Matt Birney

Things are heating up for ASX-listed explorer, Impact Minerals across two projects in New South Wales. Government approvals have now been received for a highly-anticipated drilling campaign at the company’s 100 per cent owned copper-gold Apsley prospect in the Lachlan Fold Belt. The results from final assays at the Broken Hill Project are also being assessed for follow-up drilling.

ASX-listed Element 25 says pre-commissioning activities are under way at the mine site of its brand new, world class Butcherbird manganese project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia where first ore is due to hit the haul road in just a couple of weeks from now. Electrical systems and instrument loops are being checked ahead of hook-up to its own power station later this week.

Legend Mining has pocketed a bag of cash after directors, management and major shareholders exercised a horde of stock options delivering over $3 million into the budding nickel explorer’s coffers. The exercise of the options brings the company’s cash position to over $27 million which will allow the ASX-listed explorer to ramp up its activities across its extensive holdings in WA’s Fraser Range.

ASX-listed precious and base metals explorer, Godolphin Resources has unearthed more enticing gold-silver mineralisation which is outside of the current mineral resource at its historic Lewis Ponds polymetallic project in NSW’s coveted Lachlan Fold Belt region. One fresh reverse circulation drill hole at the Quarry Lobe deposit intercepted 8m at 2.7 g/t gold and 118 g/t silver from 136m downhole.

ASX-listed software developer K2fly has posted a hefty uplift of 29 per cent in its half-yearly revenues, after locking in software as a service contracts with Australian iron ore monoliths Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group and Roy Hill, amongst its bevy of global mega-miners. Revenues for the half-year to 31st December 2020 hit $3.413 million, up over $760,000 on the corresponding period last financial year.

PolarX has expanded its ground holding in Nevada, pegging an additional 96 mining claims across the Fourth of July prospect area in the gold-rich Humboldt Range. The new leases provide the company with contiguous coverage along more than 6 kilometres of strike, taking in a host of historical mine workings which have returned assays of up to 15.28 grams per tonne gold and an incredible 2639.3 g/t silver.

Things just got real for Indiana Resources after the company drilled some stellar holes at its Minos gold discovery in South Australia. Results from the final five holes of the program are headlined by an impressive 38m interval grading 6.54 grams per tonne gold from just 29m, including 16m at 13.12 g/t from 37m.

Calidus Resources is barrelling towards gold production at its Warrawoona project in the Pilbara having received approval for its proposed mining operation. The company is now permitted to move into production and has commenced bulk earthworks across the plant site. Calidus has also placed orders for all of the long lead items required for the milling operation and expects to be pouring gold in early 2022.

AVZ Minerals continues to kick goals at its Manono lithium project in Africa with recent drilling to facilitate ground-water monitoring returning wide intercepts of high-grade lithium mineralisation, extending the known ore envelope an additional 90 metres beyond the current pit design. New drill intercepts include a stunning 98.0m grading 1.79 per cent lithium oxide and 1,174 parts per million tin from only 2m down-hole.

ASX-listed explorer Okapi Resources is set to kick off its maiden drill program at its Enmore gold project in NSW as it continues to search for new drill targets at its West Australian Mt Day project. The company says it is also on the hunt for new projects as it gears up for a busy year ahead.

Aspiring ASX-listed gold producer, Horizon Minerals has unveiled another set of solid grade and broad intercept gold strikes at its 100 per cent-owned Peyes Farm gold project just 10km northwest of Kalgoorlie. One of the best hits was 8m at 8.53 g/t gold, including 4m at 14.2 g/t, from 52m and another returned 6m going 5.33 g/t gold from just 30m down-hole.

ASX-listed Neometals has kicked off a pilot-scale trial program that will test gravity concentrates from its Barrambie titanium-vanadium project in WA as it looks to advance a possibly low CAPEX development of a mining and beneficiation operation. The move comes after recent metallurgical test work undertaken in China confirmed the Perth-based company’s “breakthrough” reduction roasting and magnetic separation flowsheet.

Image Resources has strengthened its hand at its Erayinia gold project east of Kambalda by entering into a Farm-in agreement with the private owners of the King gold prospect that is completely enveloped by Image’s Erayinia gold tenements. Image says it wants to dig into a promising-looking, thick supergene zone that extends from the King gold prospect into its Erayinia tenements.

ASX-listed explorer, Eclipse Metals has uncovered encouraging rare earth elements sniffs from a reinterpretation of old surface samples taken from the Gronnedal-lka deposit area within its recently acquired historic Ivittuut project tenement holdings in south-western Greenland. Total rare earth element readings gleaned from its analysis of historic rock chip samples collected at the carbonatite deposit were as high as 34,400 parts per million.

ASX-listed base metals and gold explorer, Comet Resources is set to launch an aeromagnetic survey at its Barraba copper project in north-east NSW following recently completed initial geochemical soil and rock chip sampling work that yielded high-grade base metal values. The Perth-based company is hoping to ultimately generate a solid set of targets for a first round of drilling.

With the rods still turning at the company’s giant Cortadera copper-gold discovery in Chile, Hot Chili Limited has added further potential to its suite of projects by securing an additional 5,468-hectare land package known as “Santiago Z”. The additional land represents a twenty percent up-tick in the company’s landholdings at its Costa Fuego suite of tenements in Chile.

