Announcements

Venture Minerals’ maiden drilling probe at its recently-acquired Greater Brothers project in WA’s Mid West region has landed a swag of high-grade rare earths that included an impressive 45m averaging 1455ppm TREO. The reconnaissance program has tested just a fifth of its 1165-square=kilometre tenure, with plenty of blue sky to scale up the mineralised horizon over the remainder of the company’s prospective patch.

After a successful $4 million capital raise, Reach Resources is set to test its Morrissey Hill lithium project with a maiden drilling program to target areas that returned high-grade lithium from rock chips. Management says its 4500m campaign will be split between reverse-circulation and diamond drilling at its project in Western Australia’s emerging Gascoyne region.

Quantum Graphite has acquired the complete set of flake graphite purification technology from The Sunlands Energy Company, providing what it says is a commercialisation path for products from its Uley flake graphite mineral deposits in South Australia, to advanced industrial manufacturers in North Asia and Europe. The company plans to deliver superior natural flake products across all applications.

Perth-based 88 Energy has bolstered its 100 per cent-owned Peregrine oil project in Alaska, adding two new reservoir intervals to its Harrier prospect, with 180.1 million barrels of oil as a best-case estimate. Basin modelling has also revealed that Harrier sits in an area of good reservoir quality and will be tested by the drillbit as a priority.

Legend Mining believes it is getting closer to unearthing a “Nova-style” nickel-copper deposit after finding encouraging signs in its latest diamond drillhole at its Octagonal prospect within Western Australia’s rugged Fraser Range. Management says it identified visual sulphides at regular intervals between 848m and 1661m in the hole which ran to a depth of 1700m.

Higher zircon grades and increasing demand for heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) has had Image Resources ringing its till, with a bottom-line boost of nearly $12.5 million revealed in its quarterly report today. The company also increased HMC production quarter on quarter by six per cent at its Boonanarring minerals sands project near the Western Australian town of Gingin.

Infinity Lithium subsidiary Extremadura New Energies has entered into a joint venture with Spanish energy firm Enalter to potentially deliver low-cost green energy to its San José lithium project in Spain. The creation of the “Extremadura Energy H2 Hub (EEHH)” allows a first right to secure a long-term green energy power purchase agreement for the San Jose project.

Lindian Resources has hailed its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi as “one of the greatest in the world” after recording a massive 853.6m hit at 2.73 per cent TREO from 52m. Two deep diamond drillholes were sunk to 980m and one returned 156m at 3.61 per cent TREO from 124m and a 56m hit grading 3.83 per cent TREO from 289.1m.

Galan Lithium has revealed details of a deal which it says has given it exclusive ownership of the vast Catalina tenements at its Hombre Muerto West lithium project within South America’s “Lithium Triangle”. Management says it has secured ownership of the Argentinian ground that has been at the centre of a long-standing dispute by issuing 9.76 million shares to the private owner.

Everest Metals Corporation has kicked off a second phase of drilling at its Mt Edon project in Western Australia’s Mid West region as it looks to follow up on positive lithium and rubidium results from its previous campaign. The company plans to sink up to 10 reverse-circulation drillholes to test pegmatite targets highlighted from a deep ground penetration radar geophysical survey carried out in April.

Triangle Energy will ramp up its oil and gas chase after receiving $15 million from Pilot Energy for the sale of its share in the Cliff Head oilfield and carbon reinjection joint venture in waters off the Dongara coastline in Western Australia’s Mid West. The consideration will be paid in three stages and is expected to be completed early next year.

Surefire Resources is a step closer to developing its Victory Bore vanadium play in Western Australia into a significant critical minerals project, with the positive completion of a hydrogeological assessment. The company is planning an open-pit mine development with a proposed 4 million tonnes per annum mine rate, in addition to onsite beneficiation and processing.

Cancer fighter Chimeric Therapeutics has expanded its patent protection in Japan for certain cell therapy clinical and preclinical stage applications using chlorotoxin, which is derived from deathstalker scorpion venom. Management says the patents will expand the company’s intellectual property portfolio and underpin important assets in its development pipeline. Japan has recently been dubbed the world’s third-biggest pharmaceutical market.

Lindian Resources is one step closer to owning its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi after completing the third of four tranche payments needed to acquire the site’s current owner, Rift Valley Resources Developments. With the latest $US10 million transaction, a total of US$20 million has been paid to Rift Valley, with the final tranche payment of $US10 million still to come.

Javelin Minerals believes new assays from two of its projects in central New South Wales indicate the company is drilling the same ultramafic rock that mining giant Rio Tinto valued at $21 million, just 4km away. Management considers its Husky and Malamute projects to have excellent prospectivity for scandium and rare earths, in addition to precious, base and battery metals.

Terrain Minerals believes its latest drilling campaign has revealed hallmarks of the typical gold-bearing systems in Western Australia’s Mid West region that is home to its Smokebush gold and pegmatite project. Six holes from a second round of reverse-circulation (RC) drilling confirmed sulphides relating to IP anomalies, while another five intercepted pegmatites and samples will be analysed for lithium.

