Announcements

Classic Minerals has joined the ranks of WA gold miners after hauling the first ore from its wholly-owned Kat Gap gold mine, which sits 170km south of Southern Cross in the State’s Central Wheatbelt. Initial haulage is focused on 6500 tonnes of ore recovered from the bulk sample pit. Kat Gap has a healthy grade of 2.96 g/t gold with near-surface mineralisation.

Surefire Resources has the drill bit spinning again at its promising Yidby gold project in the Murchison district of WA’s Mid West, targeting extensions to gold mineralised intercepts of discovery holes at the project’s three main prospects. The program will also test structural targets generated from magnetic and gravity data and will comprise 24 RC holes for a total of 2800m.

EMU NL has confirmed the presence of both magnetic and heavy rare earths at its Condingup project near Esperance after rock samples returned results of up to 2124 parts-per-million total rare earth oxides. A total of eight samples were collected from a reconnaissance program late last year including three rocks from the Booanya granite complex that all returned results above 1000ppm TREO.

A high-resolution aeromagnetic survey has identified high-priority drill targets for clay-hosted and fresh rock rare earths mineralisation at Venus Metals’ wholly-owned Marvel Loch East project in WA. Hard rock targets include a 25km long magnetic trend and a 3km zoned magnetic anomaly where previous rock chips up to 4365ppm total rare earths were discovered.

Reach Resources has identified four major targets for lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites within its Critical Elements project in WA’s Gascoyne region after independent analysis from geological experts. The initial phase of the assessment by RSC Consultants focused on Reach’s Morrissey Hill, Camel Hill and Wabli Creek projects that form part of the greater Critical Elements operation.

Everest Metals has achieved exceptional gold recoveries from independent gravity separation test work from its Revere gold project 90km northeast of Meekatharra. Coarse gold hand-picked from the 305 g/t gold bulk quartz vein sample accounted for 47 per cent of the recovered gold and gravity separation recovered 97 per cent of the remaining gold. The company is now planning further bulk testing and resource drilling.

Asra Minerals’ Mt Stirling project near Leonora in WA’s Goldfields has thrown up traces of highly sought-after “heavy” rare earths in addition to lucrative scandium that stretches from only 2m below surface to the bottom of 40m drill holes. Headline drill numbers include 48m at 90 parts per million scandium oxide from 3m and 7m at 669ppm total rare earths and yttrium oxide from 5m.

Xanadu Mines has wrapped up the next two phases of its strategic partnership with Chinese copper goliath Zijin Mining, giving it access to funding for the exploration and evaluation of its Kharmagtai copper-gold project all the way up to a decision to mine. The deal will see US$35 million invested directly into the project and a 50-50 joint venture created between the parties.

88 Energy has spudded its Hickory-1 well at the company’s Phoenix project in Alaska, testing a sweet spot of seismic anomalies in a region that has enjoyed recent drilling success. The Hickory-1 well is permitted to a total depth 3.81 km and designed to appraise up to six conventional oil reservoir targets with a net entitlement prospective resource of 647 mean million barrels of oil.

ASX and Frankfurt-listed Altech Batteries has received A$5.12 million as the first of two deferred instalment payments from Frankfurt-listed Altech Advanced Materials for the purchase of 25 per cent of Aletch Batteries subsidiary Altech Industries Germany GmbH. The final instalment of 1.583 million euros or approximately A$2.5 million is payable in December 2023 completing the deal done in December 2020.

ASX-listed Classic Minerals is making steady progress on its ambitions to become a gold producer and has begun installing a processing plant on foundations at the company’s flagship Kat Gap project in the WA Goldfields. The heaviest parts of the Australian-made Gekko plant are being secured to foundations and work is beginning on ancillary structures, electrical and plumbing scopes.

Meeka Metals’ latest diamond drilling has confirmed high-grade gold at its St Anne’s deposit as part of the company’s flagship Murchison gold project. Headline results include 12.8m at 5.21 grams per tonne gold from 54.3m. The company says it remains on target to release a maiden mineral resource for the deposit later this month with further drilling also to kick off in coming weeks.

Aurum Resources has commenced an induced polarisation gradient array geophysical survey at its Penny South project that is planned to cover an area of 5.2 square kilometres. The main target for the IP survey is ultramafic schist units that Aurum believes are possibly more extensive than previously interpreted and may host nickel-copper mineralisation. The Penny South project is located 126 kms south-east of Mt Magnet in WA.

TSX-listed Novo Resources has highlighted a number of high-priority targets at its Becher gold project in the Pilbara after receiving the results from the company’s 2022 air-core drill campaign at the operation. Becher forms part of Novo’s 10,500 square kilometre Pilbara tenement package and sits within its greater Egina gold camp and between De Grey Mining’s Mallina and Hemi gold projects.

Chimeric Therapeutics has successfully secured the manufacturing of a key tool for cell therapy targeting gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine tumours as the company gets set for a clinical trial. Management says by securing the supply of “viral vectors” it has successfully navigated one of the most critical and challenging components of the manufacture of its “CAR T” cell therapy Chimeric is now focused on advancing its treatment to a first phase clinical trial.

Infinity Mining has landed strong gold results over a 200m strike from the first five RC drill holes in its latest campaign. Assays from the first five RC drill holes at the company’s Victor Bore project include 7m at 1.96 g/t gold from 32m, 6m going 1.4 g/t gold from 25m with best individual 1m intersections of 8.67 g/t from 34m and 7.33g/t gold from 29m. Infinity wrapped up 37 RC drill holes at five historical gold mine prospects on its ground near Leonora in the Central Goldfields of WA.

