Pilbara region of WA. The company has identified more than 20 drill targets within trucking distance of Golden Eagle that will be targeted by 25,000m of drilling by year’s end.

Budding gold producer Calidus Resources has been buoyed by visible gold seen in drill core from a quartet of recent diamond holes aimed at verifying its high-grade Blue Spec satellite underground gold resource in WA’s prolific Pilbara goldfield. The company is working towards finalising an updated mineral resource estimate for Blue Spec as part of its continuing definitive feasibility study on mining and processing ore from the deposit.

Strickland Metals is hammering through a multitude of exploration programs with two rigs on site now at its flagship Yandal project. Promising zinc-lead assay results from a completed soil and rock chip sampling program at Iroquois, near Rumble Resource’s famed zinc-lead discovery in the Earaheedy Basin, are also providing cause for pause. Additionally, Strickland has been undertaking a thorough review of the exploration potential around its Millrose mineral resource.

Si6 Metals has secured an aircore rig for a forthcoming drilling program at its Monument gold project about 40km west of Laverton in WA as it looks to build on its existing 150,000-ounce-plus resource position in the prolific Laverton gold district in the North-Eastern Goldfields. The company says it expects to kick off the 125-hole regional program totalling about 5,000m by the end of this month.

Aspiring Indonesian gold producer Sihayo Gold has been making solid progress on the ground at its developing Sihayo “starter” gold project in North Sumatra which is getting tantalisingly close to being “shovel ready”. An optimisation study on the proposed mine is also advancing towards tabling in the next quarter and the company says upgrades to an access road and an existing camp are now largely completed.

King River Resources says it is re-evaluating its DFS strategy that is currently considering large-scale production of high purity alumina at a manufacturing plant in Kwinana in WA. The company will now also look to leverage its proprietary processing technology to consider an initially smaller scale operation only producing high value aluminium precursor compounds used in lithium-ion batteries in order to slash the capital and operating costs of the venture.

ASX-listed, Venture Minerals’ tin search at its Mount Lindsay tenure in Tasmania is heating up with exploration drilling intercepting a 16m interval of sulphide rich magnetite skarn that is prospective for hosting tin mineralisation. The company is targeting extensions of the Renison Mine Sequence that contains one of the largest and highest-grade tin mines in the world some 12 kilometres along strike, the Renison Bell tin mine.

ASX-listed heavy rare earths player Northern Minerals has its sights trained on a new set of prospects at its flagship Browns Range project in WA’s East Kimberley region. The trio of targets were highlighted by preliminary field portable X-ray fluorescence hits the company says point to broad geochemical anomalies that it intends following up with more drilling shortly.

Mineral exploration company, Okapi Resources’ share price soared by more than 50 per cent in intra-day trading after unveiling a monster 174m gold intercept going 1.83 g/t gold from surface at its Enmore gold project in northern NSW. The company says that grade appears to be increasing at depth with the hole terminating with a 1m interval at 15.15 g/t gold from 172m.

ASX-listed gold developer Horizon Minerals has released a new mineral resource estimate for its Crake project about 25 kilometres west of its proposed Boorara gold mine near Kalgoorlie. A series of stellar drill results have now moved 95 per cent of the resource into the coveted indicated category and metallurgical test work is also scrubbing up well at up to 98.9 per cent recoveries from the oxides.

Kingwest Resources has boosted its underground resource at its Yunndaga deposit within the Menzies gold project 6km south of Menzies. Importantly, the new estimate represents Kingwest’s first “high grade” resource estimate for Yunndaga and the company says the deposit may now be amenable to underground mining. New estimates are based on 13 new RC drill holes focused on eking out some high grade dirt at the Yunndaga underground deposit.

