Matt Birney

ASX-listed Si6 Metals has defined a 2.5km-long geophysical anomaly coinciding with shallow historical drilled copper-silver mineralisation at its 60 per cent owned Dibete prospect in Botswana. The past drill hits included 38m at 1.72 per cent copper and 119.5 grams per tonne silver. Si6 Metals is looking to pin-point base and precious metal targets for drill-testing.

ASX-listed Troy Resources has edged closer to bringing its 288,000-ounce Smarts underground gold deposit into production at its 100 per cent-owned Karouni project in Guyana. The company has been granted approvals from the Guyana Geology & Mines Commission to enable it to advance work on Smarts as it finalises a series of technical reports on the proposed development.

Blackstone Minerals has successfully completed the spin-out of its non-core assets, birthing Codrus Minerals which was admitted to the Australian Securities Exchange this week. Codrus’ initial public offering was built on Blackstone’s suite of Australian and US gold projects, with the company receiving 35 million shares as part of the listing and leaving the Vietnam-focused nickel developer with a 46 per cent holding in the new entity.

Quantum Graphite has entered a transformational joint venture agreement with The Sunlands Company to manufacture thermal energy storage battery cells, or “TES”, utilising graphite sourced from its Uley 2 deposit on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Sunlands will contribute processing technologies and flake specifications for the final product, with the 50-50 partnership aiming to break into the burgeoning renewable power generation market.

In just three short months Strickland Metals has established a dominant land position in one of the world’s premier gold belts. Its rapid-fire consolidation of WA’s east Yandal Belt has already delivered a project resource inventory of 600,000 ounces and put it in a position to mount the first systematic drilling assault on a 100km-long stretch of the prospective Celia shear zone.

Impact Minerals is zeroing in on the source of nickel-PGE mineralisation at its Little Broken Hill Gabbro discovery in western New South Wales, with diamond drilling returning a 100m-thick intercept containing up to 5 per cent iron sulphides. Intriguingly, the intercept has a 50m-wide zone of anomalous copper mineralisation that looks similar in nature to the mineralised halo surrounding the massive Voisey’s Bay deposit in Canada.

Ardiden has sealed a joint venture agreement in relation to its hard-rock lithium projects in Canada after new partner Great Northern Lithium gave the nod to acquiring an 80 per cent interest in the assets. Great Northern, which plans to change its name to Green Technology Metals, exercised its option to buy the stake for $8.7 million over the next 18 months.

Venus Metals Corporation and joint venture partner Rox Resources have grown resources at their Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet in Western Australia’s Murchison district by a whopping 39 per cent. Nearly 1.7 million ounces have now been defined with 800,000 ounces near surface and a further 856,000 high-grade ounces at depth. Resource drilling continues with a feasibility study on the cards.

Latitude Consolidated continues to return encouraging gold hits from an RC drilling campaign near the former Andy Well underground mine at its Murchison gold project in WA. Best of the latest reported drill intersections came from the Margaret prospect, including 3m at 2.52 g/t gold from 136m containing 1m at 7 g/t and 9m at 1.14 g/t from 150m with 2m at 3.09 g/t.

ASX-listed junior explorer Surefire Resources has been buoyed by a recently completed scoping study on its Perenjori iron ore project in WA’s south-west Murchison district that points to a potentially economically viable mining and beneficiation operation producing high-grade magnetite concentrate. The company says the study shows a “clear pathway” to meeting its 30 per cent internal rate of return hurdle for a project development.

ASX-listed St George Mining has delivered a “breakthrough” high-grade nickel sulphide drill hit below previously intercepted mineralisation at the 75 per cent-owned Mt Alexander project in Western Australia’s north-Eastern Goldfields. The 11.07m hit grading 1.58 per cent nickel and 0.71 per cent copper included a 1.28m interval going at 6.54 per cent nickel, 2.96 per cent copper and 3.88g/t PGEs from 342.12m depth.

ASX-listed base and precious metals explorer PolarX is gearing up to kick off a new round of diamond drilling at the Caribou Dome copper project, about 250km north-east of Anchorage in Alaska, USA. The company says it has locked in a drilling contractor for the program that is planned to start in August this year with an aggregate drill coverage of at least 1,500m.

Todd River Resources has expanded its footprint in WA, picking up close to 900 sq.km of ground in the Edmund Basin south of the Pilbara Craton. The company’s new Pingandy tenure covers a package of rocks similar to those hosting Rumble Resources Earaheedy lead-zinc discovery and prospective for copper, lead, zinc and silver mineralisation.

ASX-listed Venus Metals and joint venture partner Rox Resources are extending deep drilling at their Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet in Western Australia. The pair have added 2,000m of diamond drilling to a program targeting depth extensions to high-grade gold shoots and seeking new ones. They are looking to add to the current 1.19-million-ounce resource at Youanmi as stellar gold hits continue.

ASX-listed Infinity Lithium Corporation has signed a consultancy agreement with Spanish mining outfit Promotora de Minas de Carbon as the Australian company looks to shore up its San Jose lithium project in Spain’s Extremadura region. Forty-five-year-old Promotora de Minas de Carbon has agreed to provide mining advisory services to Infinity for an all-options success fee comprising two tranches of 20 million options each.

Coda Minerals has pocketed $14.4 million from an oversubscribed capital raising, with the company now boasting more than $21 million in cash reserves to fund ongoing exploration in South Australia. Whilst the company has wowed the market in recent weeks with its Emmie Bluff IOCG discovery, Coda continues to build a substantial inventory of copper resources at its Elizabeth Creek project.

