Matt Birney

Horizon Minerals has completed the fourth and final toll milling campaign that treated ore mined from a trial open pit at its flagship Boorara gold project, 10 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie. The Perth-based company eked out a further $2.8 million in revenue including $1.2 million in net cash flow from the fourth instalment’s total production of 1,182 ounces of gold that realised a sales price averaging $2,356 an ounce.

Terrain Minerals has earned its 80 per cent holding in the joint venture tenements at its Smokebush gold project in WA, with ownership of the tenure having now been transferred to the company. Terrain has ploughed over $250,000 into its exploration of the five joint venture tenements and has also issued the vendors 5 million shares in the company, meeting the conditions of the earn-in arrangement.

ASX-listed healthcare technology company, InteliCare has shown it is capable of scaling up after posting first-half customer revenues of $235,518 against revenues of just $9,497 for the previous corresponding quarter. The company also banked an additional $553,813 on the top line for the December 2020 half, largely from an R&D tax offset grant and Government COVID-19 grant payments.

Surefire Resources is poised to resume drilling at its historic Yidby Road gold project in WA’s Murchison Goldfields. The new program will follow up on a bundle of recent exciting gold drill hits. The spectacular assay results from the company’s maiden round of RC drilling late last year featured a 56-metre intersection going an average grade of 1.97 grams per tonne gold from 44m down-hole that included 4m at 14.47 g/t.

Indiana Resources has unearthed a golden labyrinth at its Minos discovery in SA, with the company’s maiden drilling program returning a quiver of high-grade intercepts. Drilling has returned gold-rich intervals in each of the five drill holes received to date, including an impressive 22 metres at 3.07 grams per tonne gold and a stellar 5m at 24.35 g/t gold.

West African bauxite hopeful, Lindian Resources has moved to separate the infrastructure interests and mining ownership structures in relation to its Lelouma, Gaoual and Woula bauxite projects in Guinea as it looks to firm up a business model for the development and operation of the assets. As part of the grand plan, the company hopes to strike binding agreements with various parties to participate in the infrastructure development required for the projects.

Emu NL has uncovered a treasure trove of gold mineralisation at its Gnows Nest project in WA, with the company’s maiden drilling program delivering a haul of high-grade intercepts including 3 metres at a stunning 42.18 grams per tonne gold, including an even more impressive 1m at 89.57 g/t gold from 78m down-hole and 4m at 20.4 g/t gold from only 51m down-hole.

ASX-listed West Africa gold explorer, Mako Gold has hit the ground running at its recently granted wholly owned Korhogo gold project in Côte d’Ivoire, kicking off a soil geochemical survey across the project’s two permit areas called Ouangolodougou and Korhogo Nord. Korhogo sits in the same highly prospective Birimian greenstone belt that hosts Barrick Gold’s 4.9-million-ounce Tongon gold mine and Montage Gold’s 3.1-million-ounce Kone gold deposit.

ASX-listed oil and gas explorer, 88 Energy is set to spud the Merlin-1 oil well at its Project Peregrine on the North Slope of Alaska early next month. The Perth-based company, who successfully rattled the tin recently for $12 million in a heavily oversubscribed capital raise, says mobilisation of the drilling rig to the Merlin-1 well location has commenced.

AVZ Minerals’ resource drill out continues to impress with broad drill intersections of pegmatite discovered in the Roche Dure pit floor at the company’s massive Manono lithium and tin project in the DRC. AVZ says the project will spit out an incredible US$400 million a year in average EBITDA when fully developed. The most notable new intersection came in at 173m grading 1.63 per cent lithium oxide.

Deep Yellow has banked a massive $40.8 million after adding several domestic and international financial institutions to the uranium developer’s registry. The company also received strong support from its existing institutional shareholder base with the placement set to finance the ongoing exploration and development efforts in Namibia and provide funding pipeline for any acquisition opportunities that might arise.

First-pass drilling at Oar Resources’ Gibraltar project in SA has delivered a potential treasure trove of mineralisation, with sampling revealing intercepts of both high-value halloysite and kaolinite. Some stand-out results for the flourishing project area include 3 metres at 19.6 per cent halloysite with 42.4 per cent kaolinite from 26m and an equally impressive 13m at 5.3 per cent halloysite with 80.9 per cent kaolinite.

Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Novo Resources has poured first gold from its Beatons Creek conglomerate gold mine at Nullagine in WA’s East Pilbara region following a rapid-fire project development. The Vancouver-based C$615 market-capped company achieved the gold production milestone during the plant commissioning phase in less than six months after buying and refurbishing the nearby Golden Eagle mill.

Aruma Resources’ maiden RC drilling campaign at its Saltwater gold project in WA’s Pilbara region has returned a cluster of encouraging gold sniffs that the company says may be the makings of what it calls a “new gold camp”. According to Aruma, assay results received for 37 holes of the 40-hole program point to a possible 4km strike length and the discovery of a potential gold camp on a “ring structure” at the project.

Eclipse Metals has taken control of the Ivittuut “cryolite” mine in Greenland, with the Minister of Finance, Industry and Mineral Resources approving the transfer of the exclusive exploration licence to the company, clearing the way for management to get “boots on ground” and kick off exploration in the coming field season.

A frustrating wait from assay labs gave way to satisfaction as in-fill and extensional drill results at Anglo Australian’s Mandilla project near Kambalda pointed to wide mineralised zones to the north of the project which remains open at depth and along strike. The company is now awaiting results from drilling at the Mandilla East zone before a short march to a maiden resource at project.

