Steve Kaless

ESG software provider K2fly will continue to supply mining behemoth BHP with its “ground disturbance” solution for another three years after the “Big Australian” agreed to a contract extension. Management says the new deal will generate annual recurring revenue of $664,000 and has a total contract value of $1.99 million. The deal will cover the global miner’s iron ore operations in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Once primarily used in steel-making to boost strength and add corrosion and heat resistance, niobium is now turning heads with its ability to cut charging times and fire risks for lithium-ion batteries. Accordingly, companies finding the metal are watching their stock take flight ahead of the next boom as sales for electric vehicles step up another notch.

Mining software provider K2fly will supply Eramet SA with its resource disclosure solution after the French-owned miner signed a three-year deal worth $564,000 to cover its five operations and four commodities. Management says the partnership will provide an annual recurring revenue of $152,000 and it is hopeful the key relationship will lead to future opportunities in a growing prospective region.

Alma Metals has unveiled wide zones of copper-molybdenum sulphides mineralisation after its latest round of drilling targeted areas outside the current resource at its Briggs copper project in Central Queensland. Management says a significant resource upgrade is now on the cards as the latest results extended its known mineralisation area by 190m to the north-west and 100m to the north-east.

Globe Metals & Mining’s plans for its Kanyika niobium project have received a vital boost with the Malawian Government backing its anticipated roll-out for substantial mine development and production. Management says representatives from the Malawian Government also recently visited the mine site and believes their support greatly enhances Globe’s efforts to increase the security of tenure for its mining licences.

Horizon Minerals has secured a second tranche of funding of US$3 million (AU$4.36 million) to continue the development of its Cannon underground gold project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. Management says it has also received the government approvals needed to kick off underground development, including an approved mining proposal and mine closure plan from the Department of Mining, Industry Regulation and Safety.

Minerals explorer Si6 Metals will dive into some due diligence after entering into a joint venture and agreeing to acquire a 50 per cent interest in a portfolio of Brazilian lithium and rare earths projects. Management says the deal with Foxfire Metals is subject to a 30-day due diligence period and covers five tenements and five applications across four different project areas in Brazil.

PolarX has pumped up the mineral resource estimate at its Caribou Dome project in Alaska by 160 per cent to 7.2 million tonnes going 3.1 per cent copper and 6.5 grams per tonne silver after a successful drilling campaign. Management says the contained metal at the project now sits at 224,375 tonnes of copper and 1.5 million ounces of silver.

ABx Group is edging towards a commercial-grade rare earths project after unveiling a new record intercept of 11m going an impressive 1700 parts per million total rare earths oxide (TREO) from just 2m at its Deep Leads-Rubble Mound project in Tasmania. Management says the intersection also contains 1m going 4444ppm from 7m and 1m grading 3629ppm from 8m.

A change in strategy appears to be close to paying dividends for Alma Metals after it read the global energy tea leaves and shifted from African coal to instead zero in on a big Queensland copper find. The $13.25 million market-capped company is bearing down on a shallow porphyry deposit at its Briggs copper project, 50km west of Gladstone in Central Queensland.

Askari Metals is continuing to accelerate its lithium exploration efforts in Namibia with the appointment of seasoned African specialist, Cliff Fitzhenry to the new role of Chief Exploration and Project Manager (Africa). A veteran geologist, Mr Fitzhenry will lead in-country exploration with a diamond drill program due to commence shortly at the company’s flagship Uis project which has revealed multiple lithium bearing pegmatites more than 100m wide.

Latest assay results from St George Mining’s lithium hunt at its Mt Alexander project in Western Australia have returned intersections going as high as 1.77 per cent as the company chases a bigger fractionated pegmatite system. Management says its headline hit was 1m going 1.77 per cent lithium from 96m, while another 2m intersection graded 1.49 percent from 109m.

Empire Energy Group says it has a “nationally significant resource” on its hands after an independent review of its EP187 site boosted its estimated 2C contingent resource by 270 per cent to 1739 petajoules (PJ). It says the analysis increases its conservative 1C contingent resource by 217 per cent to 304 PJ and the best-case 3C contingent resource by 129 per cent to 3507 PJ.

DiscovEx Resources’ JV partner, Carnaby Resources, has added more high-grade copper hits to its highlight reel at the duo’s Burke and Wills copper-gold prospect near Mt Isa in Queensland. Headline results from a recent 10-hole campaign include 8m going 2 per cent copper and 0.5 grams per tonne gold from 130m, containing 3m grading 5.2 per cent copper and 1.3g/t gold from 130m.

Askari Metals has expanded the footprint of its Uis lithium project in Namibia after completing the acquisition of the remaining 10 per cent of tenement EPL 7345, which covers about 114 square kilometres. The company took its full ownership after picking up the remaining 10 per cent stake in the private company which had owned the ground.

CZR Resources has inked an option agreement to acquire a granted exploration tenement just 70km south of the Port of Ashburton as it ponders a potential stockyard and haulage depot to service iron ore exports. Apart from its potential as an infrastructure hub, management says its new tenement also hosts the Mt Minnie project, which is prospective for copper-gold mineralisation.

