Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Surefire Resources has generated high grade magnetic concentrates going up to 1.46% vanadium pentoxide from simple crushing and magnetic separation metallurgical test work on fresh vanadiferous magnetite ore composites from its Unaly Hill project near Sandstone in WA. The company said the testing also successfully rejected most of the waste silica, alumina and calcium content, whilst upgrading the iron and valuable titania content of the ore composite samples.

Conglomerate gold developer Novo Resources has outlined an aggressive exploration program for its emerging Egina gold project, located near Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of WA. Over the coming months the company plans to undertake systematic bulk sampling of gold-bearing lag gravels at the project. The company will also complete ground surveying, trench mapping, regional geological mapping and conduct wide-spaced alluvial soil sampling for fine gold occurrences.

Calima Energy has contracted Precision Drilling’s Rig 379 to carry out its three well program in the Montney oil and gas play in British Columbia, Canada with drilling to get underway as soon as December. The first well to be drilled will be a vertical well to provide data and samples for measurement and analysis followed by two horizontal wells that will be fracture stimulated.

Coolgardie Minerals has swung into production near Coolgardie just a couple of months after listing on the ASX. First ores were extracted at a respectable gold grade of 3.5 grams per tonne from the company’s Geko gold mine. Mined ore will be stockpiled and then sold to Northern Star’s South Kalgoorlie operation at AUD$1650 an ounce where it will be processed.

Aspire Mining says that a proposed rail line that will link its Ovoot coking coal project in Mongolia to the proposed Kyzyl - Arts Suuri section of the Russian rail network at the border port of Arts Suuri is viable. The 238.6km rail line will cost USD$581.8m, which is in the range estimated by a scoping study completed in 2015 and comparable to the Erdenet to Ovoot feasibility study.

TNG Ltd has made it three for three with the signing of a third term sheet, this time with Switzerland’s DKSH for the titanium dioxide pigment offtake from its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. The company already has a binding offtake agreement with WOOJIN Metals for at least 60% of the vanadium output and a binding term sheet with Gunvor (Singapore) for iron products.

Vonex has launched its new Vonex Phone app that brings its cloud-based PABX system to the smartphone and computer desktops, allowing users to be connected to their business phone system from anywhere in the world. The company will generate revenue through a range of subscription plans with phone calls paid on a per minute or per call basis or a recurring monthly subscription which includes unlimited phone calls.

After largely writing the book on how to develop a massive mineral project as an ASX listed junior using farm in money from its counterparties, Neometals will no doubt be feeling a quiet sense of satisfaction this week after taking receipt of its first $6.2m dividend cheque from the Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie.

Venus Metals has entered into a farm-in agreement with the unlisted Pilgangoora Minerals to vend out a number of its lithium exploration licences in WA. The agreement will fast track exploration for lithium bearing pegmatites on 2 leases located near the large Wodgina mining operation, 2 leases near the operating Pilgangoora lithium mines and 2 leases in the historical Poona mining district near Cue in the Murchison region.

Hammer Metals has purchased two prospective looking exploration permits covering the Sunset and Black Rock copper-gold prospects near Mount Isa in Queensland. The Sunset prospect has returned near-surface historical drill results up to 24 metres grading 1.41% copper and 0.49g/t gold from just 10m down-hole, whilst Black Rock has previously returned wide intersections of lower grade mineralisation, including 78m @ 0.54% copper and 0.13g/t gold from 140m down-hole.

PharmAust has developed a prototype “good manufacturing practice” method for the large-scale manufacture of its anti-cancer drug, Monepantel and its analogues at an economical cost and to standards required for clinical trials. The method can also be used for molecules in the drug library that PharmAust secured from Nihon Nohyaku in September 2017, which are related to but different from Monepantel.

Artemis Resources has locked in a new set of cobalt and base metal drilling targets across its extensive land holdings near Karratha in WA, with a comprehensive geochemical soil sampling program outlining a number of interesting looking, multi-element anomalies for follow-up exploration activities. The company utilised baseline data from the existing Carlow Castle cobalt-gold-copper project area as a guide to highlight the priority and tenor of the new assay results.

ASX listed biotech Phylogica has identified a next generation cell penetrating peptide that is four times more efficient at delivering a large drug cargo inside cell walls than its original biological product. The discovery was made as the company screens and validates its large library of peptides with a view to discovering even more new cell penetrating peptides. Work on this project will continue until February 2019.

Canadian listed gold developer Novo Resources has confirmed the gold potential of two basal conglomerate units defined at its Comet Well JV project near Karratha in WA, with maiden bulk sample assay results outlining grades up to 10.4g/t gold and gravity recoveries of up to 99.6%. The company will now use the bulk sample assays and recent diamond drilling data from Comet Well, to produce a mineralisation report.

Ironbark Zinc has signed a memorandum of understanding with industrial machinery company Metso Sweden for the provision of services and equipment at the giant Citronen zinc project in Greenland. The agreement also enables Metso to commence engineering tasks that are required before the completion of detailed engineering of processing equipment, which includes providing technical specifications for third party equipment.

Great Southern Mining has unearthed rock chip samples up to 1.65g/t gold and 185g/t silver during its first pass geological reconnaissance exploration program at the Edinburgh Park project, located only 25km from the revered Mt Carlton epithermal-style gold mine in northern Queensland. The company has generated a number of high priority structural targets from the campaign and is now planning an RC drilling program to test those areas.

