Announcements

Diversified metals explorer Venture Minerals has wasted no time in kick-starting its new JV project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, signing a contract with drillers for a maiden drill program to test the extent of the clay-hosted rare earths mineralisation at its Iron Duke deposit. The program will complement a drill program organised for another recent rare earths acquisition, Brothers.

Northern Minerals has been awarded $5.9 million as part of the Australian Government’s Critical Minerals Development Program. Management says the funding will go towards key work programs at its Browns Range rare earths project in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region, including resource definition drilling at its Wolverine deposit, advanced front-end engineering and design and early work activities.

Reach Resources says it has confirmed high-grade copper-oxide mineralisation at its Morrissey Hill project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region after gleaning results of up to 33.2 per cent copper from recent rock-chip sampling. The impressive results were from the company’s Swallowtail prospect from an outcropping quartz‐veined gossan that shows visible malachite through a strike length of about 150m.

White Cliff Minerals has acquired the Mineral Fields, Soak Sands and Border Exploration companies in a deal that brings 12 projects prospective for rare earths and iron-oxide-copper-gold deposits into its fold. The projects cover 2562sq km in Western Australia – from Jerramungup to Wanna Lakes near the South Australian border and up to the Three Rivers-Ashton Hills projects east of Carnarvon and south of Newman.

Askari Metals has continued its “aggressive” lithium hunt in Namibia, with its drills revealing new lithium-bearing pegmatites with widths of up to 112 metres. The company is now using mapping to help identify further targets for examination across two unexplored tenements in a bid to collect benchmark data for its next phase of exploration.

Strickland Metals says a maiden diamond drilling program at its Iroquois project in outback Western Australia has produced “fantastic” zinc results, providing a timely boost after being unable to access its site due to bad weather. It is reporting high-grade zinc mineralisation hits, with a headline figure of 4.3m going 27 per cent. Unsurprisingly, a follow-up drill program is planned.

Octava Minerals has started drilling at its Pinnacle Well prospect in an area in Western Australia’s Pilbara region known as “lithium elephant country”. Drilling at the prospect, 10km north of the Archer deposit that has resources of 18 million tonnes at 1.0 per cent lithium oxide, will test a significant lithium anomaly, including a 1.5km pegmatite showing visible lithium mineralisation.

Auric Mining has officially begun production at its Jeffreys Find project after receiving the green light from the Department of Mining, Industry Regulation and Safety, with its first gold pour expected in July. It started work immediately after getting approval for its full open-pit mine at its project near Norseman. The drill and blast of the first 5m bench is already completed.

Could Legend Mining finally be poised to unearth a nickel monster from the renowned Fraser Range? Management has lined up its strategic ducks and has the drills ready to explore two key targets at its Octagonal prospect, 250km east of Kalgoorlie. The company believes results from a combination of seismic data, an induced polarisation survey and 3D audio magnetotellurics survey has changed its game.

Western Australian-based minerals explorer Terrain Minerals is priming its drills at its Smokebush project in the State’s Mid West region after gold and copper-nickel anomalies were discovered in a “highly-successful” field program. The discoveries were made at the company’s Larin’s Lane target where a maiden exploration program unearthed a new 700m-by-250m gold anomaly that management says is ready for air-core drilling.

Askari Metals has installed Canaccord Genuity (Australia) as its strategic capital markets advisor. Management says the investment bank has a proven track record and extensive experience in the global lithium sector. Canaccord will be tasked with the implementation and deployment of a comprehensive capital markets strategy and as part of the deal will be issued with 2.5 million unlisted options.

Ora Banda Mining continues to deliver impressive results from phase-one drilling at its Riverina underground deposit near Kalgoorlie, with assays highlighting a 0.4m intercept at a massive 243g/t gold from 151.6m. The 0.4m hit was contained within a 4.4m intersection grading 22.88g/t gold from 151.6m drilled at the company’s Murchison Lode, with a second hole recording a 0.8m segment going 24.33g/t gold from 103.6m.

Classic Minerals has pencilled in later this month to commission a new processing facility at its Kat Gap gold mine in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. Successful commissioning will clear the company to begin gold production. It says its ore is already sitting and waiting on the facility’s ROM pad as it eyes ramping up production of up to 100,000 tonnes per annum.

Middle Island Resources has increased its tenement holdings in the Northern Territory after entering into a binding agreement with ASX-listed Strategic Energy Resources to purchase its East Tennant project. The acquisition will expand the company’s Barkly super project in the region and adds 1319 square kilometres of ground to take its total tenement area to an impressive 6753sq km.

Venus Metals has revealed what it believes could be “game-changing” high-grade drill results in its JV with Rox Resources after uncovering the faulted extension of the 4-million-ounce Youanmi gold deposit. The lode-extending discovery hole returned 28m at 34.81 grams per tonne gold, with new drilling 200m further south hitting 5.7m at 8.26g/t gold from 233.3m and 5.08m grading 9.56g/t from 225.8m.

Neometals has added grunt to its ore reserve as part of an update to its Barrambie titanium project’s prefeasibility study (PFS). The deposit’s probable ore reserve now sits at 27.6 million tonnes at 22.3 per cent titanium oxide, 43.7 per cent iron oxide and 0.57 per cent vanadium oxide. The PFS update has outlined a $78.1 million capital requirement for one year of DSO production.