Lindian Resources continues to pull impressive assays from its Kangankunde project in Malawi with the latest drill results highlighting a 3m hit at a whopping 15.6 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 69m. The high-grade intercept is contained within a larger 26m section grading 6.15 per cent TREO from 58m and includes a 1m segment at a head-turning 18.76 per cent TREO from 71m.

ASX-listed Neometals’ latest feasibility study into its Vanadium Recovery Project in Finland has shown a significant increase to the operation’s net present value compared to its preliminary investigations. The latest figures show a 40 per cent increase to pre-tax net present value up to $US323 million compared to $US230 million identified in the prefeasibility study completed in May 2021.

Strickland Metals will commence drilling at its Iriquois base metals project in WA’s Earaheedy Basin with a minimum of three diamond holes after the company developed a new geological model for the site. The campaign will target the site’s currently untested “feeder structure” to the zinc-lead mineralisation that the company believes could be enriched with silver and copper. Strickland’s latest modelling for the system suggests the potential for a much larger copper-zinc-silver-lead mineralisation than previously estimated.

Askari Metals has kicked off phase 2 drilling at a key tenement that forms part of its Uis lithium project in Namibia after an ongoing mapping and sampling program highlighted untested pegmatites at the site. The campaign began late last month and aims to investigate a number of recently discovered pegmatites reported to have visible lithium mineralisation at surface. Askari says the latest RC drill program will cover a minimum of 4000m with four holes already completed and assay results from phase 1 drilling expected in coming weeks.

Everest Metals will focus on a slew of conductor targets with a new deep drilling campaign at its Revere gold project near Meekatharra and along strike from Sandfire Resources’ DeGrussa copper-gold mine. The company says the upcoming campaign will aim to intersect volcanic hosted massive sulphide copper-gold mineralisation down to a depth of around 300m and similar in geology to the famed DeGrussa deposit.

Minerals explorer Surefire Resources has been buoyed by an impressive independent estimate which has at least doubled the amount of vanadium it has lurking in its wholly owned Victory Bore-Unaly Hill project. The company says the global exploration target estimate for the entire vanadium project is a whopping 682 million tonnes to 1.19 billion tonnes at 0.2 percent to 0.43 percent vanadium pentoxide.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has unveiled its maiden mineral resource for the company’s La Mascotte gold deposit near Kalgoorlie of 3.61 million tonnes at 1.19 grams per tonne gold for a total of 138,000 gold ounces. The modelled resource footprint measures 700m north-south by 500m east-west and 140m below surface. KalGold says the deposit remains open at depth at a cutoff grade of 0.6 g/t gold with recently identified targets offering an opportunity for resource growth.

Sydney-based oil and gas company Empire Energy Group is one step closer to production. The company has recently put its Carpentaria-3H well through its paces by testing flow pressure and now are sealing the off the well to increase those numbers and recovery over the life of the well. Empire has the largest acreage holding in the giant Beetaloo Basin gas province in Australia’s top end.

Venture Minerals has won the right to truck iron ore around the clock from its Riley mine to the port of Burnie in Tasmania after the state’s Supreme Court overturned all three grounds of a legal challenge. The initial challenge by the Tarkine National Coalition was directed at the Tasmanian Environment Protection Authority who had previously granted approval for 24-hour trucking movements from Venture’s Riley iron ore mine. 

Galan Lithium has kicked off a 2500m drilling program targeting lithium-bearing pegmatites. The campaign at its Greenbushes South lithium project is just 3km from the world-class Greenbushes lithium mine in WA. In August last year the company’s soil sampling and geophysical survey at the site uncovered a number of anomalies demanding further investigation.

Medical technology company Radiopharm Theranostics has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Pharma15 Corporation – a US-based company focused on therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals to treat prostate cancer. Pharma15 is developing products that aim to overcome resistance to prostate-specific membrane antigen targeting cancer therapies currently available or in late-stage development.

CZR Resources has its sights set on more resource growth at its Robe Mesa iron ore development in the Pilbara after acquiring an adjoining tenement to Rio Tinto’s Mesa F project from Fortescue. After acquiring the ground CZR has expanded its strike length of the company’s P529 deposit to 1.1km. The deposit is only five kilometres from CZR’s 45.2 million tonne Robe Mesa iron ore project.

Neometals has executed a slew of agreements to secure the company 50 per cent ownership of joint venture company Recycling Industries Scandinavia AB to develop the first Finnish vanadium recovery project. The balance of RISAB equity is held by unlisted Australian mineral development company Critical Metals whilst Neometals holds approximately 19 per cent of Critical’s issued capital.

NSW focused explorer Godolphin Resources has tabled rock chip assays from around historic workings at its Cyclops and Goodrich prospects with exceptional grade copper along with strong gold, silver, lead, molybdenum and zinc to boot. Additional rock chip assays from old workings at the nearby Goodrich prospect also returned high grade copper with bonus molybdenum, again with elevated gold, silver, lead and zinc.

ASX-listed cell therapy company Chimeric Therapeutics has begun treatment of the first brain cancer patient in the fourth dose cohort in its phase 1 clinical trial of the company’s CHM 1101 cell treatment. Comprehensive cancer centre The City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organisations in the United States, initiated and is leading the trial.

Infinity Mining has identified a host of valuable minerals from reconnaissance rock chip sampling at its Hillside project in the Pilbara including anomalous results for copper, molybdenum, gold and silver. Samples returned values of up to 4539 parts-per-million copper, 1198ppm molybdenum, 0.68 grams per tonne gold and 14 g/t silver. The exploration program also identified a partially covered copper-stained quartz vein in granite on the western side of the operation over around 170m.