Steve Kaless

Emu NL has enlarged its mineralised footprint in the heart of Esperance’s rare earths region after rock chips returned results of up to 1242 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) from its latest reconnaissance survey. Management says fieldwork from outcropping Booanya suite granites has revealed high-value magnet rare earth oxides averaging about 22 per cent of TREO grade from 28 rock-chip samples.

Globe Metals & Mining has ticked off a 10-tonne sample from its Kanyika niobium project as part of a plant feasibility study in Malawi. Management says it will be used to design a pilot plant, a testwork program and for commercial grade offtake samples. Globe recently became the first to sign a Mining Development Agreement with the Malawian Government for the advancement of its project.

Venus Metals and IGO have inked a binding agreement for exploration – and possibly development and extraction – at the pair’s Henderson nickel-lithium project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. The deal involves a farm-in and joint venture in which a subsidiary of IGO can progressively acquire up to a 70 per cent interest in the project by spending $4 million on exploration and reimbursing Venus with $1 million.

Galan Lithium has labelled its beefed-up resource “world class”, with 6.6 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at 880 milligrams per litre lithium at its Hombre Muerto West project in Argentina. Management says it is the third significant resource upgrade in three years and 72 per cent of the new figure sits in the higher “measured” category, representing 4.7 million tonnes grading 873 mg/l lithium.

ASX-listed Chimeric Therapeutics has been granted an Indian patent for its CLTX CAR therapies as it closes in on getting similar protection in Israel for its cell treatment for patients with glioblastoma. The new patent in India covers particular applications of the company’s technology which uses chlorotoxin, an amino acid peptide derived from deathstalker scorpion venom that it has utilised for its cancer fighting treatments.

ChemX Materials has unveiled more high-grade, near-surface manganese in its second batch of assay results from drilling in South Australia, including a 6m hit grading 18 per cent manganese from just 15m. It says it now has data from 69 holes of its 94-hole Jamieson Tank campaign, which has targeted mineralisation that can be efficiently converted to high-purity manganese – a key component in electric batteries.

ASX-listed cell therapy company Chimeric Therapeutics has received ethics approval to start a multi-site phase 1B clinical trial of the company’s CHM 1101 cell treatment for patients with glioblastoma. Management says the new development will see a two-part clinical study enrolling patients across multiple clinical trial sites in the United States.

Conico Limited has revealed a 146 per cent mineral resource jump at its Mt Thirsty nickel-cobalt project near Norseman, surging to 66.2 million tonnes at 0.06 per cent cobalt, 0.43 per cent and 0.45 per cent manganese. The company says its deposit hosts the second-highest cobalt-nickel ratio for similar predevelopment projects in Australia and is uniquely positioned to potentially produce precursor cathode active material.

ASX-listed mining software provider K2fly has unveiled revenue of $3.4m for the third quarter of the financial year – a 19 per cent rise on the company’s income from the previous quarter. The company says the figure was a 35 per cent jump on the corresponding period last year and put the result down to freshly-inked contracts and “go live” milestones.

Neometals has struck a binding take-or-pay offtake agreement, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Australian Titanium, with Chinese partner Jiuxing Titanium Materials for both direct shipping ore and titanium-rich mixed gravity concentrates. The company says it now plans to update a recent prefeasibility study to reflect the potential for a lower-capital development of its Barrambie titanium and vanadium project near Sandstone in Western Australia’s Murchison region.

Valor Resources has completed its second anniversary payment as part of a farm-in agreement in Canada, where it is aiming to take an 80 per cent stake in the Hook Lake uranium project. Valor’s expenditure has reached C$3.5 million (AU$3.9 million) over a three-year period as required by the deal and it is finalising cash and share commitments to complete its second earn-in milestone.

Everest Metals has completed a swag of deals to formally acquire 51 per cent of the Mt Edon lithium project and the Revere gold project. The package includes joint ventures across both projects with the privately-owned Entelechy Resources, along with farm-in deals and royalty agreements. The arrangements allow Everest to move towards 100 per cent ownership.

