Announcements

Buru Energy is forging ahead in its bid to unlock the massive potential of its Rafael 1 well, east of Broome in WA’s Canning Basin, by taking another important step on its pathway to production. Buru has lodged a declaration of location application with the State Government – a move described as a key step towards the commercialisation and monetisation of its gas and condensate resource.

Diversified explorer Askari Metals has backed its bold claim to be leading the charge for lithium out of Namibia by grabbing the final 10 per cent of an exclusive prospective lease at its Uis project. The news comes just days after the company revealed it had acquired an 80 per cent interest in an adjoining tenement for about $1.8 million.

Kairos Minerals has vowed to expand its lithium, gold and base metal targets after confirming a “compelling” 2.8km-long lithium anomaly and a nearby 2.3km gold anomaly at its Roe Hills project near Kalgoorlie. The company sees the anomalies as high-priority targets for spodumene lithium-bearing pegmatites akin to Global Lithium’s nearby Manna deposit containing 32.7 million tonnes at 1.0 per cent lithium oxide.

Middle Island Resources has named Roland Bartsch, a geologist with 35 years’ experience, as its new CEO. The industry veteran will lead the company’s copper-gold hunt at its flagship Barkly project in the Northern Territory. With its maiden drilling program delivering the trademarks of an iron oxide-copper-gold-style mineralisation, the company has plucked a CEO with a background of developing and managing similar projects.

Infinity Mining plans to dig deeper for gold at its Victor Bore project in the Central Goldfields after new drill results highlighted an 8m hit at 3.46 grams per tonne gold from 56m, including 1m going a solid 21.86g/t gold from 57m. A total of 13 of the 16 holes drilled at Victor Bore returned anomalous results of more than 1g/t gold.

ASX-listed oiler 88 Energy has hit the pay zone after successfully drilling at its Alaskan Hickory-1 oil well. After reaching a total depth of 3,246 metres and through all levels, the explorer discovered a new oil reservoir as it hunts for a potential billion-barrel resource. The news sent the share price 33 per cent higher by the close of day’s trading.

A women’s hospital in India has delivered good news for reproductive biotechnology innovator Memphasys, reporting the first successful birth for the company’s “Felix” sperm separation system. Memphasys has also scored a separate win with its first commercial sales in another key market – Japan. India offers Memphasys a $50 million opportunity, while Japan is twice that size.

Conico expects to transform the economics at its Mt Thirsty cobalt-nickel project near Norseman in WA by adding high-pressure acid leaching and a lithium-ion battery cathode precursor plant in an updated scoping study. The company also plans to reveal an updated mineral resource estimate ahead of an initial public offering to come later this year.

Venus Metals Corporation has upgraded the mineral resource estimate for its Bellchambers gold deposit in WA’s Goldfields region with a 35 per cent increase in tonnage and a 40 per cent rise in gold ounces. The updated JORC-compliant resource now sits at 722,000 tonnes at 1.31 grams per tonne gold for a total of 30,500 ounces at a cut-off grade of 0.5g/t gold.

Javelin Minerals’ latest testwork program has confirmed the presence of both gravity-recoverable gold and free-milling gold at its Coogee project near Kalgoorlie. Latest results also show copper can be recovered separately. Further testing will continue at the project, which last year unveiled a new gold mineral resource estimate of 1.42 million tonnes at 1.07 grams per tonne gold for a total of 49,000 ounces.

Infinity Mining has secured a five-year licence extension for its Strelley Gorge project in the Pilbara that is considered prospective for volcanic-hosted massive sulphide-style copper-zinc mineralisation. Just last year the company completed a helicopter electromagnetic survey across the site with initial data showing several conductive targets. Follow-up testing is planned for later this year.

Meeka Metals is bringing modern techniques to historical areas at its Murchison gold project with high impact drilling targeting the 25km long greenstone hosted Fairway shear zone that hosts its 700,000-ounce Turnberry gold deposit. The company’s St Anne’s gold deposit also lies in the Fairway zone and will have a mineral resource estimate scheduled for release in April. A detailed pre-feasibility study for the project remains on track for June.

Venus Metals will become a major shareholder in joint venture partner Rox Resources after the companies agreed to consolidate their ownership interests in the greater Youanmi gold project in Western Australia. Shares in Venus jumped more than 20 per cent on the back of the latest announcement to touch 17.5 cents during intraday trading after closing yesterday at 14.5 cents.

Auric Mining is set to become WA’s next gold producer after executing a 150,000 tonne gold ore toll milling agreement with the Greenfields Mill at Coolgardie for its Jeffreys Find gold deposit near Norseman. In a major milestone for the company mining will commence in early April with the 150,000 tonnes of ore to be delivered to the mill. Processing will then be completed and its gold delivered by the end of September 2023.

ASX-listed ChemX Materials has signed a memorandum of understanding to work towards an offtake deal from its high-purity manganese project in South Australia with US battery technology company C4V. The non-binding agreement is based around the potential supply of high-purity product from ChemX’s Jamieson Tank project on the Eyre Peninsula and is a significant step in the company’s plans to become a sustainable and reliable global supplier of battery materials.

Image Resources has found a silver lining in unforeseen delays caused by a labour shortage, revealing it has used the extra time to consider adding a mineral separation plant to its Bidaminna mineral sands project. The company says the delays have slowed its prefeasibility study, but also allowed it to assess the potential production of only heavy mineral concentrate at the operation, with positive results.

