Announcements

Hammer Metals is on the move at its multitude of projects near Mt Isa with a plethora of exploration plays underway. The company will recommence drilling at the Jubilee project to extend high grade copper-gold results with significant surface mineralisation also located 4.5km to the southeast at Jubilee South. At Millenium, further anomalous copper-cobalt-gold assays were returned from RC drilling.

St George Mining has announced that additional high grade nickel sulphides were intersected at the Stricklands prospect within its Mt Alexander project, near Leonora. The 16.1 metre combined intercept is true width, starting from 33.1m downhole and contains a 1.0m section with an average grade of 4.4% nickel using XRF analyses. The result confirms consistency of mineralisation for a further 50m.

Lithium Australia has once again returned from the hunt for new lithium frontier projects, this time in tiger country in the Pilbara. The Perth based, vertically integrated lithium tyro has bagged up what looks to be a pegmatite rich greenfields lithium project 18km’s east of Marble bar in the Moolyella tin fields. The project cost just $25,000 in cash and a further $25,000 in Lithium Australia stock.

Even though Neometals' massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium-iron resource in W.A is of a globally significant scale, it has flown under the radar given that Neometals is better known for its development of the equally significant Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie. The company surprised the market last week by announcing a 280m tonne Resource at Barrambie grading 9.18% TiO2 and 0.44% V2O5.

Classic Minerals has reported highly anomalous cobalt results from an historical data review of its Rubys Reward prospect at the Fraser Range project near Kambalda. The assays of up to 0.14% cobalt define a continuous 300m trend that will be evaluated for its economic potential in coming months. The company will also re-evaluate the broader project area for additional cobalt mineralisation.

Northern Minerals has announced promising rare earth sample results from exploration conducted at its Browns Range project which is currently under construction. Sampling returned results of up to 6.4% total rare earth oxides and the discovery of a new prospect. The company is expecting first production of heavy rare earth carbonate at the mine in July, with ongoing exploration to extend mine life.

ASX-listed resume verification provider CVCheck has posted best-ever revenues for the third fiscal quarter as it advances towards cash flow breakeven. The integrated screening and verification company said quarterly revenues lifted to a record $3.3m, up 21 per cent on the same quarter last year, largely due to an uplift in demand from corporate clients.

ASX-listed security surveillance company Spectur has nailed its first military order for the cutting-edge HD4 camera system after securing authorised supplier status with the Australian Department of Defence. The Department placed a $50,000 purchase order for the Perth-based company flagship security camera system and Spectur is confident of further orders for its innovative thermal camera system.

Bougainville-focused explorer Kalia has received a boost from its initial field exploration on the island, backing the company’s view about the potential for lookalikes of the giant Panguna deposit that shutdown prematurely in 1989. The first batch of field trips in the north of the island have produced multiple anomalous assays of copper and gold, with best results above the grades of the Panguna mine.

PharmAust has hit a major milestone, signing a landmark deal with US pharmaceutical giant Elanco to develop the company’s promising anti-cancer drug “Monepantel”. The deal will see Elanco supply PharmAust with high-grade Monepantel for use in clinical trials in dogs with cancer and in return Pharmaust will grant Elenco an option to negotiate a deal to take Pharmaust's IP to the global market.

Lithium Australia will take less than six months to recommission the manufacturing facility at its new acquired Very Small Particle Company. It expects to be producing world-leading cathode materials by July. The rapid re-start is part of an ambitious strategy to become a vertically integrated lithium business, which will also see battery grade lithium carbonate produced from 2021.

Geopacific Resources has made its second high-grade gold and silver discovery in three months at its 85%-owned Kou Sa project in northern Cambodia and found more evidence that a large epithermal mineral system could be nearby. The latest discovery was made by an exploration program that returned gold assays up to 32.35 g/t and silver assays up to 2,300 g/t.

Hot Chili has discovered a 12m intersection going 3.1% copper without sinking a drill hole. The company has unearthed historic drill data records that show it is on the right track with its impending maiden drill program at the El Fuego project in Chile. The company has identified in-situ ore parcels adjacent to mine workings and discovered a new hanging wall lode.

Perth-based Volt Resources is nearing the finish line for approvals on a number of fronts at its high-purity Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania. Environmental, mining and other approvals are now at an advanced stage and ready to drop according to the company. Stage two of Volt’s project could catapult it into the ranks of the world’s top tier graphite producers when operating at full tilt.

The already impressive economics of Nzuri Copper’s Kalongwe copper-cobalt project in the DRC have soared in an updated feasibility study that boosted the internal rate of return to 99% and cut the capital payback period to just 17 months. The emerging developer also released impressive project economics for a proposed stage 2 development that would take Nzuri up the cobalt value chain.

Greenland Minerals has announced a significant upgrade in its rare earth concentration grade to nearly 25% REO for the massive Kvanefjeld rare earths project in Greenland. Metallurgical test work results open up the option of direct shipping of high value concentrate, whilst lowering the operating and capital costs. The value of the concentrate per kilogram of REO exceeds commercial base metal concentrates.

