Michael Philipps

An updated scoping study by PolarX for its Alaska Range copper-gold play shows a total EBITDA of US$573 million over a 9.5-year mine life at a post-construction average annual free cash flow of US$53 million. The positive study shows mining and processing are scheduled to begin with an open-pit operation at the company’s Caribou Dome site, followed by underground mining at its Zackly deposit.

Lithium Universe has made a roaring start to listing on the ASX, with its share price touching 6.3 cents during intraday trading after it raised its maximum subscription of $4.5 million and opened at just 2c. Nearly two-thirds of the money the company raised in its IPO changed hands throughout the day with a volume of almost 57 million shares being moved.

Terrain Minerals has been given the all clear for a maiden drill campaign this month to target clay-hosted rare earths at its Lort River project near Esperance, after receiving heritage clearance. Last year, a review of soil samples from historical gold exploration at the site returned positive results, including 580ppm TREO, with 25 per cent of the total grade magnet rare earths.

ABx Group has pocketed a cool $1.25 million in research-and-development tax rebates after receiving more than $503,000 from the Australian Tax Office for rare earths activities in Tasmania throughout last year. Earlier this month, the company’s 83 per cent-owned subsidiary Alcore took home a similar tax offset of $522,715 for work undertaken last year on its world-first process to recover hydrogen fluoride.

White Cliff Minerals’ incoming executive chairman and mining veteran Roderick McIllree has vowed to mark his new role by immediately focusing on the company’s exploration and business development programs. Technical director Ed Mead will transition to the role of executive director of exploration and business development and the pair will work together to build a global development business of critical metals in low-risk jurisdictions.

Auric Mining has notched a major milestone with all of the gold from the first 36,000-tonne parcel of ore from its Jeffreys Find project near Norseman delivered to the Perth Mint for its final refining process. A total of seven doré bars have been transported to the Perth facility, where the semi-pure alloy will be refined into its purest form of the precious yellow metal.

Strickland Metals has moved quickly to make use of the $61 million it pocketed from selling its Millrose gold project, with the company set to launch an exploration blitz at its Yandal and Earaheedy operations. Management says ongoing work in the Earaheedy Basin has identified a new lookalike prospect to its Iroquois project that has been dubbed Rabbit Well.

Infinity Lithium subsidiary Extremadura New Energies has entered into a joint venture with Spanish energy firm Enalter to potentially deliver low-cost green energy to its San José lithium project in Spain. The creation of the “Extremadura Energy H2 Hub (EEHH)” allows a first right to secure a long-term green energy power purchase agreement for the San Jose project.

Everest Metals Corporation has kicked off a second phase of drilling at its Mt Edon project in Western Australia’s Mid West region as it looks to follow up on positive lithium and rubidium results from its previous campaign. The company plans to sink up to 10 reverse-circulation drillholes to test pegmatite targets highlighted from a deep ground penetration radar geophysical survey carried out in April.