Godolphin Resources has applied for a huge 112-square-kilometre package of prospective rare earths ground next to its 94.9-million-tonne Narraburra project going 739 parts per million total rare earth oxides in New South Wales. The company believes its world-class mineralisation may extend into its new ground, which it plans to actively explore once the application is approved by the NSW Government.

Askari Metals has put the full stop on an extensive field work program after collecting 800 soil samples at its Red Peak project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region in its mission to test anomalous areas of lithium and rare earths. Management says the results of the program will help shape further exploration plans, including a maiden drill campaign.

Brightstar Resources has inked an earn-in agreement with DevEx Resources on two of the former’s Goongarrie project exploration licences. The deal will see Brightstar retain all gold rights, while DevEx can earn up 75 per cent of the non-gold rights by exploring for nickel along the northward extensions of existing and historic deposits within the Highway ultramafic.

The natural hydrogen exploration program run by Buru Energy ’s 100 per cent-owned hydrogen and helium business, 2H Resources, has been substantially boosted by a new research agreement with the CSIRO. Management says the resulting study will focus on developing autonomous monitoring sensors to detect real-time surface occurrences of natural hydrogen in the same way mineral explorers use geochemical sampling.

Strickland Metals has filled its coffers to the tune of about $61 million after officially completing the sale of its Millrose project near Wiluna to neighbouring gold-mining giant Northern Star Resources. Strickland received an initial cash deposit of $2 million before getting an additional $39 million and 1.5 million fully-paid ordinary Northern Star shares upon the completion of the sale.

Ora Banda Mining has hailed a strong finish to the financial year after mining a record 16,700 gold ounces at its Missouri open-pit mine in the June quarter – a 49 per cent increase from the previous period. The company churned through more than 229,000 tonnes at a grade of 2.3g/t gold, with higher volumes after exposing and mining its WMC and Monarch lodes.

ASX-listed mining software provider K2fly has unveiled revenue of $4m for the final quarter of the financial year – a 38 per cent rise from the same period last year and up 18 per cent on the previous quarter. Management says the strong results wrapped up a solid year of growth, which saw revenue grow 28 per cent compared to the previous 12 months.

Perth-based Surefire Resources has unlocked the door to the main stage for global battery and LED markets by confirming 99.99 per cent pure alumina in testwork, using waste rock from its Victory Bore vanadium deposit, about 400km east of the Western Australian port of Geraldton. High-purity alumina is a highly-specialised product and commands a tasty price of about $30,000 to $45,000 a tonne.

Perth-based explorer Emu NL is poised to drill a network of clay-filled, rare earths-prospective channels up to 6km wide and down to 100m in depth at its wholly-owned Condingup project near Esperance on Western Australia’s picturesque south coast. Outcropping source rocks proved fertile and the company plans to drill its clays in September, with assays due in October.

GreenTech Metals has confirmed its discovery of a new southern high-grade lithium pegmatite trend, with solid hits of up to 3.6 per cent lithium oxide in the latest assays reported from its Osborne joint venture. The find could extend the overall scale of pegmatite-hosted lithium mineralisation eastwards from the company’s adjoining Ruth Well project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Galan Lithium says it has produced a premium-quality lithium chloride concentrate from its Hombre Muerto West project pilot plant in Argentina, with samples ready to distribute to potential offtake partners. The company’s concentrate product contains 6 per cent lithium – comparable to 13 per cent lithium oxide or 31.9 per cent lithium carbon equivalent.

White Cliff Minerals has recorded significant extensions to its maiden rare earths discovery at its Hines Hill project near Merredin in Western Australia, in addition to completing a sampling blitz across five other sites. Follow-up air-core drilling shows a 5m hit going 2066ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO) from a relatively shallow depth of 16m that included 434ppm magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO).

Buru Energy has commissioned 200 square kilometres of three-dimensional seismic data over its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas-condensate discovery in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, as the company takes aim at an appraisal drilling campaign. The survey will assist the company in de-risking reservoir factors in a bid to progress its commercial case for its potentially large-scale discovery.

Lithium chaser Gold Mountain plans to use a fresh cash injection of $2.25 million from the company’s latest capital raise to turbocharge its exploration efforts in the mineral’s burgeoning Brazilian hotspot. Management says its exploration to date has identified 250 pegmatites, with multiple soil and rock-chip sample results pending as it eyes a maiden drilling program by years end.

TSX-listed Novo Resources is set to kick off a combined 8000m drill campaign across its key Pilbara prospects and its Belltopper project in Victoria following the company’s success at its Becher gold play. The exploration program will target Novo’s Nunyerry North, Balla Balla and Bamboo-Strattons projects in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, while it also has plans for a diamond drill campaign at Belltopper.

Toro Energy says geochemical analysis of assays from a hole drilled at its Dusty nickel project show two additional zones of nickel sulphides that extend its existing mineralisation closer to the surface. It has reported a 4.6m massive nickel sulphides intercept going 1.61 per cent nickel and 0.22 per cent copper from 194.2m at the base of the Dusty komatiite.