Matt Birney

ASX-listed explorer King River Resources says drilling has encountered a new high-grade gold zone west of the Trudi Main epithermal quartz vein deposit at its Mount Remarkable gold project in WA’s north-east Kimberley region. The stand-out intersection from the company’s latest batch of drilling results from the project was 6m grading 5.25 g/t gold including 1m at 30.1 g/t.

Hot Chili’s recently commenced 40,000-metre drilling campaign across its Costa Fuego project in northern Chile has posted an uber-impressive 382 metre copper intercept at its Cortadera porphyry deposit, which includes 80m at 0.6 per cent copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold from 524m down-hole. The company already has two rigs running 24-7 and is set to add a third in the coming weeks.

Gawler Craton-focused gold hopeful, Indiana Resources has completed its maiden 10-hole RC drill campaign at the Minos gold prospect in South Australia. The company has churned out 1,604m of drilling at the Lake Labyrinth Shear Zone chasing historical hits of 12m at 10.36 g/t and 24m at 2.18 g/t gold. Indiana said nine of the ten holes ended in the mineralised shear zone and assays are pending.

Adriatic Metals has piled on the polymetallic drill hits at its historic Raska project in Serbia, with both the Kizevak and Sastavci deposits continuing to cough up broad intersections of near-surface, high-grade polymetallic mineralisation. One of the stand-out assay results at Kizevak was 38m at 2.7 per cent zinc, 2.2 per cent lead, 30 g/t silver and 0.6 g/t gold from 100m.

St George Mining has charged into 2021 kicking off a 4,000-metre diamond drilling program at its Mt Alexander nickel project in WA. The budding explorer expects to have the drill rods turning by the end of the week aiming to test a swag of deep targets along the under-explored western extents of the Cathedrals Belt.

Kingwest has landed another solid set of gold hits in its last dozen drill holes for 2020 at the Pericles deposit within the Lady Shenton System at its Menzies gold project in WA. Amongst the numbers was an intercept of 6m at 1.49 g/t gold from 214m downhole, a whopping 80m deeper than any previous drilling, whilst other shallower intercepts recorded grades up to 8.35 g/t.

Lindian Resources has clinched a memorandum of understanding with Chinese construction company China Railway Seventh Group that will weigh up a possible infrastructure road map to help accelerate development of, and kickstart bauxite production at, the Perth-based company’s assets in Guinea. Both parties will consider entering a formal agreement to devise an infrastructure development plan for Lindian’s potential low CAPEX rapid pathway to becoming a bauxite producer.

Native Mineral Resources has rolled up its sleeves in the hunt for high-grade gold at its Music Well project in WA. A detailed review and interpretation of the exploration datasets covering the company’s tenure has uncovered several high-priority geophysical targets, with rock chipping over the key prospect areas returning assays of over 30 grams per tonne gold.

White Cliff Minerals has received further encouraging gold hits from its maiden RC drilling campaign at its historic Reedy South project near Cue in WA’s Murchison Goldfields. The latest set of notable drill intersections were 11m at 3.19 g/t from 51m including 3m at 8.87 g/t, 6m at 2.96 g/t from 18m, and 7m at 1.60 g/t from 48m including 3m at 2.86 g/t.

Venus Metals continues to uncover fresh precious metal targets across the Youanmi terrane in WA. A detailed evaluation of the company’s comprehensive geophysical and geochemical datasets has highlighted a trio of Julimar-style nickel-copper-PGE targets in the southern Youanmi tenement area, with historical drilling returning assays of up to 2.18 grams per tonne platinum and palladium.

Software as a service provider, K2fly continues to set the pace in the mining software space adding another global name to its client list. The company has signed a lucrative contract with alumina giant Alcoa USA Corp. which will see the K2fly’s innovative RCubed software implemented across six key sites globally delivering more than $570,000 into its coffers over its initial 5-year period.

Podium Minerals continues to extend its Park Reef discovery in WA, with its maiden drilling program across the eastern extensions of the deposit returning a wealth of PGM mineralisation. Systematic drilling has delivered a bounty of precious metal intercepts including 12 metres at 2.56 grams per tonne 3PGMs from 33m and 21m at 1.47 g/t 3PGMs from 103m down-hole.

ASX-listed Antilles Gold says arbitration proceedings for the settlement of contractual disputes with the Dominican Republic Government are moving ahead with the company having lodged a formal statement of claim and witness statements to the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

ASX-listed Vietnam base metals player, Blackstone Minerals has taken a significant initial step in its quest to produce downstream nickel, receiving a non-binding letter of interest from global commodity trading giant, Trafigura. Perth-based Blackstone hopes to upscale its proposed downstream refining operation and become a significant global supplier of downstream nickel products for the lithium-ion battery industry.

ASX-listed K2fly’s timing in buying the SATEVA software service business, which caters for iron ore producers, when the iron ore price is flying high has been exquisite with the expanded group already having snared $850,000 worth of new purchase orders from major iron ore mining houses.

Dampier Gold has backed up previous exploration success at its Credo project, revealing the results of a comprehensive soil sampling program which has delineated a “high-grade”, north-west trending gold corridor cross-cutting the company’s tenure and already hosting two high-grade gold resources. The company looks well placed to continue its run of success in the Eastern Goldfields of WA when drilling kicks off again in the coming weeks.