Oil producer Triangle Energy Global has wrapped up the acquisition of two highly-prospective oil and gas permits in WA’s Perth Basin, handing over 31.3 million shares to Key Petroleum to seal the deal. The company previously held a major stake in both assets and mopped up the balance in exchange for $600,000 in cash and $500,000 in shares to be issued by June 30.

Infinity Mining is eyeing drill targets at its Hillside and Panorama tenements in the Pilbara after beginning a cultural heritage survey with the Nyamal Native Title Group at the two exploration licences. Hoping to start its first Pilbara drilling program for the year, the company has engaged Heritage WA and the traditional owners group to seek clearance for heavy equipment access and pad clearing.

American West Metals is set for an exploration blitz with a new rig at its Storm copper project on Somerset Island in Canada and has scheduled a 10,000m RC and diamond drill campaign to begin within days. The company says its initial drilling phase is designed to define maiden JORC resources within the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N zones where high-grade copper mineralisation starts from surface.

Multinational explorer Askari Metals has expanded its exploration hopes in Namibia after acquiring a key patch of dirt abutting its Uis lithium project, bringing its strategic footprint to more than 308 square kilometres in the distinguished mineral postcode. The company is midway through a 3000m RC drilling program targeting outcropping pegmatites at depth where the rods have already pulled up many thick pegmatite hits.

Horizon Minerals has raised $3.34 million to further develop its proposed high-grade Cannon underground gold mine near Kalgoorlie, hoping to soon tap into Australia’s recent record gold price hikes. The company has reported strong support from new and existing Australian and international institutional and sophisticated investors and now plans to accelerate resource extension drilling at its Cannon and Penny’s Find gold deposits.

With mapping now completed, new outcropping identified and geophysics kicking off before a diamond drilling campaign next quarter, Everest Metals is getting closer to full ownership of its Mt Edon project in WA. The company says its most recent mapping program, covering over 192.4 hectares, delivered another surprising exploration windfall, with several new lithium-ceasium-tantalium pegmatites and quartz bearing veins identified this time, all of which were not previously known to the company before.

Empire Energy says it has boosted production ambitions by lifting its average 30-day gas flow rate by more than 17 per cent in initial tests held at the NT’s Beetaloo Basin. It says a new rate of 2.81 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) per day at its first horizontal well represents a normalised flow rate of more than 3mmscf a day per 1000m of horizontal section.

Image Resources is fast approaching ‘mission complete’ at its high-grade Boonanarring mineral sands project 80km north of Perth with the company expecting the ore reserves to be depleted by mid-year. The company has had a stellar run at the project, generating a tidy $50m bank balance while eliminating its debt ahead of schedule and paying out a maiden dividend to shareholders in the process. Image now has its eyes firmly trained on its next target, the Atlas mineral sands deposit near WA’s Wheatbelt town of Cervantes.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has quickly escalated its chase for a lucrative 647 million barrels of oil by tapping into the giant Alaska North Slope basin with drills intersecting three primary reservoirs at its Hickory-1 well. Early interpretations allude to a hydrocarbon pay that will be further assessed by wireline logging and a coring program, as drilling continues to target two deeper secondary reservoirs.

St George Mining has seen its biggest volume of share trading in nearly two months after recording a continuous 121m pegmatite hit in a single diamond drill hole at its Mt Alexander project, 200km north of Kalgoorlie. The company has reported 225m of pegmatites intersected in the same hole as part of its investigation into a wider target identified by a large seismic reflector.

Infinity Lithium’s bid to join Europe’s burgeoning green energy revolution has gained further momentum after it was granted another important permit for its ambitious San José project in western Spain. The Extremadura Regional Government has granted Infinity a new exploration permit, which the company regards as a milestone on its lithium journey and one that reinforces stakeholder commitment to San José.

Aruma Resources has set the rods in motion at its flagship Salmon Gums gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields as it looks to follow up previous bonanza hits of 5m running at 50.2 grams per tonne gold. The exploration program is designed to probe the extent of gold mineralisation at the company’s Iris and Thistle prospects which sit along a 4km stretch of greenstone belt housing Pantoro’s nearby 3.9 million tonne Scotia deposit averaging 3.6 g/t.

Altech Batteries has launched what it says is game-changing technology in the design of its new sodium chloride battery “GridPack”, which it expects to be up to 40 per cent cheaper to produce than lithium-ion batteries. Designed for the renewable energy storage market, the battery uses sodium ions found in table salt and avoids using scarce and expensive metals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite and copper.

A detailed 3D seismic cube has helped Legend Mining identify what it says are compelling targets within its Octagonal nickel-copper prospect, which sits within the same structural corridor as IGO’s Nova-Bollinger deposit in WA’s Fraser Range. The company says data processing results support its exploration model that suggests the intrusive complex continues below previously completed drilling.

Zuleika Gold has its drills on standby after it uncovered encouraging gold anomalies in Menzies. The finds have provided a boost for its hopes of producing the precious yellow metal in the “medium term”. The company says one anomaly is 2km long and coincides with a line of poorly-tested historical workings. It plans to complete an in-field review, with possible in-fill geochemistry, prior to drilling.

Askari Metals is eagerly-awaiting results from a reconnaissance mission targeting rare earths at Barrow Creek after rock chip samples highlighted results of up to 4553 parts per million total rare earth oxides. The project is within 40km of Arafura’s Nolans Bore deposit that hosts a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 56 million tonnes at 2.6 per cent TREO. Askari believes it may host similar geology.