Matt Birney

Torian Resources has wasted no time kicking off a follow-up RC drilling program at its Mt Stirling gold project in WA after scoring a couple of encouraging drill hits from the “Diorite Block” section of the project. The company intends sinking a further 12 holes totalling 1,230m into the Diorite North and Diorite East prospects, which recently coughed up assays of 1m at 4.66 g/t gold from 109m and 1m at 2.19 g/t from 8m respectively.

ASX-listed PolarX has detected three large, high-grade, gold-in-soil anomalies at its Black Canyon claims within its Humboldt Range Project in Nevada, USA. The company has turned up some promising soil samples assaying up to a serious 793 parts per billion gold, rock-chip samples going an impressive 43.8 g/t gold and an 86.1 g/t silver.

Aspiring Balkans precious and base metals developer Adriatic Metals has produced a humdinger of a definitive feasibility study that is knee deep in “exceptional” key financial metrics. The study points to a potentially lucrative mining operation at its advancing Vares silver-zinc-lead project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The London-based, multi-listed company’s latest study improves on what was already a cracking pre-feasibility study on the project.

ASX-listed Galan Lithium is ready to get the rods turning at its Hombre Muerto West project in South America’s prolific “Lithium Triangle” following confirmation of the next round of drilling permits from the local government body in Catamarca, Argentina. The planned drilling is designed to assess new resources and maiden reserves at Hombre Muerto West.

ASX-listed Neometals’ and its joint venture partner, mega German engineering firm, SMS Group have made the decision to fund a commercial scale lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Germany. The partners joint venture vehicle, Primobius GmbH intends to expand its demonstration plant in Germany and build up operational capacity to provide a 10 tonne per day battery disposal recycling service by early 2022.

St George Mining has lit up a strong new conductor amongst a conga line of conductors identified at its flagship Mt Alexander project in Western Australia. The stand-out conductor is located the company’s West End prospect within the Mt Alexander project along the Cathedrals mineral belt The company is confident that drilling of the target will likely deliver another high-grade discovery.

Barton Gold is all set to hit the go-button on a first phase of drilling at its Tunkillia gold project in SA after its requisite environment protection and rehabilitation plan was approved by the state’s mining department. The phase-one program will comprise about 6,000m of RC drilling as the company looks to continue broadening its geological knowledge of the project’s fertile terrane in the Gawler Craton region.

Podium Minerals continues to deliver strong platinum group metal intercepts from a resource expansion drilling campaign at its 100 per cent owned Parks Reef project near Meekatharra in Western Australia. A suite of solid new hits appears to place the company in good stead to grow the existing resource which clocks in at 1,390,000 ounces of combined platinum, palladium and gold.

Aldoro Resources continues to kick goals at its Narndee sulphide discovery in Western Australia. The company is showing a perfect scorecard with all four of its maiden diamond drill holes into the electromagnetic target returning massive sulphides. Geological logging of the recently drilled NDD0004 noted the presence of disseminated to blebby sulphides over an interval of more than 124 metres.

Perth-based AVZ Minerals is set to have all required permits and licences approved by the Democratic Republic of Congo government in the coming weeks at its flagship Manono hard rock lithium and tin project. Final approval of the mining licence is due to follow propelling the company to the cusp of reaching bankable status amid intense global interest and the background of a green battery revolution.

Conico has hit an impressive 70 metres of magnetite in its first hole at the Sortekap prospect and racked up more sulphide intercepts at the Miki prospect within the Ryberg project in Greenland. A regional airborne geophysical survey has also been completed and the company continues to reveal a bounty of targets and plans to keep the drill rods spinning.

New kid on the ASX block, Askari Metals has high-jumped into its planned work program at the Callawa copper project with a detailed mapping and sampling campaign across its highly prospective Pilbara tenements in Western Australia. The company’s 100 per cent owned Callawa tenure covers 167 square kilometres in the Pilbara’s north, east of Rio Tinto’s famed Winu discovery.

Kairos Minerals has added a major new nickel-copper and gold target at its 100 per cent owned Roe Hills project east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Extensive geochemical sampling has defined a 1km nickel-copper anomaly with values going as high as 3,120 parts per million nickel. In addition, possible gold extensions to mineralisation at the Caliburn prospect have been identified.

Kula Gold continues to tick boxes in its exploration efforts in Western Australia with SEM imaging confirming the qualitative nature of its halloysite over a 10m interval that graded an impressive 7 per cent halloysite at its exciting Boomerang discovery near Southern Cross. Elsewhere, the company has beefed up its Brunswick tenure east of Bunbury with acquisition of the historical Donnybrook gold mine.

Anglo Australian Resources has tabled an impressive 33 per cent increase in the mineral resource estimate for its flagship Mandilla gold project in WA. Mandilla now boasts a JORC resource of 19.8 million tonnes at 1.0 gram per tonne gold for 664,600 ounces of contained gold. The company already has the rods turning again as it embarks on the next massive 55,000m drilling blitz.

ASX-listed junior gold and base metals explorer Godolphin Resources has uncovered a triumvirate of new gold prospects at its Lewis Ponds project 15km east of Orange in the venerated Lachlan Fold Belt region in NSW following a review of historical exploration data generated by rock chip and soil sampling. The company says the targets sit outside the current limits of the Lewis Ponds mineral resource.

