Terry Bates

Meeka Metals has added new impetus to Australia’s growing rare earths sector after unveiling 10 square kilometres of high-grade clay-hosted mineralisation at its Circle Valley project in WA. It will declare an initial resource in June after drilling gave grades up to 3084 parts per million total rare earth oxides with consistently high neodymium-praseodymium assays of up to 34 per cent of the TREO values.

Classic Minerals has forecast a start to gold production in June after completing bulk earthworks for the tailings storage facility at its wholly-owned Kat Gap gold mine, which is under construction 170km south of Southern Cross in WA’s Central Wheatbelt. The facility will be ready for use in May after the company installs a liner and monitoring bores.

BMG Resources has delivered an impressive 518,000-ounce maiden gold resource from an 11.1-million-tonne haul at 1.45 grams per tonne gold at its Abercromby gold project near Wiluna. The company says mineralisation at its Capital gold deposit starts at surface and continues along strike outside the resource footprint, adding considerable potential. The project is on granted mining leases, providing an expedited pathway to mining approvals.

Venture Minerals has unveiled hopes of supplying boron to global markets after identifying large-scale borate-hosted tin and boron zones throughout its Mount Lindsay skarn mineralisation system in northern Tasmania. Venture appraised 102 historic diamond drill intersections to identify borate tin-boron zones not previously assessed in any mining studies at Mount Lindsay. Boron is critical in the solar panel and electric vehicle industries.

Toro Energy has extended its Dimma nickel discovery with another massive nickel sulphide intersection of 2.4m with P-XRF analysis between 1.4 and 5.1 per cent nickel. Drilling intersected an 8.9m zone of visible nickel sulphide mineralisation from 327.2m downhole. Dimma is one of Toro’s four new nickel sulphide discoveries in a 7.5km long komatiite rock unit at WA’s Yandal greenstone belt.

Askari Metals is pulling out all stops as it hunts lithium at its Uis project in Namibia that adjoins Andrada’s 71.5 million tonne lithium-tin mine. The company has wrapped up the acquisition of a 90 per cent interest in the 114 square km exploration licence with a binding agreement to purchase the rest. RC drilling has kicked off after project wide mapping and sampling identified new pegmatite drilling targets.

Kairos Minerals has vowed to expand its lithium, gold and base metal targets after confirming a “compelling” 2.8km-long lithium anomaly and a nearby 2.3km gold anomaly at its Roe Hills project near Kalgoorlie. The company sees the anomalies as high-priority targets for spodumene lithium-bearing pegmatites akin to Global Lithium’s nearby Manna deposit containing 32.7 million tonnes at 1.0 per cent lithium oxide.

Meeka Metals is bringing modern techniques to historical areas at its Murchison gold project with high impact drilling targeting the 25km long greenstone hosted Fairway shear zone that hosts its 700,000-ounce Turnberry gold deposit. The company’s St Anne’s gold deposit also lies in the Fairway zone and will have a mineral resource estimate scheduled for release in April. A detailed pre-feasibility study for the project remains on track for June.

Horizon Minerals has raised $3.34 million to further develop its proposed high-grade Cannon underground gold mine near Kalgoorlie, hoping to soon tap into Australia’s recent record gold price hikes. The company has reported strong support from new and existing Australian and international institutional and sophisticated investors and now plans to accelerate resource extension drilling at its Cannon and Penny’s Find gold deposits.