ASX-listed St George Mining now has two diamond drill rigs going deep in the company’s hunt for more nickel-copper sulphides at its flagship high-grade Mt Alexander project in WA’s north-eastern Goldfields. Both rigs are vectoring in on strong EM conductors which are amongst the deepest tested along the western extension of the Cathedrals Belt prospect.

WA agribusiness and Pemberton avocado orchard developer, Alterra Ltd’s shareholder register has been fortified following the sale of a block of shares by its former chairman. Existing major Alterra shareholder, Sandon Capital and fellow major shareholders, Emanuel Exports and the Daws family, who came on board six months ago, have stepped up to the plate to boost their holdings to 22.2 per cent and 19.95 per cent, respectively.

3D metal printing group, Aurora Labs has locked down an Australian patent for a key part of its Multi-Layer Concurrent Printing technology as it looks to progress its flagship RMP-1 printer technology to commercial readiness. The patent adds to the two the company has already secured in China and Japan. MCP patent applications in other jurisdictions including the US and Europe are at various stages of the approvals process.

Central African lithium hopeful, AVZ Minerals has taken a significant step towards the ultimate development of its massive Manono lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this week awarding a front-end engineering and design study contract to Melbourne-based engineering firm Mincore. AVZ says the study will also contain a project execution schedule for the proposed US$545 million development of Manono.

Podium Minerals is rapidly filling in the gaps along 15km of strike at its Parks Reef platinum group element discovery in WA’s Mid West. Multiple drill hits spanning around 1.2km of strike in the “eastern sector” of Parks Reef have turned up some remarkably consistent PGM mineral intercepts, including 13m at 1.49 g/t three-element platinum group metals from 57m.

Buru Energy has beefed up its board ahead of its big 2021 energy exploration push with its newly minted partner, Origin Energy, as it seeks to flex its muscles further in WA’s hydrocarbon-rich Canning Basin. Respected, long-serving non-executive director Eve Howell will retire and three new non-executives will join the board as Buru gears up for 2021.

Blackstone Minerals has discovered new nickel sulphide mineralisation in the previously untested Taipan Discovery Zone within the Ta Cuong nickel-PGE-copper-cobalt massive sulphide vein prospect. Ta Cuong sits about 6km northwest of Blackstone’s dormant but modern Ban Phuc nickel mine and processing centre in Vietnam. The first diamond hole to test Taipan hit 39.7m of continuous fresh sulphides, including some massive sulphides after 15.5m downhole.

Surefire Resources is fast-tracking its Perenjori magnetite iron ore project in WA, with the aspiring producer tabling a massive resource for the deposit that now weighs in at 192 million tonnes grading over 36 per cent iron that the company says can be beneficiated up to a stellar 70 per cent iron concentrate.

Element 25 says it will be processing manganese ore by the back end of next month at its new Butcherbird manganese project in the Pilbara. The company says it will dry commission the plant in the first half of March and achieve wet commissioning and start processing ore by the end of the month, representing a significant milestone in the history of the company.

ASX-listed Chilean copper player, Hot Chili has fired up a third drill rig to accelerate its recently commenced 40,000-metre follow-up diamond and RC drilling program at its massive Cortadera copper-gold discovery. Cortadera forms part of the Perth-based company’s proposed Costa Fuego porphyry copper-gold super hub project development in Chile about 600 kilometres north of the country’s capital, Santiago.

After nailing its maiden gold drilling campaign at the Gnows Nest project near Yalgoo, Emu NL is opening up a second and third exploration front in WA with auger drilling now set to kick off in the South West and the Eastern Goldfields. A detailed auger campaign will drill test the company’s Viper, Graceland and 8-Mile Dam projects in the coming weeks.

ASX-listed explorer King River Resources says drilling has unearthed its richest, high-grade gold vein outside of the Trudi Main prospect at its Mount Remarkable gold project in WA’s north-east Kimberley region. The first high grade, reverse circulation gold hit at its Jennifer North vein returned 2m at 8.44 g/t gold which included 1m going 14.8 g/t, within an overall 5m zone grading 3.45 g/t gold.

Todd River Resources’ share price hiked more than 8 per cent in ASX trade after the company finalised a $3.3 million capital raise, landing high profile fund manager Acorn Capital as cornerstone investor in the process. The flourishing WA nickel explorer is set to kick off a raft of exploration in the coming weeks across its highly prospective targets throughout the nickel-bearing terranes of Western Australia.

Venus Metals has commenced a fresh round of RC drilling at its 90 per cent-owned Range View prospect as it hunts down more gold at the interesting looking target just 1.5kms north-east of its Bell Chambers gold deposit. Venus is testing the extension of high-grade gold mineralisation discovered late last year at Range View, just off the Paynes Find-Sandstone Road, east of Mount Magnet in WA’s Goldfields region.

Venture Minerals is chasing down both copper and zinc sulphides at its Golden Grove North project in WA, with the budding developer kicking off diamond drilling at the prospect. The program is following up on a quiver of targets generated from the company’s maiden exploration program over the prospect which included drill intercepts of 1.3 per cent copper, 6.1 per cent zinc and 22 grams per tonne silver.

St George Mining is poised to begin drilling over a selection of deep geophysical targets at its Mt Alexander nickel project in WA. The budding explorer has recently completed development drilling over its Stricklands nickel deposit and is now set to move the diamond rig to the recently discovered western extensions of the Cathedrals Belt.