Announcements

BMG Resources is poised to ramp up drilling at its Abercromby gold project near Wiluna in Western Australia, with phase one results expected any day and phase two drilling scheduled to begin next month. With the first-round results from December’s 1076m diamond drilling campaign expected imminently, BMG is confident that visual observations suggest the project’s existing 518,000-ounce gold resource is set to grow.

King River Resources has revealed a set of eye-catching assay results up to 26 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from shallow drilling at its Kurundi gold project near Tennent Creek in the Northern Territory. The phase 2 drilling program at Kurundi consisted of 36 RC holes for 2,472m designed to look for new mineralised structures and extensions up to 1.5km from the main workings at Kurundi.

Suvo Strategic Minerals has locked away a game-changing five-year renewal of its key hydrous kaolin offtake agreement with Chaozhou Chengcheng Industrial Co, doubling sales to the Chinese industrial powerhouse. The take-or-pay agreement, valued at $6.56 million before delivery costs, has increased volumes from 4275t of the company’s hydrous kaolin in the previous three-year agreement to 8750t under the new deal.

Latitude 66 is gearing up for an innovative exploration initiative at its flagship Kuusamo Schist Belt gold-cobalt project in Finland, with plans to deploy reverse circulation drilling for the first time in the region. The company has locked in an agreement to trial the RC technique this March at its K6 prospects, which lie just 1km south of its existing 650,000-ounce gold and 5840t cobalt mineral resource.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining will fast-track a follow-up reverse circulation drilling program after earlier this week revealing the impressive Lighthorse gold discovery at its Pinjin project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. An RC rig will target deeper host rock after earlier air core drilling hit a rich supergene zone. The latest drilling is set to begin in early March.

Ora Banda Mining has uncovered a new gold discovery – along with another set of blockbuster results from deep drilling at its Riverina mine in Western Australia. The results will also extend the deposit’s mine life. The company’s depth extension drilling campaign has continued to intersect high-grade gold for more than 300m below its current mine plan, further extending the life of mine at the company’s ever-refining Davyhurst operation.

Amid a surge of investor interest in its flagship Malawi rare earths project, Lindian Resources is advancing its financing options with a new hire to work on an existing deal and recommend further solutions. Experienced finance advisor Henk Ludik will progress a non-binding agreement Lindian has in place with US-based Gerald Group, and identify, review and recommend more funding solutions.

Carnaby Resources hit shallow, high-grade copper of up to 4.9pc and gold grading as high as 2.8g/t from just 22m depth at its Burke and Wills prospect, part of the Greater Duchess JV with ASX-listed Latitude 66 in Queensland. All 10 drill holes intersected mineralisation, helping to define deposit geometry and test extensions. Latitude holds a 17.5pc free-carried interest in the project.

St George Mining has secured $8 million in backing from leading global mining engineering firm Shandong Xinhai Mining to fast-track the development at its high-grade Araxá niobium-rare earths project in Brazil. The company has formed a major strategic partnership with the engineering and construction services giant through an agreement that includes an engineering, procurement and construction contract over Araxá.

Lithium Universe has partnered with a research-focussed Canadian engineering school, Polytechnique Montreal, to drive innovation in lithium processing in the country and increase local expertise in battery metals to improve its supply chain. The initial five-year deal, outlined in a memorandum of understanding, will focus on three key areas: industry education, curriculum development and R&D collaboration.

Horizon Minerals has launched its second gold mine, kicking off ore processing at its Phillips Find project, 45km northwest of Coolgardie in WA. Mining at the Newminster and Newhaven pits is well underway, with more than 800,000 cubic metres of material now shifted to the ROM pad. The first 40,000t have been trucked to FMR Investments' Greenfields mill, where processing will begin next week on a two-week turnaround.

Estrella Resources has received some stunning assay results from rock chip sampling from two in-situ supergene manganese discoveries at its Lautém project in Timor-Leste, with grades up to a striking 58.6 per cent manganese. Bulk determinations for detrital material accumulated on valley floors average a whopping 40.1pc manganese.

Askari Metals has pumped up its gold resource by 28pc to 82,700 ounces grading 1.2g/t at its Burracoppin project in the WA Wheatbelt, winning over market punters who pushed up the price earlier today by more than 100pc. Due to a booming gold price, the company says it has fielded significant enquiries for the project, which sits 20km east of Merredin.

Uranium American Resources is making a strategic pivot from its gold-silver focus in the US State of Nevada under its old Tonogold Resources shingle, with a rebrand reflecting the company’s greener uranium and vanadium focus. The company last year acquired three low-risk west-central US projects known for their historic uranium and vanadium production, which are also close to relevant mines and processing plants.

Red Metal’s latest infill drilling program has unearthed thick intersections of valuable magnet rare earths at the Kary zone within the company’s Sybella project, 20km from the Queensland mining town of Mount Isa. Multiple long intervals up to 162m thick containing the four magnet metals were encountered from surface or shallow depths from the infill drilling, with many holes ending in mineralisation.

Lithium Universe has inked a non-binding memorandum of understanding to exclusively supply a key cement additive to Canada’s biggest cement manufacturer, Lafarge Canada. Aluminosilicate is made up of silica, aluminium oxide and ferric oxide and will be a secondary byproduct from the lithium carbonate production circuit at Lithium Universe’s planned Bécancour refinery in Quebec.

This edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Tanami Gold’s Central Tanami project in the Northern Territory, which intersected 3.80m at 268.34g/t gold from 317m. James Bay Minerals’ Independence gold project in Nevada, Lode Resources’ Montezuma antimony project in Tasmania and Titan Minerals’ Dynasty gold-silver project in Ecuador also reported interesting drill hits.

Javelin Minerals has struck high-grade gold and copper in a maiden drilling program at its Coogee project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, 20km northeast of Kambalda, hitting grades of up to 65 grams per tonne gold and 8.5 per cent copper. The 2921m drilling program has extended the strike beyond one kilometre, expanding the resource northward and at depth.

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has given the much-anticipated $30 million scheme of arrangement between Kalgoorlie-based Horizon Minerals and Poseidon Nickel the final tick of approval. The deal paves the way for Horizon to pick up Poseidon's 422,000-tonne contained nickel resource and its mothballed Black Swan nickel processing plant 40km east of Kalgoorlie which the company says would cost $150 million to replace.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining’s share price rocketed today to touch 8.9c for a weekly gain of 456pc after a new gold discovery at the company’s Pinjin project, within WA’s renowned Laverton gold region. The new Lighthorse gold zone returned assays of 17m grading 4.81g/t from a depth of 48m and 4m at 4.72g/t from 52m.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Kalgoorlie Gold Mining. The company’s share price rocketed after a new discovery at its Pinjin gold project in WA. OzAurum Ltd found more gold at its Eastern goldfields WA project, AusQuest Ltd got another boost after confirming its Peruvian copper find and EQ Resources got a lift from China restricting exports on tungsten-related products.

Toro Energy has tweaked the planned pit design at its Lake Maitland uranium and vanadium project near Wiluna in Western Australia. After recently updating its resource, the company is pushing full steam ahead with plans to complete a scoping study update aimed at justifying the deposit as a standalone mining operation.

Lindian Resources has signed a milestone works contract for an access road and civil works at its Kangankunde rare earths project, saying the deal shows the strength of the Malawi-based project. The US$1.3m contract is the first to be awarded to advance the project and includes primary highway access, internal access and other site works.

Aurumin Ltd and potential joint-venture partner Newcam Minerals have kicked off drilling for iron ore at the Central Sandstone project in WA’s Mid West. The two companies sealed a deal last October providing Newcam with a six-month option on the iron ore rights at the site. The companies will jointly fund the costs of the drill program.

Neometals Ltd has launched a maiden drilling campaign at its Barrambie project in WA’s Barrambie Greenstone Belt, where records indicate more than 27,000 ounces of gold were produced at an average grade of 27.8 grams per tonne. From reviews of multiple historic mine records, Neometals estimates an initial project exploration target of between 8 million tonnes at 1.3g/t and 10.5mt at 2.3g/t for 335,000 and 775,000 ounces of gold respectively.

Strickland Metals has scored another home run after delivering a stellar set of high-grade intercepts at its Gradina prospect, which is part of the Rogozna gold and base metals project in Serbia. Among the standout results is an impressive 14.3m hit grading 8g/t gold from 517m, including a 2m section peaking as high as 17.6g/t.

Aurumin Ltd has sunk its teeth into the company’s Plum Pudding gold deposit, revealing a 33 per cent rise in its resource after a recent drilling program at its Central Sandstone gold project, 520km northeast of Perth. The additional 4600 ounces of gold resources boosted its overall tally to 951,000 ounces, edging closer to a magical million ounces.

St George Mining has engaged one of the world’s leading authorities in niobium ore processing, Ricardo Maximo Nardi, to its high-grade niobium-rare earths Araxá project in Brazil’s Minas Gerais region. Nardi comes to the project with more than 30 years of experience in processing high-purity niobium oxide and its typical by-products, including barite, magnetite, phosphate and rare earth elements.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits this week examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Antipa Mineral’s single WA hole that jagged up to 0.55m at 90.7g/t gold. Battery Age Minerals had some interesting high-grade hits at its Falcon Lake lithium project in Canada, and Centaurus Metals intercepted high-grade copper at its Nelore prospect in northern Brazil.

Meeka Metals is making rapid progress at its Murchison gold project, 60km north of Mt Magnet, in Western Australia, with open-pit mining set to begin shortly. Key infrastructure is nearly complete and the mining fleet is mobilising. Earthworks and utilities for the Turnberry administration buildings are finished, clearing the way for trucks, loaders and earthmovers to arrive in early February ahead of first mining in March.

This week’s ASX Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Bio-Gene Technology. The company’s shares leapt after revealing it scored a slice of two United States defence grants. Alterity Therapeutics unveiled successful phase two clinical trial results, Aston Minerals’ plans for a merger with a fellow goldie won market support and Canterbury Resources discovered a new copper zone.

88 Energy could be sitting on an estimated 283 million barrels of oil recoverable from its Canning prospect at the company’s Project Leonis in Alaska, according to its just released maiden, total net mean, unrisked prospective resource estimate. The unrisked net entitlement to the estimated prospective oil resource comprises 3U (High) 469MMbbls, 2U (Best) 259MMbbls and 1U (Low) 136MMbbls.