Perth-based gold miner and explorer Wiluna Mining can add nickel explorer to its growing resume as it embarks on an extensive review of historical exploration over its 1,600 square kilometre landholding in WA’s Northern Goldfields. Wiluna’s tenure stretches across 40km of strike in the Wiluna Greenstone Belt where the company is reviewing a plethora of high-grade nickel intercepts which look to be begging for renewed attention.

ASX-listed Horizon Minerals and its joint venture partner have taken the next major step towards developing their Richmond-Julia Creek vanadium project in north-west Queensland after fine-tuning last year’s pre-feasibility study on the proposed long-life project development. Perth-based Horizon and Richmond Vanadium Technology have now committed to a definitive feasibility study that is slated for completion next year.

ASX-listed Okapi Resources has uncovered a 2-kilometre-long lithium target from a recently completed soil program at its newly acquired Lake Johnston project 450km east of Perth in Western Australia. Lithium in soil results have graded up to 86 parts per million and bear strong similarities with nearby results recently announced by joint venture partner Charger Metals at the adjoining Mount Day project.

St George Mining has kicked off a swag of drilling at its flagship Mt Alexander project in Western Australia. Early-stage targets will be tested with a seven-hole program at the newly minted Carnac prospect and 20 high-priority infill holes will also be ploughed into St George’s Cathedrals JV with an eye to a potential resource estimate being produced.

Australian Bauxite is building on the intriguing recent discovery of rare earth element accumulations within its Tasmanian bauxite project. New assay results have significantly increased the extent and thickness of rare earths enrichment with new mineralised zones trending to the north and south. The drill rig is rapidly being upgraded in readiness for drilling the possible source rock that lies to the northeast of the high-grade zone.

ASX-listed junior explorer Askari Metals has completed its inaugural reverse circulation drilling program as it seeks to determine the prospectivity of its Burracoppin gold project in historically worked fields about 20km east of Merredin in Western Australia’s eastern Wheatbelt. The company is now waiting with anticipation on the assay results due in four to six weeks.

Things just got interesting in 88 Energy’s oil hunt at its Project Peregrine in the revered North Slope of Alaska with post-well evaluation of the Merlin-1 well demonstrating the presence of oil in three reservoirs. Results from the well have led to a targeted mean total prospective resource at the project of a whopping 1.6 billion barrels of oil. An appraisal well is now on the cards.

Superior Resources has delivered a 10m gold intercept going 2.8 g/t gold from the first hole at the Steam Engine lode, located at its Greenvale project 210km west of Townsville in Queensland. The result, in conjunction with visual observations of thick mineralised zones in other holes, has prompted the company to launch into another 5,000m of drilling aiming to grow the 122,000-ounce deposit at the Steam Engine prospect.

Perth-based miner Calidus Resources is on track to become Australia’s next gold producer. Construction at the company’s Warrawoona gold operation in the Pilbara region is now more than 50 per cent complete and Calidus is on target to deliver its first gold pour in the first half of next year, defying the challenges of labour shortages and supply disruptions.

ASX-listed Eclipse Metals is casting an eye over nearly 20 kilometres of historic drill core from its Ivittuut project in southwest Greenland as it follows up rock chip sample assays of up to 34,400 parts per million total rare earth elements.

ASX-listed central African lithium developer AVZ Minerals has completed four diamond drill holes on the Carriere de l’Este prospect at its flagship Manono hard-rock lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Intercepts grading up to 2.49 per cent lithium oxide have extended the known lithium and tin mineralisation over an impressive strike length of 1.2km.

St George Mining has opened up exploration on a second front and is now hunting giant copper deposits in one of WA’s most enigmatic mineral terranes – the Paterson province, home to a number of elephant sized mineral deposits. The company’s maiden drill program over its extensive tenure in the region has jagged copper sulphides in several drill holes triggering a move to deeper diamond drilling.

Lithium Australia is looking to patent the proprietary lithium battery recycling technology developed by its subsidiary, Envirostream. One of the two Australian patent applications relates to its process for recovering battery electrode material from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. The second application encompasses the process for the selective recovery of mixed metal sulphates from a metal sulphate process liquor following leaching of mixed metal material recovered from lithium-ion batteries.

Galan Lithium is set to grow its bank balance by whopping A$50m after receiving firm commitments from institutional and sophisticated investors for a placement that will see the company fast-track exploration and development works across its Hombre Muerto West and Candales lithium brine projects in Argentina’s Salar del Hombre Muerto.

Venus Metals and joint venture partner Rox Resources have continued to rack up high-grade gold hits with infill reverse circulation drilling at their Youanmi gold project in the Murchison district of Western Australia. A cracking 17 metre interval grading 5.14 grams per tonne gold was encountered from 151 metres downhole. Management believes there is strong potential for further increases in the Resource.

Indiana Resources has continued its run of success across South Australia’s revered Gawler Craton, with regional exploration drilling on the gold-rich Labyrinth Shear turning up a new gold discovery along strike from the company’s Ariadne prospect. Better results from the Ariadne East discovery include 8 metres at 1.2 grams per tonne gold from 36m and 4m at 2.28 g/t gold from 40m down-hole.