Announcements

Tech play Vonex has the big telco’s in its sights as it seeks to pinch market share from them courtesy of the disruption caused to the market by the roll out of the NBN. The company listed on the ASX yesterday after completing a $6m IPO and will now seek to gain greater market penetration for its cloud based PABX and related services.

Aquabotix will have the opportunity to demonstrate its SwarmDiver underwater drones to the US Navy under a research and development deal with the United States Naval Undersea Warfare Center. The agreement gives the company access to the Narragansett Bay military test facility – including its ranges and personnel - to test and demonstrate its swarming drones.

Spectrum Rare Earths has reported a slew of eye-popping, high grade gold results from historical drilling at its Washington gold project in northern California. Mineralisation occurs within a swag of criss-crossing quartz veins, usually over widths of about 2 metres at the mine. The company also identified 3 priority target areas for further drilling during its technical due diligence for the decommissioned gold operation.

BlackEarth Minerals is expanding its resource drilling program at the Razafy prospect of its 100%-owned Maniry graphite project in Madagascar after rock chip samples of up to 20% TGC confirmed a strike extension to the northeast. Rock chip samples of up to 11.9% TGC have also added a further priority target for immediate exploration drilling at the Razafy East prospect.

With its Mt Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the NT in the final stages of development planning, TNG has signed a deal with the owner of a similar looking resource in the Pilbara that could add value for both parties. TNG will team up with Todd Corporation’s BBI Group to provide its processing technology at the Balla Balla resource on the Pilbara coast.

UltraCharge has formed a joint venture with Indonesia’s PT Garda Persada for the manufacturing and sale of its high powered lithium-ion battery pouch cells in Indonesia and the ASEAN region. Pt Garda will secure firm orders for US$5m worth of batteries from its military clients whilst Ultracharge will invest US$3m to build a new production facility in Jakarta.

Blackham Resources is poised to extend the mine life of its Golden Age underground mine after making further high grade intercepts of up to 6.9m at 15.5 g/t gold below current mining areas. The results also highlight the potential to increase the mining rate through early access via the nearby Calais Decline.

Galena Mining has intersected copper-lead sulphide mineralisation in a deep exploration drilling program at its Woodlands geological complex, 200km north of Meekatharra in W.A. The company targeted two highly conductive geophysical electromagnetic targets that coincide with anomalous copper and lead assays from historical drilling.

ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals’ bold foray into the global cosmetics market has hit another notable milestone, with luxury UK retailer Harvey Nichols announcing it will stock the company’s MGC Derma and Derma Plus skin care lines. MGC says the iconic British retailer will carry the Perth-listed company’s premium range of 18 products containing cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

Lithium Australia is acquiring full ownership of the Sadisdorf deposit in Germany for €2m in cash and scrip from JV partner Tin International. Recent drilling returned an intercept of 32.2m at 0.52% lithium oxide. The company will accelerate development plans with a scoping study expected to be completed in October 2018 while other key studies are also being carried out.

Sky and Space Global has signed a deal with a leading aviation solutions and service provider to explore applications of its miniature-satellite based network in commercial aviation services. The company says the Memorandum of Understanding with Israel-based International Air Traffic Automation Systems further validates its business model and its disruptive impact on the telco market.

ASX listed Spectur’s security surveillance systems will quietly watch over at least 20 building sites and potentially up to 120 sites belonging to a national building company in a deal that will initially kick off with a $65,000 order. Spectur has posted revenues of $520,000 for April and May, representing an increase of 200% over the same period last year.

Legend Mining has discovered a second, larger nickel-copper mineralised intrusive of magmatic sulphides within a host rock similar to the famed Nova-Bollinger deposit, at its Rockford project in the Fraser Range. The new results cover an area of 300m by 100m, with shallow anomalous drill intersections up to 36m @ 0.39% nickel, 0.23% copper and 0.04% cobalt, containing disseminated sulphide mineralisation.

Kopore Metals has procured four new prospecting licences in a highly prospective region of the emerging Kalahari copper belt in Botswana. The cash and scrip deal gives Kopore full ownership of the tenements, which are adjacent to those held by major copper resource developer Cupric Canyon. Exploration in the newly awarded tenements is limited and provides an element of blue sky for the company.

Classic Minerals is back in the field at Forrestania near Southern Cross with lots of exciting gold targets about to be drill tested. The company has kicked off a 3,000 metre RC drill program that will target high grade cross-cutting gold lodes at the Lady Magdalene deposit and define resource extensions for the Kap Gap, Lady Lila and the newly discovered Van Uden West prospect.

Adriatic Metals has announced a spectacular drill intersection of 64m grading 4.6g/t gold, 537g/t silver, 0.9% copper, 7.7% lead, 10.8% zinc and 46% barite from its project in Bosnia. The result extends mineralisation 80m down-dip and 50m down-plunge of the original geological interpretation. The company also reported gold mineralisation up to 3.5g/t in grab samples from the historic JB Zone, 1km away.

