Matt Birney

Unlisted Gawler Craton gold explorer, Barton Gold, has further strengthened its board of directors with the appointment of experienced corporate lawyer, Christian Paech, as it looks to significantly expand the global resource inventory at its historic Tarcoola and Tunkillia gold projects ahead of a planned ASX listing. Paech was most recently the General Counsel and Company Secretary at oil and gas giant Santos.

Mako Gold has extended the footprint of its Tchaga gold discovery in northern Cote d’Ivoire in Africa, blowing out the strike length of the high-grade discovery to more than 1.6km. The company’s preliminary results from its latest round of shallow RC drilling include 3m at 4.59 g/t gold and 10 metres at 1.1 g/t gold.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources has started early capital works at its planned $116 million Warrawoona mine about 25km south-east of Marble Bar in WA’s East Pilbara. The company says it has now locked in the preferred major mining and engineering contractors for the project that is expected to turn out free cash flows of $58.5 million a year against all-in sustaining costs to produce each ounce of gold of just $1,250.

ASX-listed agribusiness developer, Alterra Ltd, has successfully rattled the tin for $1.7 million following a placement to new investor, Emanuel Exports and existing major shareholder, Sandon Capital Investments. In a boost for Alterra’s financing aspirations for its WA agricultural projects, Emanuel will emerge as a major shareholder with 15 per cent ownership of Alterra’s expanded issued capital, whilst Sandon maintains its 19.2 per cent stake.

Novo Resources has taken another significant step as it charges towards production in the Pilbara, this week appointing two well credentialed mining men to oversee the company’s transition from explorer to gold producer. The move follows hot on the heels of the company completing the acquisition of Millennium Minerals and its mothballed Golden Eagle mill at Nullagine in WA earlier this month.

ASX-listed explorer, Comet Resources, has finalised a US$20 million “streaming” facility with Raptor Capital International for the potential development of its high-grade Santa Teresa gold project in Mexico. Historical drilling at the project intersected some bonanza gold hits including 1m at an incredible grade of 958 grams per tonne, or a whopping 33 ounces of gold to the tonne.

Kairos Minerals’ exploration program in the Pilbara looks to be delivering in spades with recent sampling across the Kangan project defining two extensive gold anomalies a mere 20km south of De Grey’s world-class Hemi gold discovery. The sampling at Kangan forms part of the company’s larger exploration program in the region which includes a bevy of surface sampling, drilling and geophysical surveys.

Horizon Minerals has offloaded its “non-core” Nanadie Well copper project in the Murchison district of WA as it progresses a massive 70,000m aircore, RC and diamond drilling campaign at its flagship Boorara gold project near Kalgoorlie. Horizon is already producing gold near Kalgoorlie under a toll treatment arrangement and the company has a plethora of satellite projects that it hopes to bring into production around Kalgoorlie.

Godolphin Resources has taken a second look at its Lewis Ponds project in NSW that was previously thought to be prospective for lead and zinc but now looks to be potentially even more lucrative for gold and silver. An extensive 1300m long gold and silver surface geochemical anomaly has delivered soil samples kicking as high as 6.2 g/t gold and 26.1 g/t silver.

ASX-listed gold explorer, Anglo Australian Resources, has continued to hit some very encouraging deep, down-plunge extensions to the known mineralisation at its historic Mandilla gold project 20km south-east of Kambalda, with further wide auriferous zones encountered at Mandilla East.

ASX-listed lithium hopeful, AVZ Minerals, says it is knee-deep in negotiations with potential offtake partners and debt financing providers to breathe life into the staged, US$545 million development of its Manono open-pit lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that boasts one of the largest hard-rock lithium deposits on the planet.

Perth based oncology company, PharmAust, has confirmed the anti-viral potential of its Monepantel drug in the fight against COVID-19 and firmed up its strategy for other potential treatments using the drug, including treating cancer in dogs and treating human neurodegenerative disease.

Northern Minerals has banked the majority of the almost $10 million lifeline the Australian Taxation Office promised it after settling a protracted research and development grant dispute that played havoc with its balance sheet. The company has banked $8.64 million from the ATO and a further $1.3m is due in by the end of the week. Northern used the money to repay $2m in debt.

St George Mining continues to gain momentum at the Mt Alexander nickel project with its latest round of metallurgical test work returning excellent results that show solid nickel and copper concentrate grades with promising recoveries of both metals. The concentrates also show a wealth of by-product credits that include lucrative levels of platinum group metals, silver and cobalt.

ASX-listed Indonesian gold hopeful, Sihayo Gold, is close to wrapping up a massive $40 million capital raise that will see it emerge debt-free and cashed up to fund an aggressive exploration program at its underexplored tenure in the world-class gold setting of North Sumatra. The cash injection will also allow the company to step up plans for the potential US$144 million development of its namesake 1.5Moz “starter” gold project.

Reconnaissance work over Victory Mines’ Bonaparte project in WA is already paying dividends, with both rock chipping and resampling of historic drilling returning high-grade copper samples including outcropping mineralisation which grades up to a bumper 25.9 per cent copper and 13.7 g/t silver. Victory’s back-to-basics approach has outlined an extensive copper anomalism with drilling scheduled to kick off in the coming months.

