Announcements

Horizon Minerals and Northern Star Resources have reached an agreement to swap tenements prospective for gold mineralisation in WA’s Goldfields region. Horizon will secure three projects near Coolgardie to support its current acquisition proposal for Focus Minerals’ adjacent Coolgardie gold project holdings and four projects near Kalgoorlie, including Golden Ridge which has produced over 253,000 ounces of gold.

St George Mining has extended mineralisation at the Stricklands prospect within its flagship Mt Alexander project near Leonora, WA, after intersecting 14 metres of nickel-copper sulphides from a down-hole depth of 78m. The company is also completing a diamond hole to a depth of 450m towards the south and underneath the known shallow mineralisation at Stricklands.

Big River Gold has eliminated its outstanding debt and is now in a strong position to finalise the definitive feasibility study for its flagship Borborema gold project in Brazil later this year. The company is targeting a significant reduction in capital and operating costs with a higher-grade, low strip ratio, starter Stage 1 open-pit envisaged and gold prices now 15% higher than those used in last year’s optimisation study.

The recent success of Strike Energy’s West Erregulla-2 well has buoyed Norwest Energy’s hopes that its upcoming drill program, just north of Strike’s spectacular gas discovery will be able to make waves in its own right. The company is also awaiting 3D seismic data over its Xanadu oil discovery, which will form the basis for contingent resource estimation and set the stage for the Xanadu joint venture to consider an appraisal well.

Legend Mining has commenced a detailed, ground-based EM geophysical survey over the Area D prospect of its Rockford project in the Fraser Range region of southern WA. The survey is being undertaken over the high-priority D5 conductor, where the company has already defined anomalous nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation and is designed to better constrain the target ahead of an upcoming diamond drilling program.

Ironbark Zinc’s proposed, scaled-back 1Mtpa Stage I development of its Citronen base metals project in northern Greenland will benefit from head grades of up to 10.4% zinc/lead during the first year of operation. The company plans to lower the upfront capital costs for the project by targeting the shallow high-grade Beach Zone mineralisation, while still allowing for an expansion to the original feasibility study output of 3.3Mtpa in Stage II.

Vonex has gone from strength to strength since listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in June last year with the company now on track for a 30% increase in new customer sales year-on-year in the current quarter. The company expects sales growth to accelerate throughout the 2020 financial year while increased engagement with its social media indicates that Vonex’s brand awareness is growing rapidly.

Azumah Resources has estimated that its Wa gold project in Ghana could deliver a pre-tax cash flow of USD$448m using an assumed gold price of USD$1,500 per ounce, up 66% from its scoping study estimate that used a price USD$1,300 per ounce. The higher gold price could also lift pre-tax NPV by almost 75% to USD$309m and increase the internal rate of return from 35% to about 54%.

TNG Limited has selected an optimised single-stage, 2 million tonne per annum operation for its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron mine in the Northern Territory that will trim capital expenditure by $29m to $824m. The project is now estimated to deliver a life-of-mine net cash flow of $12.2 billion, pre-tax net present value of $2.8 billion and pre-tax IRR of 33% while capital payback is estimated at 2.8 years.

Calidus Resources has generated shallow, high-grade gold intercepts outside the existing resources in drilling completed at its emerging Warrawoona project, near Marble Bar, WA. The results are adjacent to the flagship Klondyke deposit and included 12 metres grading 2.68 grams per tonne gold from only 32m down-hole and 4m @ 4.3g/t gold from 44m, in areas that were previously anticipated to be barren of mineralisation.

Strike Energy has increased the net pay zone within the Kingia sandstone conventional gas discovery by 17 metres to 58 metres after completing wireline logging at its West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, WA. Down-hole tools have indicated the Kingia reservoir as having pressures between 6,814 psia and 6,828 psia with good permeability of 102mD, which supports the potential for a significant recoverable gas resource.

Heavy rare earths producer, Northern Minerals, has started exploration drilling at its Browns Range project in the Kimberley region of WA to follow up recent successes at the emerging Dazzler prospect. The company will carry out 3,000m of reverse circulation drilling at the Dazzler and Iceman prospects and a further 1,500m at the Banshee South, Cyclops, Longshot and Rogue prospects.

Bellevue Gold continues to churn out the high-grade gold hits beneath its historical namesake mine near Leinster, WA, with diamond drilling outside the current resource area returning a peak intersection of 4.4m @ 62.4g/t gold in the new Deacon Lode. The company has also intersected high-grade gold of up to 1.1m @ 75.3g/t gold from 654.6m at the newly discovered Mavis Lode that runs parallel to the Deacon Lode.

ASX-listed graphite developer Volt Resources has lodged a draft prospectus for its USD$40 million Mauritian Note with the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and expects approval to be granted within 4 weeks. The Mauritian bond issue follows on from the company’s previously announced Tanzanian Note issue, both of which will provide funding to underpin the company’s planned development of its Bunyu Graphite project in Tanzania.

According to a recent technical report for Reedy Lagoon’s Burracoppin magnetite deposit located near Merredin, WA, the project’s iron ores could be upgraded into a high-grade concentrate, suitable as a feed product for the HIsmelt process that generates high-value “pig” iron. The company is proposing to complete drilling at the Burracoppin project to supplement historical work and then generate a JORC-compliant mineral resource.