Altech Chemicals has pointed to recent research reports that forecast significant uptake of high purity alumina from the lithium battery sector to suggest that its proposed HPA plant in Malaysia is well placed to take advantage of the HPA growth curve. HPA is used in lithium-ion batteries to separate the anode from the cathode. Demand from the battery sector is predicted to triple by 2025.

Algae.Tec has secured a funding facility of up to $7m from New York financier Magna to drive several near-term expansion and development initiatives aimed at commercialising its algae and medicinal cannabis divisions. It is also finalising the spin-off of its Uruguay medicinal cannabis interests into a wholly-owned subsidiary that will seek up to $10m via a public listing.

Infinity Lithium has announced positive results from a scoping study to produce a high value lithium hydroxide product from processing of its San Jose ores in Spain. The work provides flexibility for the company to tailor offtake products to end user specifications from its existing processing flowsheet. There is a strong demand for the lithium hydroxide product currently, driven by battery requirements from the electric vehicle industry.

Perth-based Epichem, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed biotech PharmAust, has received a contract extension with a leading US biotechnology company, Unity Biotechnology. The new contract, worth around US$1.65 million out to 2020, means Epichem will continue to provide synthetic and medicinal chemistry expertise to support Unity’s drug discovery projects.

Lithium Australia’s Eichigt project in Germany is looking a little more interesting after a second round of samples produced 1.47% cobalt and impressive lithium values from the same patch of ground. The rare double up of cobalt and lithium is contained in mineralisation not previously discovered in Saxony and augurs well for the company’s plans to supply battery metals to Europe.

Hot Chili has commenced drilling at its very prospective looking El Fuego copper targets in Chile, with assay results due shortly. The program is testing extensions of shallow, high grade copper lodes at the historical San Antonio and Valentina mines. The company has initiated underground mapping and sampling at San Antonio and recently completed regional reconnaissance mapping and sampling.

Kopore Metals has reported over 10sq kms of prospective base metal soil geochemistry at the recently identified KM3 airborne electromagnetic target at its Ghanzi West project in Botswana. Ground EM surveys have confirmed coincident conductors from 50m, generating a high priority location for upcoming drilling programs. The company is continuing its regional soil sampling programs across its tenements.

Australian Potash remains on track for development of its Lake Wells potash project as it progresses the approvals and permitting processes with two key areas of environmental fieldwork now complete. A final field program is planned for the third quarter of 2018 with an all encompassing Environmental Review Document to be submitted shortly thereafter.

Galena Mining has announced outstanding metallurgical test work results from its flagship Abra lead project, confirming its ability to produce high grade concentrates averaging 74.5% lead with recoveries exceeding 94%. Results showed that the ores can be processed into high quality base metal concentrates with low impurities, using conventional crushing and flotation techniques.

Middle Island Resources has reported that ore sorting trials to upgrade gold mineralisation at its flagship Two Mile Hill underground deposit will be completed this month. Preliminary test work has proved highly successful in pre-concentrating ores via optical sorting methods. Resource definition drilling is also underway and is designed to increase resources at the Sandstone gold project.

Tech play Connected IO took in cash receipts and invoiced products this quarter to the value of $660,000 with another $650,000 in purchase orders on the books yet to be invoiced. Bottom line performance is also expected to improve with reduced U.S. overheads and renegotiated manufacturing costs expected to boost gross margins from 30% to 50% on some products.

Neometals has executed a two-year option agreement with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to sub-lease a 40 hectare site for its proposed lithium refinery, located in an industrial estate at West Kalgoorlie. The site is located close to critical road, rail and power infrastructure, just 70km by road from the existing Mt Marion Lithium operations, where the company will initially source the raw spodumene lithium feedstock.

After agreeing terms for the spin-off of its giant Admiral Bay zinc project, Metalicity is now rapidly reshaping the company as a serious player in the battery metals sector. Exploration activity is being stepped up at three well-placed projects in lithium, cobalt and graphite, backed by an MOU already in place with Shanghai Metals for offtake, development and financing support.

Hammer Metals has announced significant cobalt-copper results from drilling at its Millennium JV project, near Cloncurry in western Queensland. The program tested up-dip continuity of the main lode, returning a best result of 7m @ 0.15% cobalt, 0.36% copper and 0.12g/t gold from 14m down-hole. The company also identified a new exploration target from rock chip sampling and mapping, 1km north of the Millennium resource.

Kopore Metals will commence its maiden drill program at the Ghanzi West project near MOD Resources significant copper find in Botswana, following receipt of Government environmental approvals. The company defined a number of high priority exploration targets using a combination of airborne and ground geophysics, with coincident base metal soil anomalies.

Junior explorer King River Copper’s gold project at Mt Remarkable in the Kimberley region of W.A could be just that – remarkable – if the latest drilling results are anything to go by. Assay results received in the past week have revealed fine visible gold in the latest drill holes including a 4m intersection going 113 grams per tonne gold.