Victory Mines has earned its initial interest in the high-grade Coogee gold project near Kambalda in Western Australia and the company is now gearing up for a 4,000m drilling blitz across the developing gold target where previous tantalising results included 5m at 27.1 g/t gold just under the old open pit. Exploration is scheduled to kick off in earnest by late-September 2020 when the rods will start turning.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has boosted the potential net oil pay in its Charlie-1 test well in Alaska. Analysis of the shallow Seabee formation, above the deeper Torok gas-condensate discovery, has resulted in an upward revision of the previous estimates for the oil and gas pay zone potential of the formation and hydrocarbon volumes across the Icewine project.

Lithium Australia has moved to protect its battery recycling intellectual property by applying for two Australian patents for its recycling of battery materials processes, with lithium-ion batteries in its sights. It comes only days after the ACCC approved a spent-battery collection and recycling levy scheme aimed at significantly increasing the recycling of batteries and ending the wasteful practice of landfill disposal of batteries.

Aurora Labs has jumped out of the gates of its latest capital raising with an oversubscribed placement and share purchase plan underway to raise up to $3.5 million at $0.085 per share, as its stock opened at $0.12 per share today.

Venus Metals could be knocking on the door of the next high-grade gold discovery at Youanmi in WA. The company’s drilling campaign over the Taylor's Reef prospect has returned outstanding gold intercepts, including 3m at 19.58 g/t gold also hosting 1m at an impressive 55.81 g/t gold from only 21m downhole - follow up RC drilling is planned in the coming months.

Buru Energy has entered into an agreement with ASX-listed Sipa Resources Ltd to progress mineral exploration at Sipa’s Barbwire Terrace project immediately south-east of Buru’s own Canning Basin oil and gas leases. Buru will earn a 50 per cent interest in Sipa’s tenement by funding the first $250,000 of on-ground activities. Buru’s latest Canning Basin oil lifting of 74,819 barrels is expected to net $1.6m for the company.

Indiana Resources has doubled down in South Australia’s revered Gawler Craton mineral province, this week locking up an additional 2,465 square kilometres of prospective tenure across the world class multi-commodity terrane. The new tenement applications double Indiana’s holding in South Australia to more than 5,000 square kilometres that mostly surround the Tarcoola gold mine that Barton Gold is about to breathe new life into.

ASX-listed clinical-stage oncology group, PharmAust, continues to show that its cancer fighting drugs, Monepantel and Monepantel Sulfone, can have a positive, anti-viral effect on cultured cells that are infected with the Coronavirus. According to the Perth-based company, a second repeat of its in-vitro anti-viral confirmatory testing successfully demonstrated the anti-COVID-19 activity of both Monepantel and Monepantel Sulfone.

Novo Resources has completed the acquisition of an existing mothballed mine in the Pilbara and cashed up the company by completing placements to the Sprott group and private entities. The transformational purchase delivers Millennium Minerals’ old Golden Eagle gold plant at Nullagine to Novo who has a significant in-ground resource just down the road.

St George Mining has continued to hit its straps at Mt Alexander with diamond drilling intersecting thick intercepts of the targeted ultramafic horizon along more than 4km of strike. Drilling of this stratigraphic target has returned thick intercepts of the ultramafic unit at depths of more than 280m, with nickel sulphides visible in the drill core.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia’s subsidiary Envirostream Australia has received what could potentially be a massive boost in battery “feed” for its recycling facilities in Victoria after the ACCC gave the Battery Stewardship Council the nod to manage a national levy scheme for the collection of end-of-life batteries.

ASX-listed gold explorer, Kingwest Resources, has the drill rods spinning again at its flagship Menzies gold project about 130km north of Kalgoorlie as it looks to accelerate exploration programs, mineral resource estimates and scoping studies towards a potential revival of the historic project.

South American focused gold miner, Troy Resources has the drill rods turning again at the Smarts underground deposit at its Karouni gold project where it previously drilled a bevy of long high-grade gold hits with grades running as high as half an ounce to the tonne. Three additional diamond holes remain to be drilled ahead of a planned resource upgrade.

ASX-listed, Canada-focused gold explorer, Ardiden, has fired up the rotors for a detailed airborne geophysical survey of its Pickle Lake gold project in north-western Ontario with a focus on the exciting brownfields New Patricia prospect. The company’s recently commenced helicopter survey marks 45 years since the Ontario Geological Survey unit carried out regional first-pass aerial work over the historic mining area.

Legend Mining is edging ever closer to the mother lode at its Mawson nickel discovery in WA’s Fraser Range, this week intersecting almost 13m of massive nickel-copper sulphides within more than 90m of sulphide mineralisation. The company said diamond drill hole RKDD023 successfully tested a strong downhole electromagnetic conductor, intersecting sulphides below 216m.

Great Southern Mining continues to turn up high-grade gold as it delves deeper into the lower extremities of its historic Cox’s Find gold project near Laverton in WA. Recent diamond drilling returned a notable assay of 3.6m at 8.03 g/t gold from 168.95m including 1.0m at 27.5 g/t in a hole drilled 30m down-plunge from the earlier bonanza intersection of 5.65m at 80.0 g/t from 160m including 1.1m at an extraordinary 404 g/t.