Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Altech Batteries has unveiled the new design for its 60KWh Cerenergy sodium chloride solid-state battery pack and now has two prototypes under construction by its project partner, the Fraunhofer Institute in the German city of Dresden. The pack has been upgraded to improve structural integrity, cell retention and connectivity, heat loss and insulation and the ability to endure all temperature extremes.

Globe Metals & Mining has achieved metals extraction of more than 99 per cent on concentrates from its Kanyika niobium project in Malawi following a savvy decision to switch to vapour-chlorination technology. The company says the results validate its decision to move from high-cost, toxic, acid-based extraction and also highlight many other cost, processing, infrastructure, environmental, handling and ESG benefits.

A research and development tax offset of $15.6 million – and a healthy bank balance now at $29.3 million – will underpin Empire Energy Group’s bid to take its Carpentaria pilot project to a final investment decision. The company says its Beetaloo Basin project has the potential to service the Top End and east coast of Australia with more than 500 terajoules of power per day.

Askari Metals has launched a targeted trenching campaign at its flagship Uis lithium project in Namibia, where it will test four high-priority pegmatites within its recently-identified “corridor of interest”. The company will initially focus on its OP target, which has an estimated surface strike of more than 2km, before moving onto the PS, DP and K9 prospects for a total of 111 trenches through 3750m.

Globe Metals & Mining has signed a non-binding term sheet with TCM Research, giving it exclusive use of the latter’s principal technology for processing niobium from the Kanyika project in Malawi. TCM has been selected to design the refinery process for the Kanyika concentrate and to determine the design parameters of a proposed refinery after carrying out metallurgical testwork on a sample.

A raft of solid new gallium hits have backed up Terrain Minerals’ claims in August that it wanted to unearth the silvery-white metal to complement the clay-hosted rare earths at its Lort River project near Esperance in Western Australia. The company says results from its recent AC drilling program included near-surface intersections of 38m at 34.1g/t gallium oxide and 27m at 35.6g/t.

There is new survival hope for people diagnosed with brain cancer after a positive response from patients engaged in a Chimeric Therapeutics trial designed to monitor the efficacy of its promising cell therapy for glioblastoma. The cancer fighter says more than half of its participating patients extended median survival expectations up to 10 months, with two patients demonstrating survival beyond 14 months.

Horizon Minerals will retain financial exposure to 62 tenements within its Kalgoorlie project area despite entering into a binding asset sale agreement for the ground with Northern Star Resources. According to the deal, Northern Star will pay Horizon $3.1 million in cash, in addition to receiving discovery payments of $20 per ounce for any JORC-compliant mineral resource at the sites – capped at 2 million ounces.

Buxton Resources says a new geophysics method has helped to define and prioritise shallow potential open-pit graphite targets at its flagship Graphite Bull project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The company says its recent adoption of the Loupe electromagnetics geophysical survey method has led to multiple near-surface new targets being prioritised near its existing inferred resource.

Strickland Metals has increased its prospective strike target to 700m at the Marwari prospect that forms part of its Horse Well project in WA’s Pilbara region, following results from an air-core campaign. The results include 16m grading 2.2g/t gold from 68m, in addition to 8m at 2.2g/t from 84m, while a hole on the edge of the prospect showed 60m going 0.5g/t gold from 40m.

Prospective ground secured by Buxton Resources in WA’s West Kimberley in 2015 is now looming as a company game-changer – for more reasons than one as it continues to foster a relationship with mining giant IGO. New nickel-copper sulphides potential revealed today from the joint venture’s Quick Shears project could be just the tip of the iceberg for a burgeoning partnership that also includes international exploration.

Terrain Minerals has hit rare earths during a reconnaissance-scale air-core (AC) drill campaign at its Lort River project near Esperance, with high percentages of magnetic rare earth oxides up to 43 per cent. Assay highlights show a 3m intercept grading 919 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 23m, including a peak 1m hit going 1878ppm TREO.

Auric Mining has entered into the free-cash phase of gold production from its Jeffreys Find mine near Norseman in Western Australia following a remarkable project journey to date of just three years. The company’s first stage of mining has produced more than 7700 ounces of gold from the operation, with 5667 ounces sold for a gross revenue of $16.6 million.

An "unsolicited" lithium review at Estrella Resources’ Carr Boyd nickel project near Kalgoorlie has spun out new and historical pegmatite potential – but the extent and lithium content is not yet known. The company says the approaches from a “leading global mining group” to evaluate the possibilities for LCT-type pegmatites at Carr Boyd has only reconfirmed its belief in what it believes the project may hold.

Terrain Minerals has set its sights on two priority polymetallic targets – which evoke the style of the giant nearby Golden Grove deposit – that have been defined from MMI geochemistry at its Smokebush project north of Perth in Western Australia. The company’s geochemical sampling yielded a 1100m-long polymetallic anomaly in the north of the grid and a new 900m-long polymetallic anomaly at the grid’s southern extent.

St George Mining has kicked off a fresh lithium exploration campaign at its Mt Alexander project in Western Australia, with soil sampling, pegmatite mapping and outcrop sampling now underway at the operation. The program aims to test new lithium targets, in addition to an 8km-long zone around its Manta prospect where previous drilling by the company intersected a 121m-thick fractionated pegmatite.