Australian Potash has successfully produced its first salt products from the pilot pond network at the Lake Wells sulphate of potash project, located 180km northeast of Laverton in the Goldfields region of WA. About 20 tonnes of potassium and sulphate bearing salts are expected to be produced from the ponds once the process runs its course. These salts will be further processed to a refined sulphate of potash.

St George Mining has outlined a significant 200m plunge extension to its nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at its enticing Investigators prospect near Leonora in WA. A new drill hole intersection penetrated over 14 metres of massive and disseminated mineralisation from 177.5m down-hole, including an impressive 5.25m true width intercept of massive sulphides grading up to 8.8% nickel and 4.5% copper from 185m down-hole.

Image Resources is well on the final stretch towards production at its Boonanarring mineral sands project 80km north of Perth after commencing wet commissioning of the processing facility. The company is on track to start producing mineral sands concentrate in the current quarter, receiving its first revenue in January 2019 and becoming cash flow positive by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

Aurora Labs has signed a partnership agreement with Fortescue Metals Group to explore the potential of its trailblazing 3D printing technology with a view to reducing production and operational costs in the mining and resources sector. Aurora’s ability to essentially “print” replacement mechanical parts quickly and accurately using its proprietary 3D printers could reduce costs and lead times normally required to procure specialist parts.

Infinity Lithium’s listing on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges will increase its exposure to European investors ahead of its upcoming feasibility study for a fully integrated mining operation and lithium carbonate processing facility at its San Jose project in western Spain. The company has also appointed lithium industry expert Vincent Ledoux-Pedailles to lead its European corporate strategy.

Strike Energy is now fully funded to drill the West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin and complete pilot production activities for the Jaws-1 deep coal seam gas wells after raising $13m through a share placement. The share placement also fulfils the capital raising requirement for the recommended takeover offer for UIL Energy, which will increase Strike’s exposure to the Perth Basin.

ASX listed upstart telco Vonex has signed on 12 new channel partners in the first quarter of the 2019 financial year as part of its ongoing efforts to accelerate business growth. The company has already signed up 6 new partners in the current quarter and is well on track to secure at least 100 new channel partners in the current financial year.

Recently processed 3D seismic data has led 88 Energy to increase its gross mean prospective resource at the Project Icewine in Alaska’s North Slope by almost 1.15 billion barrels to 2.89 billion barrels of oil. It has also allowed the company to predict where the best reservoir quality is likely to be in both the Schrader and deeper Torok sequences. The company still expects to farm-out the conventional acreage before the end of 2018.

Calidus Resources has executed a definitive agreement with TSX-V listed Pacton Gold Inc, to vend its non-core conglomerate gold rights at the Warrawoona gold project for 7 million Pacton shares. Calidus will retain all other gold rights to the ground. The deal covers 8 exploration licences and allows Pacton to explore and mine for conglomerate gold, with liability for rehabilitation and environmental obligations, whilst Calidus retains title to the tenements.

Legend Mining has reported intriguing anomalous zinc, gold and sulphur assay results from its new Shackleton discovery, located in the revered Fraser Range region of WA. The company believes the new results bear all the geochemical fingerprints of a volcanic-hosted massive sulphide style of base metal mineralisation. The find is located only 7km northeast of the Independence Group’s Andromeda “VHMS” copper-zinc, gold and silver discovery, revealed earlier this year.

Bellevue Gold has doubled the global inferred resource at its namesake project northwest of Leinster in the Goldfields of WA to 2.6Mt @ 12.3g/t for 1.04 million ounces of contained gold. This is due to its reporting a maiden resource of 800,000t at an impressive grade of 22g/t gold, or 550,000 ounces of contained gold. There is potential for further upside as Viago remains open in all directions.

Base metal developer Galena Mining has taken the prudent step of separating its non-core exploration assets into a new entity, Metal Range Limited, so it can fully focus on developing the flagship Abra project in WA into construction during 2019. The new company will pick up the Woodlands complex, Manganese Ridge and Quartzite Well exploration prospects, which are variously mineralised with lead, zinc, copper, silver, gold and manganese.

Strike Energy has launched a $16.1m all-scrip takeover offer for fellow oil and gas company UIL Energy to increase its exposure to the Perth Basin in Western Australia. This will increase the company’s acreage in the Perth Basin to over 3000 square kilometres. Strike is planning to drill a well to test the West Erregulla prospect, which is adjacent to the Waitsia gas field, in the first quarter of 2019.

Rare earth element developer Greenland Minerals has flagged a substantial reduction in the capital costs for civil earth works at its huge Kvanefjeld rare earth element project located on the southern tip of Greenland. An engineering review has optimised the process plant and site infrastructure ground footprint at the proposed mine, reducing the volume of material disturbance by 80% from previous estimates.

Sky and Space Global has started construction of its nano-satellites after a key design review by Nasdaq listed contractor GomSpace, found that all technical components of the design met the required standard to proceed. The company said the first batch of the mini satellites is on track for launch in 2019 with successive launches in the following quarters until the entire constellation of about 200 satellites is in orbit during 2020.

ASX listed Strike Energy has started the much-anticipated gas production phase at its Jaws-1 project wells in SA’s Cooper Basin with operations now set up for continuous gas release. Water production rates have been maintained at between 750 and 800 barrels of water per day while gas release has continued to build in both the horizontal and vertical well bores.