Buru Energy has been buoyed by the return to operations at its Ungani oilfield, which was closed last summer as a result of the widespread devastation wreaked by Tropical Cyclone Ellie. Turning the oil tap back on means the company’s first revenue of the year from its sole producing asset will soon roll into its coffers, with its first oil shipment slotted for Q3.

WA-focused explorer Kairos Minerals turbocharged the mineral resource of its Mt York gold project by 500,000 ounces to 49.24 million tonnes at 1.02 grams per tonne for 1.62 million ounces of gold. The company says its new numbers include a higher-grade component of 21 million tonnes at 1.5g/t for 1 million ounces and the mineralisation at its project remains open.

Reach Resources has confirmed the presence of lithium at its Morrissey Hill and Wabli Creek projects following a successful sampling program in WA’s emerging Gascoyne region. Samples from its Bonzer prospect that forms part of Morrissey Hill returned significant results, including one assay showing 2.3 per cent lithium oxide in addition to 4295 parts per million caesium, 705.8ppm tantalum oxide and 7978ppm rubidium.

Emu NL has discovered a new rare earths region in WA’s Great Southern town of Jerramungup, 450km south-east of Perth. Emu has revealed significant mineralisation from 20m to 52m thick and up to 1138 parts per million total rare earths oxide (TREO) within basement granitoids and adjacent clay zones in a five-hole drill campaign at project Viper. The longest intersection was 52m at 542ppm TREO.

Venture Minerals and SensOre have inked a farm-in agreement on the former’s Golden Grove North project, 450km north-east of Perth. SensOre can earn up to 70 per cent in all minerals, with the exclusion of rare earths, by spending up to $4.5 million. SensOre will utilise its proprietary AI technology at the project, where it has already highlighted lithium and copper potential.

Valor Resources has staked three new mineral claims covering 6.41 square kilometres in Canada’s world-class Athabasca Basin – two of which cover the historical Beatty River heavy rare earths project. Management says previous explorers tabled assays of up to 8.75 per cent total rare earths oxide, with up to 1.15 per cent dysprosium from trenching and surface sampling.

Lindian Resources continues to deliver extraordinary results from its drill campaign at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, with assays reading up to a massive 14.9 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO). The impressive grade was recorded in a 1m section from 79m that formed part of a bigger 85m hit at 3.35 per cent TREO from surface.

Northern Minerals has extended the mineralisation of its flagship Wolverine deposit following solid assays from the company’s recent diamond drilling program at its Browns Range project in northern Western Australia. Assay highlights show a 17.6m intercept at 1.96 per cent total rare earths oxide (TREO) from 589m, including a 9.94m hit going 3.27 per cent TREO from 589m.

WA’s Gascoyne region is emerging as one of the State’s newest lithium hotspots with local exploration heavyweights snapping up prime locations in the hunt for valuable EV mineralisation. Delta Lithium hit the headlines last year with its Yinnetharra project and more recently, Minerals 260 crashed the party by grabbing 1700sq km of tenements near Delta’s northern lithium project.

Infinity Mining is narrowing in on a host of precious and base metal targets at three of its key projects in Western Australia’s Pilbara region following analysis of four recent electromagnetic surveys at the sites. The company now has seven priority targets under investigation after it designed surveys to detect conductors related to volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphides and magmatic nickel-copper mineralisation.

Quantum Graphite’s half-owned joint venture company has gained original equipment-manufacture intellectual property rights to The Sunlands Co.’s thermal energy storage battery cell. The cell is being aimed at revolutionising the grid-connected energy storage market by using long-duration energy storage techniques. Quantum says the JV company’s name will be changed from Quantum Sunlands Partnership to Sunlands Power.

The third and final batch of assay results from ChemX Materials’ 2023 drilling campaign at its Jamieson Tank manganese deposit on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula have landed, including a headline 16m hit going 17.9 per cent manganese from 17m. The results will help bolster a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Perth-based high-purity critical materials company.

Brightstar Resources has extended its 252,000-ounce Cork Tree Well gold deposit, 30km north of Laverton, with 6000m of RC drilling giving best results of 10m at 4.54 grams per tonne gold from 192m, including 2m at 17.23g/t and 13m grading 1.83g/t from 143m. An updated resource estimate will inform mining feasibility studies due for delivery by the middle of the year.

American West Metals has been buoyed by visual analysis of its five latest RC drill holes sunk at the company’s Storm copper project in Canada that show thick copper-sulphide intercepts. The explorer says its initial phase of drilling is designed to define maiden JORC resources within the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N zones where high-grade copper mineralisation starts from surface.

Askari Metals has sealed a $2.5 million strategic equity investment by global battery materials supplier Huayou International Resources, with the funds to be used to turbocharge lithium exploration at its Uis project in Namibia. Management says it has issued Huayou 4.5 million fully-paid ordinary shares at an issue price of 55 cents, in addition to 1.5 million free attaching options.

Everest Metals has kick-started its latest 40-hole, 1000m drilling campaign at its Mt Edon LCT project, 5km from Paynes Find in Western Australia’s Mid West region, as it chases recently-observed underground pegmatites. Management says its latest deep-ground penetration radar work lit up a host of geophysical pegmatite targets, which it now plans to explore along with other previously-identified lithium, caesium and tantalum pegmatite structures.