Matt Birney

ASX-listed high purity alumina developer, Altech Chemicals has succeeded in developing a ‘breakthrough’ alumina coating of silicon particles used in lithium-ion batteries. The company says the new process could lead to significantly improved energy density, battery life and a reduced first cycle lithium loss. Interestingly, mega battery and electric vehicle maker, Tesla, recently said its aim was to increase the content of silicon in its batteries.

Things are hotting up for WA gold producer, Wiluna Mining. The company has entered a five-year alliance with internationally renowned underground mining contractor, Byrnecut Australia to ramp-up gold production at the Wiluna project in WA. A three-year development plan to reach 250 thousand ounces per-annum is about to spring to life, with the construction of a flotation facility set to begin next month.

ASX-listed Troy Resources is back on track at the Karouni gold project in Guyana, South America. Improved efficiencies at the Smarts pit have brought production numbers back in line with expectations. Drilling results from the Smarts underground beneath the current pit and the Goldstar deposit a few kilometres away are anticipated for release next week as the company looks to increase the current mine-life.

ASX-listed aspiring WA iron ore producer, Strike Resources continues to make steady progress towards a final investment decision on its proposed Paulsens East iron ore mine development, approximately 140 kilometres west of Tom Price and 200 kilometres west of Paraburdoo in the Pilbara region. The Perth-based company says key project development approval applications and submissions were well advanced with Government agencies and local authorities.

Coda Minerals continues to put runs on the board in South Australia, with exploration at its Emmie Bluff copper discovery coming up trumps. Recent drilling has returned assays of 2.05m at 4.09 per cent copper equivalent from 408.95m and 3.49m at 2.22 per cent copper equivalent from 454.2m, with the deposit now extending along 3km of strike.

Impact Minerals has cranked up the drill rig in NSW South Wales with the company poised to pepper its massive porphyry copper-gold target at Apsley in the Lachlan Fold Belt. Recent exploration has defined a massive 4 square kilometre copper-gold surface anomaly, with subsequent geophysical surveys confirming the prospectivity of a sub-surface porphyry and lighting up the emerging target.

ASX-listed aspiring iron ore miner, CZR Resources has set in motion preparations for a definitive feasibility study on the proposed development of its 85 per cent-owned Robe Mesa iron ore project 150km south-west of Karratha in WA’s Pilbara. The company has kicked off a raft of studies and surveys designed to facilitate the pillar processes required to obtain environmental and mining approvals for the project development.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has the drill bit spinning at its Merlin-1 exploration test site as the Alaskan oil hopeful looks to cash in on recent spectacular success by other oil explorers in the neighbourhood around its ground. 88 Energy spudded the Merlin-1 test well yesterday with 14 days of drilling now needed to reach the target reservoir in the oil-rich Nanushuk formation.

Blackstone Minerals looks to be defining a pair of new, massive sulphide deposits in northern Vietnam, with drilling at both its King Snake and Ban Chang nickel discoveries hitting good numbers. First-pass drill programs over the prospect areas have thrown up a grab bag of solid nickel-copper hits that the company will look to build into its growing resource inventory over the coming months.

Surefire Resources has kicked off a major follow-up drilling campaign at its exciting Yidby Road discovery in WA. The latest RC program comprising up to 40 holes for around 6,000m comes after the company unveiled a clutch of spectacular, thick intersections from its maiden round of drilling. One stand-out prior drill hit was a whopping 56m intersection at 1.97 g/t from 44m including 4m at 14.47 g/t.

Eclipse Metals has unveiled data modelling which shows a wealth of cryolite and fluorite mineralisation just below the pit floor at its Ivittuut project in Greenland. Data mining points to a blanket of mineral-rich ore that lies 20 metres below the historic open pit, with old drill intercepts showing up to 10.7 metres of mineralisation at an eye-catching 55 per cent cryolite and 22.1 per cent fluorite from only 29.54m down-hole.

Lithium Australia subsidiary, VSPC has secured an Australian patent in support of its proprietary process for producing phosphate-based battery cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries that it says can be achieved at a considerably reduced cost. VSPC has simplified its processing technology for the manufacturing of lithium metal phosphate battery cathode powders over the past two years, paving the way for the use of a wider range of raw materials as feedstock.

TNT Mines is gearing up for a major drilling program aimed at probing a couple of walk-up drill targets at its brownfields Warriedar gold project 50km north-west of the historic high-grade Paynes Find gold mine in WA. Warriedar takes in the old, high-grade Reids Ridge gold mine, where the Perth-based company plans to sink 40 holes for an aggregate drilling coverage of 5,000 metres.

Wiluna Mining’s development strategy across its multi-million-ounce gold operation in WA is continuing to pay dividends, with drilling at Golden Age producing a bag of high-grade intercepts, running as high as 47 grams per tonne gold, whilst the nearby discoveries at Starlight and Essex begin to take shape.

Legend Mining has stepped up its hunt for nickel at the Rockford Project in WA’s Fraser Range. An aggressive 10,000m diamond drilling campaign marks the start of the 2021 field season with one rig already feeling the dirt at Legend’s Mawson prospect in the revered Fraser Range. A second rig is due next week as the company begins to smash out the metres at Mawson.

