Announcements

First-pass air core drilling by Kalgoorlie Gold Mining on a blind target at its Kirgella West prospect, 140km northeast of Kalgoorlie, has been rewarded with good hits up to 3.66g/t gold over a 1200m strike. The 63-hole, 3518m program is adjacent to KalGold’s Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits, with their combined 76,400 ounce gold inferred resource, and produced strong gold anomalism and potentially economic gold grades over a wide area.

Horizon Minerals has tabled a solid set of numbers from a prefeasibility study into its Penny's Find gold play, 50km northeast of Kalgoorlie, in WA, predicting a free cash flow of $24m at a gold price of $3600 per ounce. The study reveals a profitable underground mining scenario with a production target of 329,900 tonnes of ore at a grade of 3.2 grams per tonne gold for 33,500 ounces.

GreenTech Metals has launched a 4000m stage two diamond core drilling program at its Whundo copper-zinc-silver project in WA’s West Pilbara region. The program aims to test electromagnetic conductors generated from previous surface fixed-loop and downhole electromagnetic geophysical surveys of previous drill holes to identify and potentially expand the project resource.

Octava Minerals has wound-up drilling at its Yallalong antimony project in WA’s Gascoyne region, confirming visual signs of antimony mineralisation and unlocking the next phase drilling of 14 high-priority targets, to follow assay results expected early next year. Octava completed 41 reverse circulation drill holes for a total of 2748m across its Discovery and Central antimony targets.

Larvotto Resources continues its winning run with its final five drillholes at Clarks Gully deposit at its Hillgrove project in NSW, jagging broad high-grade gold-antimony intercepts, including 22m at 9.87g/t gold equivalent. The 59-hole program for 4469m of RC drilling was designed to infill and extend the current 266,000t Clarks Gully mineral resource, grading 3.8 per cent antimony and 2.0g/t gold for 10.6g/t gold equivalent.

Triangle Energy’s well pad for its upcoming Becos-1 exploration well in WA’s Perth Basin is in the final stages of construction. The pad’s completion is set for the end of December, ahead of a March spud of the highly anticipated onshore Becos-1 wildcat well, which is targeting a resource of between 1 million and 21m barrels of oil.

Estrella Resources has received encouraging responses from its first geophysical survey line across its recently discovered Ira Miri manganese zone at Lautém in Timor-Leste, prompting its maiden drilling campaign. The low resistivity anomaly is interpreted as a potential target for supergene manganese and aligns with previously reported outcrop mapped onsite, although more work is required to gauge the potential scale of the anomalism.

Javelin Minerals has completed 2921m of a phase one maiden drilling program at its Coogee copper-gold project near Kambalda in Western Australia, with phase two slated to kick off early in the New Year. The 18-hole reverse circulation program recovered 1698 samples sent for assay and identified a copper-gold mineralised trend extending from about 270m south of the southern open pit rim to about 450m north of the northern rim.

American West Metals has unveiled an impressive 117% increase in indicated copper resources at its flagship Storm project in Nunavut, Canada, noting multiple recent discoveries remain to be included in the substantial resource inventory. The upgrade propels the total resource to 20.6 million tonnes at 1.1% copper and 3.3 grams per tonne silver, representing some 229,000t of copper.

Novo Resources has options to buy two exceptionally high-grade, drill-ready gold projects in New South Wales, including the John Bull prospect that has walk-up drilling targets in an area with seven historical shafts including one sunk in the mid-1880s. Novo said the acquisitions align with its strategy of identifying standalone projects that could host at least one million ounces of gold.

Christmas has come early for Lindian Resources, with it wrapping up the year with a US$50 million (A$78.6 million) funding agreement with US-based commodity trader Gerald Metals Group. Funds are earmarked to kick off development of its world-class Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi. A feasibility study on the stage one development shows a whopping annual EBITDA of US$84m (A$132m) in a 45-year mine life.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Tasman Resources. The South Australian mineral explorer has a series of impressive targets to follow up with a drilling program. Bridge SaaS received some love from a substantial shareholder keen to increase its stake in the firm, while other movers and shakers this week were New Frontier Minerals and Axel REE.

Javelin Minerals has slotted the next golden arrow into its quiver with the completion of its much-heralded acquisition of the brownfields Eureka gold project, 54km northwest of Kalgoorlie. Eureka’s current mineral resource estimate remains at 2.45 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.42g/t gold for a total of 112,000 ounces of gold, as announced in June 2021.

St George Mining has signed two memoranda of understanding with Latin America’s biggest scientific and technological agency SENAI looking to develop critical minerals opportunities flowing from its Araxá project in Minas Gerais, Brazil. SENAI collaborates with businesses to develop innovative technologies capable of driving business growth and efficiencies and has a strong record of collaboration with the private sector to advance businesses through those technologies.

Aurumin has kicked off its latest 1600m drill program and will launch into its prospective Plum Pudding deposit where a mouth-watering 18m drill hit graded 25.8g/t gold at its Central Sandstone project about 520km northeast of Perth. The company also plans to target extensional and infill drilling at its Shillington deposit and aims to crash through the million-ounce milestone at the project shortly.

88 Energy has reinforced its position on Alaska’s North Slope after securing four new, highly promising petroleum leases adjoining the existing 10 blocks it already holds at the company’s Project Leonis grounds. Seismic data revealed the discovery of significant oil potential at the new prospect, which covers 43 square kilometres and contains a sizable target up to 102m thick.