PharmAust has finalised contractual arrangements with the University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Werribee Animal Hospital to commence the Phase II clinical trials into the effectiveness of its Monepantel anti-cancer drug in dogs. The trial will be overseen by U-Vet’s Head of Small Animal Medicine and Oncology, Dr Claire Cannon, who will also oversee recruitment at other nominated sites within Australia.

Hammer Metals has discovered the new Shadow zone of copper-gold mineralisation at the Mt Philp Breccia Complex in Queensland’s Mount Isa mining district with rock chip sampling returning up to 4.64 grams per tonne gold and 27.7% copper. The company plans to carry out further mapping and sampling of the new area, which has been delineated over a 200m strike and is up to 50m wide.

Geopacific Resources has strengthened its Board with the appointment of former Gold Road Resources Managing Director Ian Murray as a non-executive director to assist with the development of its Woodlark gold project in PNG. He played a key role in progressing Gold Road’s Gruyere project from an exploration play through to a mining operation that is scheduled to produce 300,000 ounces of gold per annum in joint venture with Gold Fields.

Strike Energy is preparing to start the key controlled drawdown phase that could increase gas production at its Jaws-1 super-deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia. Water flow rates at the well have declined from 450 barrels per day in late June to the current 350 barrels per day while the Jaws and Klebb wells have exhibited strengthening gas flares as production rates slowly build.

Rox Resources and Venus Metals have delivered high-grade drilling intersections from several regional and near-mine prospects at their emerging Youanmi gold project in the Murchison region of WA. The companies generated intercepts of 2m @ 23.67g/t gold from 76m and 4m @ 6.57g/t from 64m at the Commonwealth prospect and also discovered 8m @ 4.17g/t gold from 96m at Youanmi South.

Australian Potash has ticked off another box for its Lake Wells SOP project near Laverton, WA, signing an import-export agreement with the Port of Geraldton in the Mid West region, that underpins the FEED study underway for the project. The company’s recent DFS for Lake Wells was modelled on a road freight solution to the Geraldton port and export of its SOP product from that site.

PharmAust has kicked-off its much-anticipated Phase II clinical trials that will study the effectiveness of the new palatable and high dose tablet formulation of its Monepantel anti-cancer drug in dogs. The trial will determine the efficacy of the drug over a prolonged period of time in dogs with B cell lymphoma before testing progresses to low dose maintenance of progression free survival and efficacy in other cancers.

Buru Energy is a step closer to unlocking its tight gas portfolio in the Canning Basin after the Western Australian state government lifted the moratorium on fracture stimulation over existing petroleum titles. The company previously estimated that its Yulleroo gas field contained 2C contingent resources of about 714 petajoules of gas and 24.9 million barrels of associated liquids within the Laurel tight gas formation.

Strike Energy’s West Erregulla-2 exploration well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia has intersected 10 metres of net gas pay with average porosity of 10.3% in the High Cliff sandstone target. The company is currently undertaking additional advanced wireline logging at the well before running and cementing production casing ahead of carrying out flow tests for the Kingia and High Cliff zones.

Smart building materials trailblazer, ClearVue Technologies, has been recognised for its continued research and development with the company banking an Australian Government tax credit of about $602,000. The refund relates to work completed during the last year with the University of New South Wales on quantum dots and work with Edith Cowan University on the entrance atrium at the Warwick Grove Shopping Centre.

Surface trench sampling has commenced at Terrain Minerals’ Wild Viper gold project near Leonora, WA, where rock chip sampling unearthed up to 4.67g/t gold in stockwork quartz veining in March. The company will complete four long trenches for 640m across the 382-shear prospect, which will assist in siting future drilling locations, over a prospective 2.5km long structure that has not been targeted by exploration in the past.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have delivered more high-grade gold hits peaking at a metre grading 39.61 grams per tonne gold from 94m down-hole at the recently completed Stage 3 drilling campaign for the emerging Currans Find North discovery near Youanmi, WA. The results also confirmed the presence of two stacked gold lodes at the prospect and demonstrate that mineralisation remains open at depth and down-plunge.

Geopacific Resources has appointed Perth-based GR Engineering as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the processing plant at its Woodlark gold project in Papua New Guinea. The agreement covers the planned 2.4 million tonne per annum carbon in leach facility, tailings line and other supporting infrastructure with the potential for early works to procure tenders and pre-order long-lead items.

Classic Minerals has generated additional high-grade gold intersections from drilling at its Kat Gap project near Southern Cross, WA, extending the gold system by another 50m vertically at depth. The program targeted the ore body down-dip, producing exceptional new intercepts including 9m @ 20.94g/t from 123m down-hole, which also indicated the ore zone shallowing with depth.

Independent testing has indicated that graphite concentrate from BlackEarth Minerals’ Maniry project in southern Madagascar, meets the purity specification required by lithium-ion battery anode material manufacturers. The company is continuing discussions for potential offtake agreements and has entered into several confidentiality agreements with interested parties.

Northern Minerals has delivered its best-ever drilling result at the Browns Range project near Halls Creek, WA, with an exceptional 52-metre wide intercept grading 4.15% TREO recorded at the emerging Dazzler prospect. The company also discovered a new ore position just 350m to the southeast of Dazzler and will kick off further drilling in the region starting early next month.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has received Human Research Ethics Committee approval to carry out a clinical study comparing the effectiveness of its medical cannabis products for the treatment of severe epilepsy. This will compare its pharmaceutical-grade low tetrahydrocannabinol medicine authorised for prescription as an Investigational Medicinal Product in Australia and the UK, against its 100% cannabidiol product.