Native Mineral Resources says it has confirmed the presence of a deeper porphyry system at its Leane’s copper-gold discovery, further bolstering the company’s exploration model as it looks to nail down the next big copper discovery in North Queensland as the copper price reaches for 10-year high placing copper explorers firmly in the market spotlight.

Impact Minerals has rung in the new year with an intriguing drill hit of 138m grading 0.3 g/t 3PGM from surface at its Broken Hill nickel-copper-3PGM project in NSW. The drill hit along the southern margin of its Red Hill prospect included 12m at 1.5 g/t 3PGM, 0.3 per cent nickel and 0.2 per cent copper from 103m down-hole.

Oar Resources has lit up more than twenty targets at its Crown nickel project, just ten kilometres west of WA’s prominent Julimar nickel-PGE discovery. A detailed evaluation of the regional geophysical datasets at Crown has revealed a wealth of structural and geological targets, which stretch along more than 15km of strike in a terrane that has developed into one of Australia’s most sought-after exploration addresses.

ASX-listed West Africa gold explorer, Mako Gold has expanded its footprint in the fertile auriferous terrane in Côte d’lvoire receiving approval from the country’s Ministry of Mines for the Ouangolodougou permit area. The newly granted permit together with the company’s existing Korhogo Nord permit will now constitute its Korhogo gold project.

Gawler Craton-focused gold hopeful, Indiana Resources has commenced RC drilling at its Minos gold prospect in South Australia where it plans to pump 1,500m of test holes into the Lake Labyrinth Shear Zone, following up historical gold hits including 12m at 10.36 g/t, 24m at 2.18 g/t and 6m at a healthy 12.37 g/t.

AVZ Minerals has received a ringing endorsement of its green credentials, with an independent study of the company’s developing Manono lithium operation in Africa suggesting the aspiring producer may boast one of the lowest carbon footprints of any hard rock lithium mine in the world. The company’s proposed minimisation and offset program may result in close to zero greenhouse gas emissions.

ASX-listed explorer, White Cliff Minerals’ maiden RC drilling program at its historic Reedy South gold project near Cue in WA’s Murchison Goldfields has returned some encouraging initial gold sniffs including seven metres at an average grade of 3.16 grams per tonne from 53m depth, 11m at 2.29 g/t from 21m, 16m at 1.74 g/t from 72m and 7m at 1.5 g/t from 48m.

Venture Minerals has jumped on voracious investor appetite for iron ore players to raise $10 million in an equity placement, with the bulk of the funds set to be funnelled into its Riley hematite project in north-west Tasmania. The company received commitments from sophisticated, professional and institutional investors for the capital raise via the placement of 181.81 million new Venture shares.

Delecta Limited has joined the hunt for gold in the United States, picking up the Speedway gold project in western Utah. The company’s latest acquisition is situated in the Great Basin district, which boasts a total endowment of more than 200 million ounces of gold. The company’s sampling program has already returned several anomalous results including assays of 1.24 g/t gold and 43.8 g/t silver.

Horizon Minerals has wasted little time shaking off any festive season cobwebs and fired up the drill bit again as it edges closer to finalising a feasibility study on the potential development of its Boorara gold project near Kalgoorlie. The company has resumed its massive exploration campaign targeting a multitude of advanced and early-stage prospects within 75km of the proposed Boorara gold processing plant site.

Lithium Australia is confident an evolution in the global electric vehicle industry will underpin a 500 per cent expansion in the lithium-ferro-phosphate type, lithium-ion battery market within the next 10 years and is preparing to reap the windfall. The company’s subsidiary, VSPC has successfully developed new lithium-ion battery cells using lithium ferro phosphate, under its patented processing technology developing advanced cathode powders.

ASX-listed West Africa gold explorer, Mako Gold, has added a second drill rig to its workforce in a significant expansion of its gold exploration program around the Gogbala and Tchaga prospects at its flagship Napié project in Côte d’Ivoire. The second RC/DD drill rig will target geophysical anomalies mapped up along a 5km portion of a 23km long soil/auger anomaly running through its Napié tenement.

Lindian Resources has been buoyed by the successful results of screening test work done on high-grade sample ores from the Bouba conglomerate bauxite deposit at its Gaoual project in Guinea. The company says the simple dry screening process used significantly reduced the levels of the silica impurity and delivered an increase in the aluminium oxide grade in high-grade conglomerate ore samples, with minimal loss of tonnage.

Horizon Minerals has cleared a $4 million debt with Germany-headquartered investment group, Sparta with the early repayment of $4.6 million, including interest, courtesy of a successful trial gold production campaign at its flagship Boorara gold project near Kalgoorlie. The contract mining and toll milling exercise has also delivered “important” grade reconciliation data for the consolidated feasibility study on Boorara currently being undertaken by Horizon.

Barton Gold has landed a major concession by the South Australian government with the Tunkillia gold project being granted “new mine” status. New mine status will reduce the effective royalty rate payable to the government on any gold production from 3.5 per cent to 2 per cent, potentially delivering a multi-million dollar saving to the company and an additional incentive to expedite a move to production.

Australian Bauxite’s 89 per cent-owned chemical refining subsidiary, Alcore has clinched the services of Dr Mark Cooksey as its Chief Executive Officer after he filled the position on a leave arrangement with national science agency, the CSIRO. Australian Bauxite says Dr Cooksey’s appointment is a shot in the arm for Alcore’s efforts to commercialise a new process for aluminium fluoride production.