Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Galena Mining has announced outstanding metallurgical test work results from its flagship Abra lead project, confirming its ability to produce high grade concentrates averaging 74.5% lead with recoveries exceeding 94%. Results showed that the ores can be processed into high quality base metal concentrates with low impurities, using conventional crushing and flotation techniques.

Middle Island Resources has reported that ore sorting trials to upgrade gold mineralisation at its flagship Two Mile Hill underground deposit will be completed this month. Preliminary test work has proved highly successful in pre-concentrating ores via optical sorting methods. Resource definition drilling is also underway and is designed to increase resources at the Sandstone gold project.

Tech play Connected IO took in cash receipts and invoiced products this quarter to the value of $660,000 with another $650,000 in purchase orders on the books yet to be invoiced. Bottom line performance is also expected to improve with reduced U.S. overheads and renegotiated manufacturing costs expected to boost gross margins from 30% to 50% on some products.

Neometals has executed a two-year option agreement with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to sub-lease a 40 hectare site for its proposed lithium refinery, located in an industrial estate at West Kalgoorlie. The site is located close to critical road, rail and power infrastructure, just 70km by road from the existing Mt Marion Lithium operations, where the company will initially source the raw spodumene lithium feedstock.

After agreeing terms for the spin-off of its giant Admiral Bay zinc project, Metalicity is now rapidly reshaping the company as a serious player in the battery metals sector. Exploration activity is being stepped up at three well-placed projects in lithium, cobalt and graphite, backed by an MOU already in place with Shanghai Metals for offtake, development and financing support.

Hammer Metals has announced significant cobalt-copper results from drilling at its Millennium JV project, near Cloncurry in western Queensland. The program tested up-dip continuity of the main lode, returning a best result of 7m @ 0.15% cobalt, 0.36% copper and 0.12g/t gold from 14m down-hole. The company also identified a new exploration target from rock chip sampling and mapping, 1km north of the Millennium resource.

Kopore Metals will commence its maiden drill program at the Ghanzi West project near MOD Resources significant copper find in Botswana, following receipt of Government environmental approvals. The company defined a number of high priority exploration targets using a combination of airborne and ground geophysics, with coincident base metal soil anomalies.

Junior explorer King River Copper’s gold project at Mt Remarkable in the Kimberley region of W.A could be just that – remarkable – if the latest drilling results are anything to go by. Assay results received in the past week have revealed fine visible gold in the latest drill holes including a 4m intersection going 113 grams per tonne gold.

Aspire Mining’s dream of a northern Mongolian railway has taken a leap forward with a feasibility study finding it could deliver coking coal from the company’s Ovoot deposit to world markets at competitive prices. The study highlighted the positive economics of the US$1.25 billion project which Aspire says will churn out US$2.75b in free cash after tax over thirty years.

Strike Energy’s technically ground-breaking Jaws-1 gas well at the Southern Cooper Basin project looks like it could be the making of the company after a vital fracture stimulation program was proclaimed a success yesterday. The company’s share price soared by 30% after it broke the news that all seven-stages of the Jaws-1 stimulation program had gone exactly to plan.

St George Mining shares have jumped by more than 20% on the ASX after news that its Mt Alexander project returned more high-grade drill hits. The copper-nickel-cobalt mineralisation remains open to the north, west and east and the latest results have highlighted the potential for further extensions of the mineralisation, with planning already underway for a follow-up drill program.

Auroch Minerals has initiated a geophysical survey program across its Arden base metals project, 360km north of Adelaide in S.A. Recent surface sampling identified highly anomalous zinc, copper, lead and cobalt mineralisation across three separate prospects. Interpretation of the survey data acquired will be used in conjunction with field mapping and geochemical sampling to identify drilling targets.

Altech Chemicals has announced it has received a formal manufacturing licence from the Malaysian Government for the company’s proposed 4,500 tonne per annum high purity alumina plant in Johor State at the southern tip of Malaysia. The company will source high purity kaolin clays from Meckering, near Perth in W.A. before transporting it to Johor, where it will be processed for industrial use.

UltraCharge Limited has finalised a deal with ETV Energy in Israel, fully acquiring the company’s intellectual property rights to its LNMO battery cathode technology. The assets are a critical component in the manufacture of lithium-ion cells that UltraCharge will produce. The global market for lithium-ion batteries is forecast to reach USD$145.4b by 2025, driven by use in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, power storage and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Blackstone Minerals has announced more encouraging results from its maiden drilling program at the Little Gem cobalt-gold play in British Columbia, Canada. High grade results include 3.2m @ 0.8% cobalt and 4g/t gold and were accompanied by extensive alteration zones, indicating a major system may feed the hydrothermal mineralisation being sought.

Tyranna Resources has increased the gold resource at its Jumbuck Gold Project by 46% to 319,000 ounces and is planning a scoping study that will likely include a toll processing option. With all gold mineralisation at less than 100m and still open at depth, Jumbuck is looking to uncover the kind of plunging, high-grade ore shoots seen at the Challenger mine next door.