Lindian Resources has tabled some of its best assays from drilling at its Kangankunde project in Malawi, with results going up to 13.89 per cent TREO. The company says the average grade of the rare earths critical metal elements, neodymium and praseodymium, was 20 per cent TREO. Three holes went more than 3 per cent TREO across intersections running 150m or more from surface.

ChemX Materials has started building a maiden resource foundation with impressive first assay results from drilling at its South Australian deposit, including a 6m hit grading 18.5 per cent manganese from 9m. The company says it has now received data from 39 holes of its 94-hole campaign, which targeted the high-grade manganese that can be efficiently converted to high-purity manganese for the electric battery market.

WA-focused explorer Kairos Minerals has become a multi-listed trader after joining the United States’ OTCQB venture market. The company started trading at market opening on April 6 under the ticker “KAIFF”. Created in 2010, the OTCQB is the middle tier of the over-the-counter market for US shares. The company says the move will provide exposure to US investors without impacting its ASX listing.

Kairos Minerals is poised to drill-test a recently discovered 1km long light and heavy rare earths anomaly which has produced early results going up to 553 parts per million total rare earths oxide. The pending RC drilling program at its Roe Hills project, 100km east of Kalgoorlie also includes some tantalising results for neodymium and praseodymium reaching up to 126ppm, heavy rare earth oxides grading up to 154ppm and light rare earth oxides running up to 420ppm.

ASX-listed Godolphin Resources believes maiden metallurgical results from independent laboratory ANSTO have confirmed the low-cost development potential of its Narraburra rare earths project in New South Wales. The company says a recovery rate of 92 per cent of the key magnet rare earths praseodymium, neodymium, terbium and dysprosium, puts the project in a good position ahead of larger-scale testing and a bulk sampling program.

Kairos Minerals is far from resting on its glittering gold laurels as the company zeros in on a boost to its existing 1.1-million-ounce resource at its flagship Mount York project in WA’s Pilbara region. Management says it has landed wide hits including 82m at 0.57g/t gold from 104m, which contained 11m grading 1.25g/t from 135m and 17m running 1.03g/t gold from 169m.

Middle Island Resources has named Roland Bartsch, a geologist with 35 years’ experience, as its new CEO. The industry veteran will lead the company’s copper-gold hunt at its flagship Barkly project in the Northern Territory. With its maiden drilling program delivering the trademarks of an iron oxide-copper-gold-style mineralisation, the company has plucked a CEO with a background of developing and managing similar projects.

Javelin Minerals’ latest testwork program has confirmed the presence of both gravity-recoverable gold and free-milling gold at its Coogee project near Kalgoorlie. Latest results also show copper can be recovered separately. Further testing will continue at the project, which last year unveiled a new gold mineral resource estimate of 1.42 million tonnes at 1.07 grams per tonne gold for a total of 49,000 ounces.

Empire Energy says it has boosted production ambitions by lifting its average 30-day gas flow rate by more than 17 per cent in initial tests held at the NT’s Beetaloo Basin. It says a new rate of 2.81 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) per day at its first horizontal well represents a normalised flow rate of more than 3mmscf a day per 1000m of horizontal section.

A detailed 3D seismic cube has helped Legend Mining identify what it says are compelling targets within its Octagonal nickel-copper prospect, which sits within the same structural corridor as IGO’s Nova-Bollinger deposit in WA’s Fraser Range. The company says data processing results support its exploration model that suggests the intrusive complex continues below previously completed drilling.

Lindian Resources has secured $9 million in funding for its Kangankunde rare earths project, with chairman Asimwe Kabunga tipping in $500,000 as the company closes in on its processing plant construction. The funds come via a share placement at a near 10.5 per cent premium on the past closing price. Two new investors have poured in $7.5 million and $1 million respectively.

Seismic data from the Perth Basin has unveiled four high-graded oil and gas targets within two permits for a joint venture led by WA-based producer Triangle Energy. Drilling is now scheduled for the first half of next year, while work is also ongoing to further define the identified targets, in addition to adding others to the list.