Announcements

After largely writing the book on how to develop a massive mineral project as an ASX listed junior using farm in money from its counterparties, Neometals will no doubt be feeling a quiet sense of satisfaction this week after taking receipt of its first $6.2m dividend cheque from the Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie.

Venus Metals has entered into a farm-in agreement with the unlisted Pilgangoora Minerals to vend out a number of its lithium exploration licences in WA. The agreement will fast track exploration for lithium bearing pegmatites on 2 leases located near the large Wodgina mining operation, 2 leases near the operating Pilgangoora lithium mines and 2 leases in the historical Poona mining district near Cue in the Murchison region.

Hammer Metals has purchased two prospective looking exploration permits covering the Sunset and Black Rock copper-gold prospects near Mount Isa in Queensland. The Sunset prospect has returned near-surface historical drill results up to 24 metres grading 1.41% copper and 0.49g/t gold from just 10m down-hole, whilst Black Rock has previously returned wide intersections of lower grade mineralisation, including 78m @ 0.54% copper and 0.13g/t gold from 140m down-hole.

PharmAust has developed a prototype “good manufacturing practice” method for the large-scale manufacture of its anti-cancer drug, Monepantel and its analogues at an economical cost and to standards required for clinical trials. The method can also be used for molecules in the drug library that PharmAust secured from Nihon Nohyaku in September 2017, which are related to but different from Monepantel.

Artemis Resources has locked in a new set of cobalt and base metal drilling targets across its extensive land holdings near Karratha in WA, with a comprehensive geochemical soil sampling program outlining a number of interesting looking, multi-element anomalies for follow-up exploration activities. The company utilised baseline data from the existing Carlow Castle cobalt-gold-copper project area as a guide to highlight the priority and tenor of the new assay results.

ASX listed biotech Phylogica has identified a next generation cell penetrating peptide that is four times more efficient at delivering a large drug cargo inside cell walls than its original biological product. The discovery was made as the company screens and validates its large library of peptides with a view to discovering even more new cell penetrating peptides. Work on this project will continue until February 2019.

Canadian listed gold developer Novo Resources has confirmed the gold potential of two basal conglomerate units defined at its Comet Well JV project near Karratha in WA, with maiden bulk sample assay results outlining grades up to 10.4g/t gold and gravity recoveries of up to 99.6%. The company will now use the bulk sample assays and recent diamond drilling data from Comet Well, to produce a mineralisation report.

Ironbark Zinc has signed a memorandum of understanding with industrial machinery company Metso Sweden for the provision of services and equipment at the giant Citronen zinc project in Greenland. The agreement also enables Metso to commence engineering tasks that are required before the completion of detailed engineering of processing equipment, which includes providing technical specifications for third party equipment.

Great Southern Mining has unearthed rock chip samples up to 1.65g/t gold and 185g/t silver during its first pass geological reconnaissance exploration program at the Edinburgh Park project, located only 25km from the revered Mt Carlton epithermal-style gold mine in northern Queensland. The company has generated a number of high priority structural targets from the campaign and is now planning an RC drilling program to test those areas.

Australian Potash has successfully produced its first salt products from the pilot pond network at the Lake Wells sulphate of potash project, located 180km northeast of Laverton in the Goldfields region of WA. About 20 tonnes of potassium and sulphate bearing salts are expected to be produced from the ponds once the process runs its course. These salts will be further processed to a refined sulphate of potash.

St George Mining has outlined a significant 200m plunge extension to its nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at its enticing Investigators prospect near Leonora in WA. A new drill hole intersection penetrated over 14 metres of massive and disseminated mineralisation from 177.5m down-hole, including an impressive 5.25m true width intercept of massive sulphides grading up to 8.8% nickel and 4.5% copper from 185m down-hole.

Image Resources is well on the final stretch towards production at its Boonanarring mineral sands project 80km north of Perth after commencing wet commissioning of the processing facility. The company is on track to start producing mineral sands concentrate in the current quarter, receiving its first revenue in January 2019 and becoming cash flow positive by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

Aurora Labs has signed a partnership agreement with Fortescue Metals Group to explore the potential of its trailblazing 3D printing technology with a view to reducing production and operational costs in the mining and resources sector. Aurora’s ability to essentially “print” replacement mechanical parts quickly and accurately using its proprietary 3D printers could reduce costs and lead times normally required to procure specialist parts.

Infinity Lithium’s listing on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges will increase its exposure to European investors ahead of its upcoming feasibility study for a fully integrated mining operation and lithium carbonate processing facility at its San Jose project in western Spain. The company has also appointed lithium industry expert Vincent Ledoux-Pedailles to lead its European corporate strategy.

Strike Energy is now fully funded to drill the West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin and complete pilot production activities for the Jaws-1 deep coal seam gas wells after raising $13m through a share placement. The share placement also fulfils the capital raising requirement for the recommended takeover offer for UIL Energy, which will increase Strike’s exposure to the Perth Basin.

ASX listed upstart telco Vonex has signed on 12 new channel partners in the first quarter of the 2019 financial year as part of its ongoing efforts to accelerate business growth. The company has already signed up 6 new partners in the current quarter and is well on track to secure at least 100 new channel partners in the current financial year.

Recently processed 3D seismic data has led 88 Energy to increase its gross mean prospective resource at the Project Icewine in Alaska’s North Slope by almost 1.15 billion barrels to 2.89 billion barrels of oil. It has also allowed the company to predict where the best reservoir quality is likely to be in both the Schrader and deeper Torok sequences. The company still expects to farm-out the conventional acreage before the end of 2018.

