Matt Birney

Bardoc Gold continues to kick goals at its 1.7-million-ounce Aphrodite gold deposit in WA, with recent drilling returning a quiver of high-grade gold hits that sit outside the current ore reserve and pit design. Results come from the newly discovered Omega lode include 14 metres at 7.63 grams per tonne gold from 106m and 5m at 3.99 g/t gold from only 67m down-hole.

Rock chip samples from PolarX’s Black Canyon claims in Nevada have given up some spectacular silver grades and impressive gold values. Some silver assays were above 1,000 grams/tonne, or more than 32 ounces to the tonne silver. The samples come from Nevada’s Humboldt Range.

The Mt Stirling gold project has now moved well away from grassroots exploration for Torian Resources following a major uplift in resources and the addition of a new shallow target. The search tempo will lift in four key structural corridors.

Anglo Australian Resources has tabled an impressive maiden resource for its flagship Mandilla gold project in WA, with the company defining over 500,000 ounces of gold. The milestone is the culmination of nearly 18 months of solid exploration, with the company having now outlined gold mineralisation over more than 2.5 kilometres of strike and down to 300 metres below surface.

Australian Bauxite has continued to reveal strong rare earth element enrichment in drilling at its DL130 bauxite-REE project in north-east Tasmania, with its latest batch of assays including the highest-grade neodymium oxide recorded to date. The peak 1m drill sample in hole DL313 returned an impressive 301ppm neodymium oxide from 9m depth, almost double the previous highest value of 1m going 156ppm neodymium oxide.

Hot Chili is looking to ramp up copper production from its emerging Costa Fuego hub in northern Chile as the red metal trades at close to US$10,000 per tonne. The company is already pushing out copper from high-grade lodes at its Productora mine and is now casting an eye over the Cortadera porphyries as it contemplates a larger-scale operation.

Element 25 has sewn up a road transport deal with the Pilbara-based AK Evans Group that will see the bulk haulage and construction company truck manganese concentrate from the manganese producer’s new Butcherbird mine to Utah Point in Port Hedland for export. The two parties have signed a letter of intent and are in the process of finalising a long-term commercial arrangement.

Estrella Resources has received another fillip as it bids to inject new life into the historical Carr Boyd nickel-copper camp north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia with a follow-up wide drill intersection of mineralised sulphides in the T5 discovery zone. The 12.25 metre zone of stringer and disseminated nickel-copper massive sulphides was intercepted below an earlier massive sulphide hit.

ASX-listed Neometals appears to have achieved a significant breakthrough in its efforts to enter the North American battery recycling market for the burgeoning electric vehicle and energy storage sectors. The company has executed a memorandum of understanding with leading Canadian steel producer Stelco ahead of finalising a joint venture to process battery cells from scrap vehicles.

WA-focused explorer White Cliff Minerals has unveiled an untested 2.8km anomalous gold trend at McCaskill’s Hill along the southern end of the Burnakura Shear Zone in the Meekatharra-Cue goldfields. A maiden drilling campaign is in the works following successful soil sampling campaigns at McCaskill’s Hill and Cracker Jack, both part of the company’s Reedy South project.

ASX-listed gold and base metals explorer, Middle Island Resources is looking to pick up more ground at its exciting Barkly copper-gold project in the Northern Territory’s East Tennant region. The Perth-based company has made an application for a further 809 square kilometres of prized territory that will swell its project tenure to 5,220 square kilometres across 13 exploration licences.

The intrigue is growing for St George Mining and its 75 per cent-owned Mt Alexander project in WA with step-out diamond drilling intersecting wide nickel-copper sulphides. The first step-out hole was testing for extension of the 11m of nickel-copper sulphides below 400m depth reported recently by St George, with mineralisation said to be open in all directions.

Newly minted WA gold producer Ora Banda Mining says it remains on track to bring its large Missouri open pit on line next month, adding some desirable harder ore into its refurbished Davyhurst gold plant that will underpin an expected fiscal year 2022 production of more than 80,000 ounces. The harder ore from the new pit will enhance the ore feed blend short-term and bolster the plant throughput rates.

Terrain Minerals’ exploration at its Smokebush project is continuing to expand the footprint of its gold targets in WA’s Murchison goldfield. Sampling north of the company’s Monza discovery has now extended the mineralised envelope to almost a kilometre of strike, with recent exploration revealing additional old mine workings and returning assays of up to 4.78 grams per tonne gold.

Venture Minerals has cranked up the drill rig at its massive Mount Lindsay tin-tungsten project in Tasmania as it targets a potential high-grade repetition of the deposit. Mount Lindsay is one of the world’s largest undeveloped tin projects and with a number of tin mines across the globe entering their twilight years end-users are starting to scrabble for new supply.

ASX-listed Latitude Consolidated has successfully shaken the tin for about $6.7 million in a strongly supported capital raise as the gold explorer looks to build on a very encouraging review of a ton of historical drilling and exploration data stemming from its recent Murchison gold project acquisition in WA’s fertile Murchison Goldfields.