Image Resources is set to power up its 2021 mineral sands production at its Boonanarring project with the Perth miner meeting its 2020 guidance and retiring its outstanding debt. The company has already advanced its new year’s development schedule which boasts a growing pipeline of mineral sands production targets across WA’s Mid West region, stretching from Cervantes in the north to Gingin in the south.

White Cliff Minerals is set to resume its maiden RC drilling program this month at the historic Reedy South project 40km north of Cue in WA’s Murchison Goldfields. The company managed to churn out 38 holes for an aggregate coverage of 3,537m at Reedy South before Christmas and it is now looking to sink the final five holes totalling about 1,400m targeting depth extensions to the known mineralisation.

Kairos Minerals has returned a clutch of encouraging gold drill hits from a round of RC drilling at its Mount York gold project in WA’s Pilbara region. One of the more notable drill intercepts from the 16-hole program totalling 2,130m was 5m going 2.67 g/t gold from 60m including 3m at 3.78 g/t from 61m and 1m at 6.37 g/t gold from 63m at the project’s Old Faithful deposit.

With a fresh $20m in the vault, ASX-listed Northern Minerals has tabled the final results of the 2020 drilling blitz at its 100 per cent-owned Browns Range heavy rare earths project in WA. A total of 72 holes have tested several targets, confirming the existing resources at the Dazzler deposit and indicating the potential for new resource growth close by.

Impact Minerals has uncovered what it believes to be the most prospective targets in its entire portfolio at the Aspley copper-gold prospect in its Commonwealth project in NSW’s Lachlan Fold Belt. The company has prioritised the new targets and believes it is drilling for jam in a zinc doughnut. The anomalies were uncovered following a geophysical survey and the company has fast-tracked its drilling program.

Horizon Minerals has reeled off a swag of high-grade gold drill hits from another of its core satellite gold deposits that form part of its proposed Boorara gold production hub, 10km east of Kalgoorlie. Infill and extensional drilling carried out at the company’s Jacques Find gold deposit at the Teal gold camp returned bonanza shallow high-grade intersections including 19.2m at 12.53 g/t gold from 42m and 8m at 12.10 g/t from 60m.

Blackstone Minerals continues to strike nickel sulphides at the company’s King Snake discovery in Vietnam, with diamond drilling intersecting 19.55 metres of disseminated to massive sulphide mineralisation within the emerging high-grade vein system. This latest interval follows up on a raft of new intercepts from two electromagnetic targets identified below the high-grade discovery, with the sulphide lode appearing to thicken at depth.

Classic Minerals has returned a plethora of high-grade gold hits from a significant infill and extensional drilling program at its Kat Gap gold project about 170km south of Southern Cross in WA. Stand-out drill intersections were 3m at 12 g/t gold from 127m including 1m at 17.90 g/t, 2m at 9.45 g/t from 174m including 1m at 17.80 g/t, and 4m at 7.96 g/t from 77m including 1m at 20.90 g/t from 77m.

Pet owners have rallied to help ASX-listed PharmAust start to evaluate the effects of its newly formulated anti-cancer drug, Monepantel on dogs suffering from B-cell lymphoma in a planned phase IIb clinical trial. The Perth-based company, who hopes to further substantiate Monepantel’s tumour-reduction qualities, says several hounds have already been successfully recruited and have commenced treatment with Monepantel tablets.

Diamond drilling by gold producer in waiting, Calidus Resources, has threaded the eye of the needle, striking gold more than 600 metres below surface at its under-construction Warrawoona gold mine in WA’s East Pilbara region. According to the company, the narrow, high-grade gold drill hits provide it with plenty of encouragement for a potential longer-term underground mining proposition at Warrawoona.

Having made good on its promise to breathe new life into Eastern Goldfields Ltd’s Davyhurst gold project near Kalgoorlie after that company fell over a couple of years ago, Ora Banda Mining has moved to usher in a new management era with the appointment of Peter Nicholson as its new CEO. Mr Nicholson hails from global mining-focused private equity firm Resource Capital Funds.

ASX-listed Altech Chemicals’ 75 per cent-owned German subsidiary, Altech Industries Germany is set to begin a pre-feasibility study on the potential construction of a battery materials high purity alumina coating plant in Germany. The company says the PFS will assess the commercial viability of building the plant, which would coat anode-grade battery materials with HPA using its own alumina coating technology.

Ardiden has picked up an encouraging hint of gold-bearing mineralisation similar to that of an adjoining historical high-grade gold mine from drilling at one of its high-priority brownfields targets within its Pickle Lake gold project in north-west Ontario, Canada. The company’s South Limb prospect is located immediately along strike of the former Dona Lake mine, which produced 246,500 ounces of gold from ore grading 6.6 g/t before closing in 1993.

Terrain Minerals is hunting down a wealth of newly defined gold targets in WA’s Murchison Goldfield, with geophysical surveying at its Smokebush project highlighting key prospects for drill testing. The company recently completed detailed ground magnetic surveys across the Monza, Paradise City and Wildflower targets with each of the developing prospects having previously returned anomalous gold results.

Podium Minerals is drilling again at its Parks Reef platinum group element discovery in WA’s Mid West as it sets about filling in up to 6.5km of strike length along the mineralised trend which now totals around 15km. Drilling to date has delivered an inferred mineral resource containing almost 1.4Moz of combined platinum, palladium and gold, plus some base metal credits.

Legend Mining’s strategy at its Mawson nickel discovery in WA continues to pay dividends, with first-pass metallurgical test work knocking out high-grade nickel and copper concentrate samples. Recent test work produced two critical products, with the primary stream yielding a concentrate grading an impressive 13.1 per cent nickel, whilst the secondary stream delivered a copper concentrate weighing in at a stunning 31.8 per cent copper.