Aruma Resources’ deep dive into its Saltwater project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region is tossing up a myriad of intriguing high-grade polymetallic targets from first-pass rock-chip sampling. The company’s latest results have returned high-grade manganese peaking at 40 per cent, in addition to anomalous vanadium, uranium, iron, lead and zinc tipping into the melting pot of previously-reported anomalous copper, cobalt and rare earths.

ASX-listed Aurumin looks set to pocket $3 million and a 2 per cent net smelter royalty from the Mt Dimer gold mining tenements after entering into a binding sale agreement for the site with Beacon Minerals. Beacon has also agreed to take $500,000 worth of Aurumin’s fully-paid ordinary shares within five days, in exchange for an exclusivity period.

Ora Banda Mining has made a solid start to the financial year with gold production rising 39 per cent to 16,952 ounces and sold gold increasing by 35 per cent to 16,319 ounces compared to the previous quarter. It finished the September quarter with $22.7 million, despite spending $11.2 million on the development of its Riverina underground gold mine and $2.8 million on exploration.

After some unforeseen hiccups, Conico is now charging towards completion of a scoping study, which it says will now include new project optimisations aimed at enhancing economics at its Mt Thirsty project. While high workflow levels for key consultants slowed the study process, it expects it to be finished next month, with an updated mineral resource also on the way.

Buoyed by encouraging early results from a maiden drill campaign at its Nunyerry North gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, Novo Resources has expanded the program by another four holes. The company has received results from the first six reverse-circulation drill holes with highlights showing a 13m hit at 1.18 grams per tonne gold from surface and 7m going 1.12g/t gold from 38m.

Massive lithium battery maker Amperex Technology has picked up 10 per cent of St George Mining’s seven hard rock lithium projects in WA with a $3m punt into a St George subsidiary. Amperex is the world’s leading producer of lithium-ion batteries and is potentially a significant ally for St George as it looks to develop its suite of battery metals projects.

Pancreatic cancer patients have been delivered fresh hope following the United States Food and Drug Administration’s decision to clear the way for Radiopharm Theranostics to run clinical trials to address an area of “unmet need”. The imaging trials are designed to detect lesions in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the first patient is expected to receive dosage by the end of this month.

Infinity Mining has enlarged its lithium footprint at three Tambourah South prospects in Western Australia’s East Pilbara region after discovering more pegmatites through field mapping and confirming lithium prolificacy through rock-chip and drill-sampling assays. Rock chips recorded a best value of 3.7 per cent lithium oxide and eight RC holes cut 23 pegmatites with a maximum thickness of 25m.

Twigger’s Tales (aka Argonaut’s Liam Twigger) regales readers with fond memories of the tsunami of foreign banks – and some not so foreign that fell victim to the Bell/Bond debacle of the 80s and 90s. The legal fights that followed spawned the term “just bill it to Bell” among St Georges Terrace lawyers who pulled up short of their weekly billing targets.

Interim feasibility work by Estrella Resources has confirmed the viability of a simple decline and two-level underground mine for its 5A nickel deposit at the company’s Spargoville project near Kambalda in WA. Management has estimated the mine’s capital and operating costs at $11 million, which can be represented as $US3.20 ($AU5.60) per pound of nickel produced. The current price is hovering at about $US8.30 (AU$13.30).

Askari Metals is preparing its backhoe for trenching across four LCT pegmatites in a bid to reveal more battery minerals potential at its flagship Uis lithium project within Namibia’s Uis-Cape Cross pegmatite belt. The company will dig 111 trenches to try and deepen its knowledge of the surface expression and mineralisation of the highly-fractionated pegmatites within the anomalous corridor that hosts Andrada Mining’s tin mine.

Gold Mountain has completed a mapping and sampling program across its major lithium projects in Brazil in a precursor to kickstarting a comprehensive drilling program in the South American nation. The company has been completing due diligence fieldwork across its tenements ahead of a shareholder vote next month regarding its plans to take a 75 per cent share in its joint venture partner, Mars Mines.

A geochemical sampling program by Venus Metals at the westernmost licences within its Mangaroon North project in Western Australia’s emerging Gascoyne region has turned up two base metal anomalies that have been earmarked for further assessment. The company says it took about 1100 soil samples and 39 rock‐chip samples from across two of its tenements during the survey.

Surefire Resources is one step closer to a vanadium processing plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) after the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu pinpointed the Ras Al-Khair industrial region for the site. In August, the company sealed a pivotal MOU with the KSA, where it plans to process ore from its Victory Bore vanadium and high-purity alumina project in WA’s Mid West.

A geophysical survey at DiscovEx Resources’ Sylvania project near Newman in Western Australia has identified potential south-east extensions to two lodes within the previously defined 2.8-million-tonne Prairie Downs zinc-lead-silver resource. The survey was designed to test for potential sulphide mineralisation related to the Prairie Downs fault and also defined a target area centred about 10km north-west along strike of the resource at the Husky prospect.

A mining services company engaged in a deal with Novo Resources for 80 per cent of battery mineral rights at the Quartz Hill project has expanded the operation and increased the earn-in amount to $1.7 million. In line with the original arrangement, private company Liatam Mining has spent an extra $200,000 after choosing to increase its exploration ground from 615sq km to 818sq km.