Octava Minerals has found 14 key structural antimony targets along a 10km antimony corridor at its Yallalong project in WA’s Gascoyne region, identified via a recent surface gravity geophysical survey. The targets look similar to its Discovery prospect that was the only site drilled out of four prime areas identified in historic exploration, and which assayed up to 7m at 3.27 per cent antimony along a 300m strike.

Meeka Metals has posted a massively improved definitive feasibility study that places its Murchison gold project in WA firmly on the road to almost doubling its total free cash flow to $1 billion over the mine’s expected 10-year lifespan. It also outlined a 31% boost in reserves and a 40% rise in production to 544,000 ounces over the decade with peak annual sales reaching 76,000 ounces in year five.

Reach Resources has anointed global mining technical services firm Mining Plus to independently review the expansion potential of its Murchison South gold project in WA and to prioritise targets for a new-year drilling campaign. It follows Reach’s own review that identified substantial potential and highlighted immediate drilling opportunities at the project, with plans now made for a 12-hole RC drill program at the site.

GreenTech Metals has launched high-powered electromagnetic surveys at its flagship Whundo project in WA’s Pilbara region to uncover deep copper-zinc-rich targets ahead of a major 4000m drilling campaign that kicks off this month. The fixed loop electromagnetic survey will cover 1.14 square kilometres and examine the northern down-plunge extensions of key known mineralised zones, including Whundo, Austin, Shelby, and Yannery.

Novo Resources has picked up a new gold and base metals exploration play in WA’s Pilbara region by locking up a 1520-square-kilometre land package near Onslow that is littered with evidence of historical mining. The two-part move involves pegging six new tenements together with securing an option on a 70 per cent interest in the nearby Cane River project held by a private company.

88 Energy has pinpointed no less than 10 independent hydrocarbon leads after doing the initial interpretation of newly acquired 2D seismic data across its PEL93 exploration licence in the Owambo Basin, Namibia. The findings, conducted by exploration program operator Monitor Exploration has reconfirmed substantial closed-in structures right across the southern area of the lease, previously picked up in geophysical survey.

With the critical minerals boom in full swing Lycaon Resources is eagerly awaiting a suite of niobium assay results from a drill campaign at its Stansmore niobium-rare earths project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region. The company is looking to identify anomalous pathfinder and trace elements that will demonstrate potential for its targeted 500m diameter magnetic intrusive feature to host critical metals mineralisation.

Horizon Minerals has dispatched its first load of gold-bearing ore from the company’s Boorara operation near Kalgoorlie for processing at the nearby Paddington mill, as part of its recently revealed tie-in with Hamptons Transport. The company says 54,380 tonnes of ore has been hauled to the mill and is expected to result in an estimated $5.78 million minus processing costs.

Novo Resources is set to ramp up activities across its next set of key projects in the Pilbara in 2025, including a maiden antimony and gold drill campaign at two projects showing good early geological signs. The company is set to drill test the ground around an historic antimony and gold mine in WA’s Pilbara region that was mined at uber-high grades between 1907 and 1916.

Suvo Strategic Minerals has entered a JV with an Indonesian management company to turn its nickel slag stockpile into low-carbon cement and concrete products

Strickland Metals’ Gradina prospect in Serbia is showing all the hallmarks of a company maker. One lode is now within 150m of surface where it is still open and mineralised to at least 603m. Single drill holes have intersected three separate lodes with seriously big widths and impressive grades and it looks like it still has more to give.

Terrain Minerals has wheeled in an RC drill rig to probe the potential bedrock source of gold discovered in the supergene zone during air core drilling at its Wildflower gold project in WA’s Mid West region. The 16-hole drill program is a follow up to the successful air core program that unveiled a potential new gold discovery, returning 9m grading 1.17 grams per tonne gold.

Latitude 66 will sell its Sylvania gold project in WA’s Pilbara region to gold producer Capricorn Metals for $1.5m worth of Capricorn shares, potentially two or more $750,000-milestone payments and a 1% royalty. The deal is designed to help Latitude 66 fund its promising Finnish gold-cobalt project by unlocking value from what it says is a “non-core” asset.

Aurumin is set to unleash the drill-bit again to try to replicate a previous stellar 18m drill hit grading 25.8g/t gold at its Central Sandstone project in WA about 520km northeast of Perth. The company plans to target extensional and infill drilling at its Shillington and Plum Pudding deposits and is hoping to breach the million-ounce milestone at the project soon.

Terrain Minerals has kicked-off a ground-based EM survey to better define four very curious, potentially nickel-copper conductors at its Lort River project that sits in the same geological belt as IGO’s huge nickel-copper discovery in the renowned Albany-Fraser Belt. Terrain believes a geophysical “eye” feature identified at Lort River shares strong similarities with IGO’s “eye” that was identified prior to its discovery of the large producing Nova-Bollinger operation in the region in 2012.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has picked up a key tenement that joins its western landholdings at its Pinjin gold project near Kalgoorlie with its eastern tenements, creating one contiguous holding. It will pay fellow ASX-listed company Solstice Minerals 2.8 million of its shares, with a deemed value of $70,000 for the tenement and Solstice will also pick up a 1 per cent royalty.