Manufacturer and distributor of consumer goods, Pental Limited is set to bolt on at least $24 million in existing revenues and plenty of blue-sky revenue opportunities after moving to acquire e-commerce business, Hampers With Bite. Pental will add the burgeoning gift hamper business to its lucrative and growing stable of big-name brands that it distributes including Huggie, White King, Jiffy, Velvet, Softly and Duracell, to name just a few.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources say they have identified what looks to be a new gold lode parallel to the old Youanmi mine at their joint ventured Youanmi gold project in WA. The JV partners’ continuing drilling campaign at Youanmi recently returned a pulse quickening 4-metre intersection going an impressive 45.5 g/t gold from 341m including 1.33m grading an even more impressive 129.3 g/t gold from 341.75m.

ASX-listed junior explorer Surefire Resources has uncovered three new targets at its exciting Yidby gold discovery at its namesake project in WA’s south-west Murchison district following recent soil sampling work. The Perth-based company says results from the geochemical survey comprising 520 samples point to three discrete and significant soil anomalies south-east and along strike of Yidby.

Quantum Graphite has launched into an eight-hole diamond drilling campaign over the ‘Eastern conductor’ near its Uley 2 graphite deposit on the Eyre Peninsula in SA. Uley 2 already boasts a 6.3 million tonne resource going 11.1 per cent total graphite content, with reserves clocking in at 4Mt at 11.89 per cent. The company is now looking to grow the resource and reserves via a two-phase drilling campaign.

Ora Banda Mining says its central Davyhurst gold processing hub and surrounding satellite mines in WA’s Eastern Goldfields have continued to make performance improvements across the board during the operation’s current ramp-up phase. The company eked out gold production of just over 2,450 ounces in the past couple of weeks and estimates total gold output of about 9,000 ounces across July and August.

ASX listed Emu NL has ramped up drilling at its lode-gold style Gnows Nest project in WA with a 6,500m reverse circulation program that has already intersected quartz veining at depths between 120m and 190m downhole. Drill testing is ongoing at the historic Gnows Nest mine, the Monte Cristo prospect and at a new target known as Watertank Hill, within a significant structural zone between Gnows Nest and Monte Cristo.

Junior exploration company, Torian Resources has delivered several significant gold drill hits at its Stirling Well deposit some 40km north-west of Leonora in WA including 1m at an impressive 16.81 g/t gold. The company says the recently announced results have increased the mineralised footprint beyond the existing resource which already consists of 253,500 tonnes going 2.01 g/t gold for more than 16,000 ounces of the precious yellow metal.

ASX-listed aspiring gold developer Bardoc Gold has revised its cash-flow optimisation strategy and brought forward development of its cornerstone Aphrodite deposit which will increase early profits and free cash flows from its proposed Bardoc gold mine in WA. The revised plan will increase the forecast gold production to 150,000 ounces of gold per year by year three of the initial five-year plan.

Vietnam nickel hopeful Blackstone Minerals has produced a series of encouraging results from a maiden drilling program targeting the Ban Khoa disseminated nickel sulphide prospect at its Ta Khoa project about 160km west of Hanoi in northern Vietnam. The pick of the initial assays was 147m averaging grades of 0.31 per cent nickel, 0.04 per cent copper, 0.01 per cent cobalt and 0.14 grams per tonne PGEs from 62m depth.

ASX-listed Element 25’s second shipload of about 27,000 tonnes of manganese concentrate produced at its Butcherbird operation in WA’s southern Pilbara region has recently departed Port Hedland, only a handful of weeks after the inaugural export shipment of about 27,000 tonnes set sail. The Perth-based company says the ore aboard a Handymax-size vessel will be delivered to its offtake partner OM Materials’ smelter in China.

Comet Resources has confirmed recent re-assaying of core from an historic drilling program at their Santa Teresa project in Mexico has proven intersections of high-grade gold, including ‘bonanza’ grade hits of up to 132g/t gold. Comet has also completed the analysis of samples from a surface sampling program and phase 1 metallurgical test work.

ASX-listed explorer, Oar Resources claims to have set a new record for the highest grade halloysite recorded in Australia at its Gibraltar project on the Eyre Peninsula in SA. A series of “exceptionally” high-grade halloysite strikes above 30 per cent confirm the exciting halloysite-kaolin discovery with one sample printing at a dazzling 53 per cent.