ASX-listed Impact Minerals has racked up a bunch of fresh platinum group--copper-nickel drill hits across its shallow prospects which make up its aptly named Platinum Springs project, not far from the Broken Hill township in western NSW. Drilling at Plat Central returned one wide intercept of 32m at 0.7 g/t 3PGE from just 3m below surface, including 3m at a healthy 5.4 g/t PGE, below 76m.

ASX-listed gold and base metals explorer, Middle Island Resources is planning to demerge its Barkly copper-gold project in the NT with the aim of creating a separately listed entity on the ASX. The move, designed to unlock greater value in its wholly owned subsidiary that houses the 4,411sqkm of Barkly tenement holdings in the East Tennant mineral district, remains subject to shareholder approval.

Horizon Minerals has nailed its first drill hole at the Windanya project 45km north of Kalgoorlie. A discovery hole hit a head-turning 2 metres grading 26.68 g/t gold from just 35m at the project, setting it up as an immediate exploration priority for Horizon. Windanya sits within the Bardoc Tectonic Zone where over 100 tonnes of gold from a range of deposits have been mined.

ASX-listed Canada gold explorer, Ardiden has the drill rods spinning again in northwest Ontario, chasing the untested easterly strike of its Kasagiminnis gold deposit as it looks to build on the existing 110,000 ounces at 4.3 g/t gold already inferred. Ardiden’s latest suite of drill holes are vectoring in on an untested section of around 1.5km in strike length.

ASX-listed AVZ Minerals has nailed down a second offtake contract with a major Chinese lithium outfit – its second in less than three months. The aspiring central African lithium developer has struck a binding agreement with new offtake partner, Shenzhen Chengxin Lithium Group for the supply of spodumene concentrate from AVZ’s mammoth Manono lithium-tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Whilst it mulls over some positive nickel-copper assays from recent shallow metallurgical test holes at its Stricklands prospect, St George Mining has two sets of drill rods spinning simultaneously at its flagship high-grade Mt Alexander project in WA’s north-eastern Goldfields. Both rigs are vectoring in on strong EM conductors that are amongst the deepest tested along the western extension of the Cathedrals Belt prospect.

K2fly has added NYSE-listed precious metals mega-miner, Coeur Mining to its Software-as-a-Service customer base after Coeur inked a 5-year deal for the company’s industry-leading RCubed Resource Inventory software. The 5-year deal to be rolled out across Coeur’s five North American mine sites is worth A$718,000 over the period and has pushed K2fly’s total contract value for its software as a service offering to A$8.7m.

Kingwest Resources has expanded its global gold resource based on a cluster of deposits at its historic Menzies gold project about 130km north of Kalgoorlie by more than 125,000 ounces following its recent major resource definition drill out. The company increased the combined resource estimate for Menzies to 11 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1.26 grams per tonne for 446,200 ounces of gold.

Ora Banda Mining continues to kick goals as part of its ongoing resource drill out of its Davyhurst project in the goldfields of WA. Having poured the first gold bar at Davyhurst only in February, the company is now steaming ahead in its quest to grow the resources beneath the Riverina pit and at the Riverina South prospect.

Indiana Resources has upped the ante in its case against the Government of Tanzania, which relates to the alleged expropriation of the company’s Ntaka nickel project in southern Africa. The company is pursuing Tanzania through an arbitration process with the World Bank, with Indiana’s claim now topping an eye-watering US$95 million. The first hearing is now scheduled for the 22nd of April 2021.

High purity alumina developer, Altech Chemicals says the results from first-phase testing of batteries that contain graphite particles coated with its proprietary high purity alumina coating technology have been “positive and encouraging”. Test work will now proceed to the next stage involving further testing of battery charging and discharging with the aim of demonstrating repeatability and consistency.

The pieces are coming together for ASX-listed Middle Island Resources with positive developments from its ongoing feasibility study aimed at bringing the old Sandstone gold processing plant back to life. Final news on what could be a game-changer for the gold explorer is just a few short weeks away.

Construction of ASX-listed Lithium Australia’s planned pilot plant showcasing and testing its proprietary “LieNa” fine-spodumene conversion process has begun. Development of the pilot plant, a major component of the Perth-based company’s $3.6 million LieNA lithium recovery technology research and development program, was hampered last year by travel restrictions that came courtesy of COVID-19.

Neometals’ 50 per cent-owned joint venture company, Primobius has clinched a memorandum of understanding with Itochu Corporation that will see the Japanese giant weigh up the recycling potential of Primobius’ proprietary lithium-ion battery material processing technology.

Emu NL’s Viper copper project in WA is already looking the goods with first pass sampling across the prospect throwing up visible copper. The company’s maiden auger drilling program has tested the main copper bearing stratigraphy along more than 3 kilometres of strike where the field team has been routinely picking up samples containing visible copper mineralisation.

Things are heating up for ASX-listed King River Resources after unearthing high-grade gold and copper at its as yet undrilled Kurundi Project in the Tennant Creek/Davenport region of the Northern Territory. An eye-catching rock chip sample grading 16.05 grams per tonne gold and 6.4 per cent copper leads an impressive suite of numbers across multiple locations from two newly acquired concessions.

3D metal printing group, Aurora Labs has received favourable results from initial tests it conducted to assess the material properties of sample parts printed with specialist aluminium powders supplied by its research project collaborator, Gränges Powder Metallurgy. Aurora is researching the possibility of using aluminium alloy powders in its powder bed fusion additive manufacturing.