Calidus Resources has commenced a resource drilling program at its Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara. The company is aiming to expand its mineral resource base beyond 1 million ounces, to underpin a PFS due at year’s end. The 30,000m program will target strike extensions and down-plunge positions at the main Klondyke prospect and also include exploratory drilling of prospective shear zones.

Lithium Australia’s plans to become a significant supplier of battery metals to Europe have taken another step forward with the discovery of cobalt at grades of up to 0.6% at its Eichigt project in Germany. The discovery was made from first-pass exploration in an area that has seen little modern exploration and is not far from the company’s significant lithium resource at the nearby Sadisdorf project.

Draig Resources has announced that a deep exploratory drill hole has intersected 4.3m @ 8.8g/t gold from 575.3m down-hole and is interpreted to be a faulted offset to the main lode at the old Bellevue gold mine that produced 800,000 ounces at around 15 grams per tonne gold. The new discovery is 190 metres west of the historic underground workings and located 500m from surface.

Zinc polymetallic explorer Adriatic Metals has every reason to be pleased with its latest assay results from the waste dump around an historic adit at the Jurasevac prospect at the company’s Vareš Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Vareš project comprises an old open cut zinc/lead/barite and silver mine at Veovaca and Rupice and an advanced proximal deposit exhibiting high grades of base and precious metals.

King River Copper has provided an unexpected windfall for its investors by converting some of its exploration tax losses into a $306,000 tax credit that will be passed on individually to its shareholders under the Government’s “Exploration Development Incentive.” The credit is made possible by an innovative tax scheme introduced in 2014-15 to help greenfield explorers find Australia’s next big mineral deposit

Metalicity Limited will seek to extract fair value from its giant Admiral Bay zinc project in the Kimberley of W.A by vending all its zinc assets into a new company, Kimberley Mining Limited, to be listed on Canada’s TSX Venture exchange. The deal is worth up to CAD$32.5m for Metalicity and will advance its Admiral Bay project, whilst leaving the company cashed up to pursue its battery metals projects.

Strike Energy is a step closer to discovering whether its Jaws-1 well will be a game-changer for the gas-starved east coast market, with Halliburton’s fracture stimulation equipment on its way to site. The pioneering Jaws-1 well was successfully completed earlier this month and could possibly be within weeks after a seven-stage fracture stimulation program.

ASX-listed biotech PharmAust, has successfully reformulated its promising anti-cancer drug “Monepantel”. Perth-based PharmAust says the new form of Monepantel, which now takes the form of dry tablets, improves the drug’s taste and meets dosage requirements, paving the way for trials in dogs expected to take place by the end of the year ahead of human clinical trials.

Venus Metals has stitched up options with both the plaintiff and the plainted at the historical Younami gold mine, 250km west of Leonora. The transactions will cost less than A$6m in a mix of cash and shares and will guarantee that Venus emerges the victor in a legal dispute that it is not actually a party to. Hundreds of thousands of ounces were left in the ground when the mine was closed in 1997.

In a sure sign of its future strategy, underwater drone specialist Aquabotix will co-locate its American operations with the US military in Virginia in a bid to secure lucrative defence industry contracts. Aquabotix says the co-location with the Joint Munitions Command’s Armament Retooling and Manufacturing Support Program strengthens its links with the US department of defence.

Myanmar Metals has announced an alliance with Chinese owned Perilya Limited to accelerate the development of its Bawdwin polymetallic deposit in Myanmar. The deal with Perilya and another with major shareholder Mark Creasy raised A$19.1m, which fully funds the Bawdwin option, granting Myanmar 51% project ownership. The company will raise up to A$35m for the project.

Reedy Lagoon has announced it has staked 112 new claims in the prospective Clayton Valley in southern Nevada, 10km from North America’s only producing lithium brine operation at Silver Peak. The company believes the new tenement package has potential to trap lithium brines within its salty underground aquifers, based on the region’s underlying geology.

Draig Resources has announced further high grade gold drill results from drill programs at its Tribune lode discovery, adjacent to the historical Bellevue mine near Leinster. Down-hole electromagnetic surveys have identified new ore shoot positions at depth with best results of 4.4m @ 13.5g/t from 305.5m down-hole and 9.5m @ 5.0g/t from 324.5m down-hole. A maiden mineral resource estimate is underway.

Southern Gold keeps finding more high-grade gold left behind by previous operators of the Kochang mine in South Korea that was abandoned in 1975 when the gold price was just US$140 an ounce. A significant program to sample the underground vein systems at Kochang has found long strike lengths of mineralisation and returned assays at more than two ounces to the tonne.

BlackEarth Minerals’ resource drilling program in Madagascar has produced another series of impressive drill hits, adding to evidence of a large, high-grade graphite system at its Maniry project. Among the best of the new results was 26m @7.8% total graphitic carbon, including 10m @ 10.45% TGC. BlackEarth is on track for a maiden JORC estimate in July, just six months after listing on the ASX.

Lithium Australia’s subsidiary, VSPC, is making progress towards commercialising its patented lithium-ion battery cathode materials. Manufacturing of lithium ion battery coin cells and electrochemical testing will commence shortly at its laboratory in Queensland. The market for cathode materials is predicted to double to approximately 400,000 tonnes p/a by 2025, with a value exceeding USD$10b.