ASX-listed 88 Energy is cutting more than US$1 million of annual finance costs and adding US$2.6 million to its treasury with the US$18.7 million sale of oil and gas tax credits in Alaska. The balance-sheet reset strengthens the company’s position as it strives to expand oil and gas resources at its 100 per cent-owned Peregrine project in the US state.

Wiluna Mining’s development program over its namesake WA operation continues to come up trumps with reserve drilling across the Happy Jack deposit returning 1.78 metres grading a stunning 66.74 grams per tonne. Meanwhile drilling at East Lode has turned up intercepts of 13.12m at 6.89 g/t and 6.85m at 7.72 g/t gold, underlining the lucrative nature of the deeper sulphide mineralisation.

ASX-listed 3D metal printing company Aurora Labs has hit the ground running after moving operations to its new Canning Vale facility in Perth. The company’s Beta prototype printer has produced its first coupons since the relocation, marking the relaunch of Aurora’s 12-month “Technology Development Pathway” strategy with an end goal of commercialising its 3D printing technology.

Coda Minerals has stepped up exploration at its Emmie Bluff IOCG discovery in South Australia, with drilling now underway to further test the mineral-rich body, located 450 kilometres north-west of Adelaide. The company has now kicked off drilling of a series of daughter holes that splay off the original diamond drill hole to test the mineralisation at various levels within the stratigraphy.

ASX-listed Blackstone Minerals has launched a “green” hydrogen study as it continues to look at ways of developing a zero-carbon mining and downstream processing operation at its flagship Ta Khoa nickel-copper-PGE project in Vietnam. In relation to the proposed downstream processing plant, the company intends assessing oxygen production via the electrolysis of water that it says generates green hydrogen as a by-product.

ASX-listed mining technology company K2fly has turned in its first $1 million invoicing month and maiden $2 million quarter as industry demand for vital environmental, social and governance decision-making information continues to climb. A new sales deal with a US-based geospatial data specialist is expected to add to the Australian company’s prospects in a key growth market.

Hot Chili has launched feasibility over the company’s immense Costa Fuego copper-gold project in northern Chile, appointing expert engineers Wood to oversee a PFS over the greater Costa Fuego project area. The study will use the 2016 Productora pre-feasibility study to expedite a larger PFS over the project, which hosts more than 724 million tonnes in copper and gold resources.

ASX-listed explorer Oar Resources has landed an exploration licence at its Crown PGE-nickel-copper prospect just 9km west of Chalice Mining’s celebrated Julimar discovery in Western Australia. Initial reconnaissance works to verify 20 identified targets are now on the cards in preparation for a maiden drilling campaign planned for the second half of the year.

ASX-listed Oar Resources has laid the foundation for drilling programs on three fronts following a $2.3m placement. Funds will be used to advance the Crown PGE-nickel-copper project west of Chalice Mining’s renowned Julimar discovery in Western Australia, launch a maiden gold drilling program at Douglas Canyon in Nevada, and continue work at the emerging Gibraltar kaolin-halloysite project in South Australia.

Buru Energy is set to kick off its 2021 oil exploration program in the Canning Basin in the north of Western Australia where it is targeting 97 million barrels of conventional oil from back-to-back wells. A rig has been mobilised at Buru’s first Currajong 1 well with a second well, Rafael 1, to follow. A seismic survey to define new targets is also on the cards.

ASX-listed WA manganese producer Element 25 has dispatched the first shipment of manganese concentrate from its new Butcherbird open-pit mining and beneficiation operation about 130km south of Newman in WA’s southern Pilbara region. The Perth-based company says Pilbara-based AK Evans Group last week kicked off ore haulage from Butcherbird to Utah Point in Port Hedland in readiness for loading and export.

King River has its sights on a free cash deluge from its proposed $204 million investment in a cutting-edge high-purity alumina manufacturing plant at Kwinana, south of Perth, after tabling a stunning set of numbers in its recently completed project pre-feasibility study. The plant is expected to deliver more than $190 million per annum in free cash flow over an initial 25-year operation.

Horizon Minerals has reported a host of encouraging intersections from a follow-up RC drilling program at three prospects within its Binduli gold project 12km west of Kalgoorlie. The pick of the drill hits came from the Honeyeater prospect, which returned 4m at 11.45 g/t gold from 113m including 1m at 32.4 g/t and 4m at 5.15 g/t from 93m including 1m at 13.54 g/t.

Hot Chili has dished up a bumper-grade 144m intercept at 1 per cent copper-equivalent as it looks to grow the resource at the Cortadera deposit within its broader Costa Fuego copper hub in northern Chile. The company is eyeing a pre-feasibility study to fast-track Costa Fuego to production with the high-grade core at Cortadera to play a key part.

Wiluna Mining Corporation has wrapped up its US$42 million term loan from commodity trader Mercuria and says stage one sulphide gold expansion to more than 120,000 ounces per annum and feasibility study work on its next phase of growth are now fully funded. The FS on lifting annual output at Wiluna in WA past 240,000 ounces is expected to be completed this year.

Canada-focused Ardiden is set to shift its exploration efforts into higher gear at its Pickle Lake gold project in Ontario. The company is eyeing a maiden drilling campaign at the Esker prospect near Barrick Gold Corp’s historical Golden Patricia gold mine which produced more than 600,000 ounces of gold. Previous drill intercepts at Esker include 12.03m at 3.2 grams per tonne gold.