Reedy Lagoon has announced an update on its drilling program for the Nevada lithium brine project in the western US. The company confirms the presence of highly conductive brines in aquifers at the target zone, with assay results pending. Drilling has intersected large volumes of volcanic rock, the source of lithium for the brines in the area and demonstrates significant wider project potential.

ASX-listed Aspire Mining has received fresh support from its giant Chinese engineering partner for a 550km railway to bring its Ovoot coking coal deposit to market in China and Russia. Under a new MOU promoted by both the Chinese and Mongolian governments, Aspire’s Chinese partner aims to finalise its feasibility study on the planned railway as early as next month.

Classic Minerals has reported that exploration and resource drilling has commenced at its Forrestania gold project, south of Southern Cross. The program aims to upgrade mineral resources for the Lady Lila and Kat Gap prospects and target a new area at Van Uden West. The company also announced it had secured further strategic tenements in the area and is finalising drill approvals for Lady Magdalene

US police have deployed DroneShield’s anti-drone technology to protect the popular NASCAR Cup motor racing series in Texas. DroneShield’s partnership with US police at NASCAR is another signal of the growing desire to use the company’s DroneSentinel, DroneSentry and DroneGun products to keep people safe at complex, top tier global events that could be targeted by aerial drones.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has raised $5 million in an oversubscribed share placement to construct a 4,000 square metre state-of-the-art medical cannabis production and cultivation facility in Malta. MGC will build the fully-licensed medical cannabis facility after the company was awarded the landmark contract paving the way for it to operate a fully vertically-integrated medical marijuana operation in Europe.

King River Copper is forging ahead with its concept study for the Speewah vanadium project in the Kimberley. The company is investigating an innovative hydrometallurgical process to produce premium high grade vanadium pentoxide for direct sale. The study will incorporate relevant mining, beneficiation and processing costs to optimise a future open pit mining scenario for high grade mineralisation at the project

EON NRG has announced an expansion of its exploratory land holdings in the Nevada Basin and Range Province in western America. The district was mined historically for silver, lead and gold a century ago, however high grade cobalt also looks to be present in an area where with the now highly sought after battery mineral was possibly never sought out in the past.

Southern Gold is now riding shotgun with Northern Star Resources after the multi-billion dollar miner took over Westgold’s South Kalgoorlie assets, including the Cannon underground mine. Southern said this week that its 5 year “right to mine” agreement with Westgold had been transferred to Northern Star and was unaffected by the transaction. The company will receive a revenue stream from Cannon this year.

St George Mining continue to make impressive nickel-copper hits at Mt Alexander near the Agnew-Wiluna belt, with the latest drill hole intercepting massive sulphides with in-field, XRF readings of 4.75% nickel and 1.5% copper. The latest hole suggests the very high grade mineralisation discovered last November at the Stricklands prospects is still open to the north and west.

It seems that Calidus Resources hits gold almost every time it sinks a drill bit into the Warrawoona gold project near Marble Bar with 12 recent RC holes now extending the gold mineralisation a further 2kms east of the known Klondyke resource. Field mapping has also revealed the gold-rich host rocks extend another 2km further east, adding even more weight to the company’s view it is on to a serious system.

Galena Mining has moved to appoint contractors to work on a PFS at its world-class Abra lead-silver deposit, which the ambitious junior says is on track for completion in September. The appointments were made just weeks after a massive increase in the high grade resource estimate that was part of a defined strategy to isolate a large, high-grade portion of the huge tonnage project for fast tracked development.

Tests on lithium concentrates from the Mt Marion mine near Coolgardie have produced exceptionally high quality lithium hydroxide with a 99.99% purity, making a compelling case for part owner Neometals to move into downstream processing by making use of its off-take agreement with its partners. Neometals is planning to build a 10,000 tonne per annum lithium hydroxide plant for the off-take.

Reconnaissance exploration at Auroch Minerals new base metals project in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges has produced spectacular copper and zinc assays from rock chip samples and confirmed high-potential Sedex mineralisation. The aggressive junior explorer is planning a drill campaign in the September quarter, just months after settling the acquisition of the project in a metals-rich corridor.

Terrain Minerals is finalising a 1000 metre RC program to drill a number of never-before-tested targets at its Red Mulga project in the Murchison. The exciting greenfields project will explore a previously unrecognised occurrence of ultramafic rocks on the margin of the Yilgarn Craton with potential for nickel, cobalt and precious metals. The frontier nature of the project will be of interest to others in the region.

Calima Energy reports that ConocoPhillips has increased its land holding by 32% near its liquids-rich, Montney oil & gas play in Canada. The purchase of 35,000 acres for CAD$154M, which is above recent transaction metrics, shows that interest and the latent value in the region is increasing. Calima is ahead of its exploration schedule in the Montney with approvals in place to drill three wells in late 2018 .

Legend Mining has reported highly anomalous nickel-copper assays from an infill aircore drilling program at its Rockford project in the Fraser Range of W.A. The intersection of 14m @ 0.37% nickel and 0.43% copper from 72m depth is the most encouraging identified to date and contained visible sulphides in the same mafic intrusive that hosts the Nova-Bollinger deposit, 120km to the southwest.