Toro Energy’s latest diamond drilling campaign has extended its Dimma nickel discovery in WA’s Goldfields, with 2m of continuous massive nickel sulphide intersected from 147.2m. Management says its new results stretch the mineralisation at the deposit to 160m and that portable XRF analysis suggests nickel grades of between 1.5 and 3.4 per cent. The discovery remains open along strike in both directions and at depth.

Joint venture partners Octava Minerals and Future Metals NL have launched a drill hunt for platinum group metals and nickel at their Panton North project in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, chasing an extension of the neighbouring 5-million-ounce Panton platinum group metals deposit. Management says its more than 2000m campaign will target areas which attracted interest in previous fieldwork.

Aurumin is primed for another stint on the rig at its Sandstone gold project, 520km north-east of Perth. A 5000m campaign will chase targets from geochemical and structural work at the project and is expected to launch early next month, with management saying the 44 holes of exploratory work will cover nine open-pit targets that all sit within a 3km radius of its processing plant.

American West Metals has continued its unbroken run of hitting thick copper intervals at its Storm project in Canada, with its latest batch of eight holes all showing strong visual sulphides from reverse-circulation (RC) drilling. Management says assays received from its resource definition program include 15.2m at 1.2 per cent copper containing 4.6m going 2.8 per cent copper from 54.9m.

PolarX has kicked off a series of induced polarisation surveys across its Humboldt Range operation in Nevada as it follows up gold and silver anomalies from its earlier soil-sampling programs. The surveys will be used to identify targets for follow-up drilling across the company’s Fourth of July and Black Canyon projects in a bid to replicate the multi-million-ounce deposits that sit nearby.

Aurum Resources is edging towards exploration on its Ryans Find gold project north-east of Southern Cross after completing a two-day on-site heritage clearance survey alongside the land’s traditional owners – the Marlinyu Ghoorlie Native Title Claimant Group. Management says drilling at its deposit will be scheduled once a report from the heritage consultants, Fremantle-based Terra Rosa, has been reviewed.

Northern Minerals has been awarded $5.9 million as part of the Australian Government’s Critical Minerals Development Program. Management says the funding will go towards key work programs at its Browns Range rare earths project in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region, including resource definition drilling at its Wolverine deposit, advanced front-end engineering and design and early work activities.

Askari Metals has continued its “aggressive” lithium hunt in Namibia, with its drills revealing new lithium-bearing pegmatites with widths of up to 112 metres. The company is now using mapping to help identify further targets for examination across two unexplored tenements in a bid to collect benchmark data for its next phase of exploration.

Askari Metals has installed Canaccord Genuity (Australia) as its strategic capital markets advisor. Management says the investment bank has a proven track record and extensive experience in the global lithium sector. Canaccord will be tasked with the implementation and deployment of a comprehensive capital markets strategy and as part of the deal will be issued with 2.5 million unlisted options.

Classic Minerals has pencilled in later this month to commission a new processing facility at its Kat Gap gold mine in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. Successful commissioning will clear the company to begin gold production. It says its ore is already sitting and waiting on the facility’s ROM pad as it eyes ramping up production of up to 100,000 tonnes per annum.

Neometals has added grunt to its ore reserve as part of an update to its Barrambie titanium project’s prefeasibility study (PFS). The deposit’s probable ore reserve now sits at 27.6 million tonnes at 22.3 per cent titanium oxide, 43.7 per cent iron oxide and 0.57 per cent vanadium oxide. The PFS update has outlined a $78.1 million capital requirement for one year of DSO production.

WA-focused explorer Kairos Minerals turbocharged the mineral resource of its Mt York gold project by 500,000 ounces to 49.24 million tonnes at 1.02 grams per tonne for 1.62 million ounces of gold. The company says its new numbers include a higher-grade component of 21 million tonnes at 1.5g/t for 1 million ounces and the mineralisation at its project remains open.

Valor Resources has staked three new mineral claims covering 6.41 square kilometres in Canada’s world-class Athabasca Basin – two of which cover the historical Beatty River heavy rare earths project. Management says previous explorers tabled assays of up to 8.75 per cent total rare earths oxide, with up to 1.15 per cent dysprosium from trenching and surface sampling.

Askari Metals has sealed a $2.5 million strategic equity investment by global battery materials supplier Huayou International Resources, with the funds to be used to turbocharge lithium exploration at its Uis project in Namibia. Management says it has issued Huayou 4.5 million fully-paid ordinary shares at an issue price of 55 cents, in addition to 1.5 million free attaching options.

Everest Metals has kick-started its latest 40-hole, 1000m drilling campaign at its Mt Edon LCT project, 5km from Paynes Find in Western Australia’s Mid West region, as it chases recently-observed underground pegmatites. Management says its latest deep-ground penetration radar work lit up a host of geophysical pegmatite targets, which it now plans to explore along with other previously-identified lithium, caesium and tantalum pegmatite structures.

Allup Silica has polished off a 26-hole maiden air-core drilling program at its wholly-owned Pink Bark project, 110km from Esperance in Western Australia. The 421-metre campaign was chasing silica sands and other potential clay-hosted rare earths, with holes drilled to an average depth of 16.5m. Management is expecting results towards the end of next month.