Horizon Minerals has racked up a score of high-grade gold hits from an aircore and reverse circulation drilling program at its Windanya gold project that straddles the prolific Bardoc Tectonic Zone about 45km north of Kalgoorlie. The discovery aircore hole at the project’s Scorpio prospect returned 3m at 6.44 g/t gold from 3m including 1m at 9.71 g/t from 3m and 1m at 8.04 g/t from 4m.

Classic Minerals’ customised gold plant is on its way to the company’s 404,000-ounce Forrestania gold project south of Southern Cross in WA, where final environmental approvals attached to its granted mining lease for 100 per cent-owned Kat Gap are now awaited. Classic expects to have Kat Gap’s native vegetation clearance permit and approved final mining proposal documentation in its hands within three months.

WA manganese producer, Element 25 has sold the first parcel of manganese concentrate from its new Butcherbird mining and beneficiation operation in the Pilbara to offtake partner OM Materials, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ASX-listed, Singapore-based vertically integrated manganese and ferroalloy group OM Holdings Ltd. The manganese concentrate grade of 30-35 per cent and the level of impurities meet contract specifications as agreed under their offtake agreement, Element 25 says.

Hot WA mid-west precious metals explorer Podium Minerals is on track to post an updated shallow resource next month for its promising Parks Reef project south-west of Meekatharra after drilling confirmed continuity of platinum group metal mineralisation over a 15km targeted strike length. The company, whose share price has climbed more than 500 per cent since the start of 2021, is also stepping up deeper resource drilling.

Coda Minerals has landed a $75,000 grant from the South Australia Government, which may prove timely as it ramps up exploration at its Elizabeth Creek project in the state’s Olympic Dam copper province. Coda’s new funding comes courtesy of the Accelerated Discovery Initiative and will be used for an airborne electromagnetic survey over its Emmie Bluff copper discovery.

Smart aged-care and healthcare technology developer InteliCare, in conjunction with the University of Sydney and Macquarie University, has been awarded a $100,000 grant by the NSW Smart Sensing Network to further develop the company’s machine learning product for predicting risks associated with chronic deterioration in the elderly.

Eclipse Metals has locked in a four-year extension to its exploration licence at the Ivittuut cryolite and rare earth project in Greenland, with heavily reduced minimum expenditure commitments for the first year. The extension follows amendments to the previous licence made by the newly elected Greenland Government. A program of work for 2021 has been submitted with approval expected in July.

Okapi Resources continues to zero in on gold drill targets at its Mount Day prospect in Western Australia. Infill soil sampling has confirmed the presence of a 1,500m-long, cohesive gold trend that is consistently returning anomalous precious metal values and the company is now preparing to drill test the target in the latter half of this year.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has returned evidence of oil from down hole sampling of the recently drilled Merlin-1 well at its Peregrine project in Alaska. Observations of fluorescence on side-wall cores under UV light have also identified multiple horizons showing the presence of oil. Peregrine lies along trend to recent nearby discoveries in the Nanushuk formation.

WA manganese producer, Element 25 has nailed down a multi-user access agreement with the Pilbara Port Authority that allows the company to ship manganese concentrate from its Butcherbird mining and beneficiation operation through Port Hedland’s Utah Point bulk handling and loading facility. Element 25 has been commissioning a new processing plant at Butcherbird and recently produced its first concentrate.

Surefire Resources will test a potential intrusive-related mineral system near old silver and lead workings at Kooline in the central Pilbara region with deep drilling after securing WA government co-funding and finishing a successful review of previously generated geophysical data. The ASX junior says re-processing and interpretation of VTEM survey results pointed to a large target and series of conductors just west of Kooline.

Venus Metals has jumped into drilling at its Vidure South prospect in Western Australia as it targets a pair of electromagnetic anomalies south-west of the Youanmi gold mine. The Vidure nickel-PGE targets were identified on the back of historical drill results and a recent high-powered, ground electromagnetic survey, which lit up the potential sulphide bodies.

CZR Resources has launched a 5,000m reverse circulation drilling campaign at the Buddadoo gold project in the Mid West region of WA. Seven priority gold targets are set to be tested along the Gullewa Greenstone Belt that hosts the Deflector mine with more than one million ounces in gold resources in an adjacent permit.

Infinity Lithium has cited high-level European Commission and Spanish national government support for ambitious EU electric vehicle and battery supply chain expansion targets that support development of significant domestic raw material sources such as its San Jose lithium project in Spain. Last week’s European Battery Alliance Day spotlight on San Jose followed the recent cancellation of Infinity’s investigation permit by a regional Spanish government.

Godolphin Resources has continued to eke out tantalising polymetallic intersections from an initial round of resource definition drilling at its Lewis Ponds project in the fertile Lachlan Fold Belt province in NSW. The pick of the new assays from Lewis Ponds was 5.2m going 0.36 g/t gold, 38 g/t silver, 2.05 per cent zinc and lead combined or 2.22 g/t gold-equivalent from 466.2m depth.

Australian mining technology company K2fly has wrapped up its second major contract with a leading global iron ore producer this month, closing a A$2.44 million deal that extends its long-term partnership with the expanding Roy Hill operation in WA’s Pilbara region. The new five-year Roy Hill contract follows hard on the heels of last week’s international pact with Fortescue Metals Group.