Calidus Resources has executed a definitive agreement with TSX-V listed Pacton Gold Inc, to vend its non-core conglomerate gold rights at the Warrawoona gold project for 7 million Pacton shares. Calidus will retain all other gold rights to the ground. The deal covers 8 exploration licences and allows Pacton to explore and mine for conglomerate gold, with liability for rehabilitation and environmental obligations, whilst Calidus retains title to the tenements.

Legend Mining has reported intriguing anomalous zinc, gold and sulphur assay results from its new Shackleton discovery, located in the revered Fraser Range region of WA. The company believes the new results bear all the geochemical fingerprints of a volcanic-hosted massive sulphide style of base metal mineralisation. The find is located only 7km northeast of the Independence Group’s Andromeda “VHMS” copper-zinc, gold and silver discovery, revealed earlier this year.

Bellevue Gold has doubled the global inferred resource at its namesake project northwest of Leinster in the Goldfields of WA to 2.6Mt @ 12.3g/t for 1.04 million ounces of contained gold. This is due to its reporting a maiden resource of 800,000t at an impressive grade of 22g/t gold, or 550,000 ounces of contained gold. There is potential for further upside as Viago remains open in all directions.

Base metal developer Galena Mining has taken the prudent step of separating its non-core exploration assets into a new entity, Metal Range Limited, so it can fully focus on developing the flagship Abra project in WA into construction during 2019. The new company will pick up the Woodlands complex, Manganese Ridge and Quartzite Well exploration prospects, which are variously mineralised with lead, zinc, copper, silver, gold and manganese.

Strike Energy has launched a $16.1m all-scrip takeover offer for fellow oil and gas company UIL Energy to increase its exposure to the Perth Basin in Western Australia. This will increase the company’s acreage in the Perth Basin to over 3000 square kilometres. Strike is planning to drill a well to test the West Erregulla prospect, which is adjacent to the Waitsia gas field, in the first quarter of 2019.

Rare earth element developer Greenland Minerals has flagged a substantial reduction in the capital costs for civil earth works at its huge Kvanefjeld rare earth element project located on the southern tip of Greenland. An engineering review has optimised the process plant and site infrastructure ground footprint at the proposed mine, reducing the volume of material disturbance by 80% from previous estimates.

Sky and Space Global has started construction of its nano-satellites after a key design review by Nasdaq listed contractor GomSpace, found that all technical components of the design met the required standard to proceed. The company said the first batch of the mini satellites is on track for launch in 2019 with successive launches in the following quarters until the entire constellation of about 200 satellites is in orbit during 2020.

ASX listed Strike Energy has started the much-anticipated gas production phase at its Jaws-1 project wells in SA’s Cooper Basin with operations now set up for continuous gas release. Water production rates have been maintained at between 750 and 800 barrels of water per day while gas release has continued to build in both the horizontal and vertical well bores.

St George Mining has outlined an extension to its high grade massive nickel/copper sulphide mineralisation at the Investigators East prospect near Leonora, with a new drilling result of 3.55m @ 4.67% nickel, 2.27% copper, 0.2% cobalt and 2.94g/t combined platinum group elements from 116m down-hole. The intersection has extended mineralisation down-plunge and is several hundred metres east of recent results within a defined 1.5km east-west trending mineralised corridor.

Volt Resources is now free to progress its proposed Stage 1 and Stage 2 developments at the Bunyu graphite project after it was granted two mining licences by Tanzania’s Ministry of Minerals. The company will now focus on completing its proposed USD$40m bond issue on Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. Once this is completed, the company will start front end engineering work for the initial Stage 1 operations and order long lead time components.

Adriatic Metals has reported another wide, high grade base metal, gold and silver intersections from its emerging Rupice multi-mineral ore system in central Bosnia. The new drilling result of 66m grading 9.5% zinc, 4.9% lead, 187g/t silver, 2.4g/t gold, 0.5% copper and 56% barite from 204m down-hole extends mineralisation by a further 35m at the northern end of the deposit, adding more tonnes adjacent to the concession boundary.

Artemis Resources’ wholly-owned Radio Hill processing plant in the west Pilbara region of WA has drawn Eric Sprott-backed Canadian explorer Pacton Gold to sign a MoU for a potential processing deal. Pacton is currently identifying conglomerate gold opportunities on its tenements for bulk sampling and production. Radio Hill has approved throughput capacity of 500,000 tonnes per annum of gold ore.

Calidus Resources has raised $3.7m in funds to underpin resource development activities and complete the feasibility studies for its flagship Warrawoona gold project, located near Marble Bar in the eastern Pilbara region of WA. The company describes the deal as a strategic technical alliance between the companies, where Calidus can leverage Alkane’s experience and costing assumptions from its operating Tomingley open pit gold mine in NSW.

Infinity Lithium has expanded the scope of its lithium hydroxide scoping study for the San Jose mine in western Spain to consider the potential to deliver either lithium sulphate or lithium hydroxide. Work underway has already noted the leached material will go through a lithium sulphate stage regardless of whether lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide is selected as the final product.

Myanmar Metals has delineated strong indications of potential shallow conductive base metal sulphide mineralisation at the prospective ER Valley exploration target area, just southeast of its flagship Bawdwin multi-commodity resource in Myanmar. The area has numerous artisanal workings and anomalous zinc, lead and silver assay being recorded from historical diamond drilling and sludge samples taken from horizonal adits. Elevated copper, cobalt and nickel values have also been recorded.