Ora Banda Mining has secured funding support from shareholder Hawkes Point Holdings to continue developing its Riverina underground operation including exploration, resource development and capital expenditure. Hawkes Point is the gold producer’s largest shareholder and will provide Ora Banda with an unsecured loan of $11 million towards work at the project near Kalgoorlie.
St George Mining has welcomed Chinese lithium-ion battery maker Sunwoda Electronic onto its share registry via a $2m placement as it eagerly awaits results from a maiden drill campaign where visibl
Xanadu Mines is one step closer to finalising its phase two and three investment agreement for its Mongolian projects with Zijin Mining Group after the formal documentation for the deal was executed. Once approvals have been met, Xanadu will use Zijin’s investment to continue exploration of its prospective Red Mountain project in addition to making a final investment decision on taking its Kharmagtai project to the construction phase.
Infinity Lithium has extended a Memorandum of Understanding with battery manufacturer LG Energy Solutions for the supply of lithium hydroxide from its planned San Jose project in Spain. The expansion follows a 2021 deal that permits LG the first rights to 10,000 tonnes of product per year and grants the parties additional time to hammer out a long-term offtake agreement. The deal will mature on 2 December 2023.
Brightstar Resources’ confidence in the potential of its flagship Cork Tree Well project near Laverton continues to grow with gold assays from an extensional RC drill hole providing the latest boost. Results include 6m at 3.17 grams per tonne gold from 182 metres and the additional strike length opened up by the drill hole has persuaded the company to redouble its efforts next year.
CZR Resources has expanded its Robe Mesa project in the Pilbara after agreeing to acquire a nearby tenement from Fortescue Metals Group subsidiary FMG Pilbara to the south of Rio Tinto’s Mesa F iron ore project. Subject to the completion of the sale, the company will make a cash payment of $150,000 to Fortescue in addition to 3.3 million CZR shares and a 1 per cent free-on-board revenue royalty covering any future production from the site.
Gold strikes in oxidised shale at Aruma Resources’ Melrose project in the Pilbara similar to those found in nearby mines have spurred the company on to keep sniffing around the iron ore-rich region
The maiden RC drilling campaign at Lithium Australia and Charger Metals’ Lake Johnson joint venture project in the Goldfields-Esperance region has enjoyed immediate success with the drill bit. The company says the campaign intersected numerous spodumene-bearing stacked pegmatites between 1 and 5 metres wide within a broad 50m zone that remains open at each end and depth. Field observations include spodumene in 15 of the 17 holes completed.
An approval for a program of works is now the only thing preventing Galan Lithium from launching a maiden five-hole diamond drilling program at its newly defined Fry’s Block area, part of its larger Greenbushes South lithium project in WA. The campaign is expected to kick off in January and follows the discovery of three compelling pegmatite targets through fieldwork, geochemical analysis and a geophysical data review.
JV partners Triangle Energy Global and Pilot Energy have firmed up the efficiency of a new shipping route through the Port of Geraldton in WA after completing a second delivery of 52,900 barrels of oil to a refinery in Thailand. The vessel carrying the freight has since returned from its voyage and has been loaded with a fresh batch of 25,000 barrels of liquids ahead of a new 2023 delivery.
Blackstone Minerals has hailed the success of its Ta Khoa nickel refinery pilot in Western Australia upon completion of a one-year test to underscore the company’s vertically integrated Vietnamese
Auric Mining has returned positive results for rare earths from the company’s latest drill campaign at its Chalice West project including a 4m hit at 3591 parts-per-million total rare earth oxides from 41m. The 4m section includes a high-grade 1m intercept at an outstanding 11,038ppm TREO from 42m with an impressive 22 per cent magnetic rare earth oxides.
PolarX has attracted the attention of a prominent new shareholder after mega miner Northern Star Resources snapped up a 10 per cent holding in the Perth-based company following a $1.48 million investment in the operation. Polar X has now raised $3.63 million since November as it eyes future developments at its Humboldt Range project in Nevada, USA.
Lithium Australia has chalked up another milestone on its journey to commercialising a rival to traditional EV batteries with completion of an engineering study for an expanded pilot plant to make lithium ferro phosphate. The company says it eventually wants a plant producing at least 10,000 tonnes a year which it believes will make it one of the few significant LFP producers outside China.
Si6 Metals has struck high-grade shallow gold out the back of Laverton in WA’s Goldfields in the maiden aircore drilling program at its Monument Gold project.
A slimmed down Atlas project ore reserve will give Image Resources a higher-grade mineral sands mine which the company expects to turn a tidy profit from the get-go.
WA oil producer Triangle Energy has farmed out a 25 per cent stake in two onshore gas permits in the Perth Basin to Talon Energy in exchange for a $9.26 million pay day. The company believes the zones host significant gas resources and plans to unlock its potential through a trio of new exploration holes in 2024.
Classic Minerals has attracted the interest of global investment group LDA Capital who will provide a $15m equity line over the next three years for Classic to develop its 93,000 ounce high grade Kat Gap gold deposit in WA’s Southern Cross region. The company has also locked away a $5m con-note to turbo-charge the funding options for Kat Gap and its greater Forrestania project area.
Meeka Metals has confirmed gold recoveries up to 99.4 per cent from metallurgical test work on ore from the company’s St Anne’s deposit that forms part of its greater Murchison gold project. The program assessed conventional carbon-in-leach gold recovery for St Anne’s mineralisation at 150 micrometre grind size with results ranging from 97 per cent to 99.4 per cent for an average of 97.9 per cent.
Estrella Resources has begun extraction of a bulk high-grade nickel sulphide sample from the company’s 5A nickel mine near Kambalda that will be processed at Glencore’s Murrin Murrin facility. The initial mining phase will see the company extract between 2000 and 4000 tonnes of high-grade nickel sulphide ore before it is crushed and screened on-site and sent to Murrin Murrin.
TSX-listed Novo Resources has gained a prominent new shareholder following a C$5 million strategic investment by private explorer Liatam Mining. The funding package will be principally used to vector in on battery metals across the company’s Quartz Hill tenements in the Nullagine district of Western Australia and will lean on Liatam’s experience in the sector.
ASX-listed explorer Aurumin has entered into a drill for equity agreement with contractor Topdrill ahead of the company’s planned campaign at its Central Sandstone project about 520km north-east of Perth. According to the agreement, Aurumin can pay up to 50 per cent of its drilling costs invoiced by Topdrill by issuing ordinary shares from its placement capacity up to a maximum of $1 million.
Whether it is gold, wool, timber, apples, salt, education, beef or even sea cucumbers, Australia has long punched above its weight in the trade stakes, even centuries before it was named Australia.
Rock chip sampling at Infinity Mining’s Brisbane nickel prospect in the Pilbara region of Western Australia has returned anomalous nickel and chromium results within the company’s greater Panorama project. The explorer collected a total of 35 samples at the site with assays showing results of up to 7636 parts-per-million nickel and 8918ppm chromium consistent with previous geochemical results.
RC drilling at Surefire Resources' Victory Bore deposit in WA’s Mid West region has returned a host of broad vanadium intercepts with widths of up to 92m at 0.41 per cent vanadium pentoxide. The company says the probe has led to the discovery of three parallel mineralised lodes which it believes could bolster its already massive 151 million tonnes mineral resource once additional drilling and modelling is complete.
Mineral explorer Godolphin Resources has strengthened its burgeoning rare earths portfolio with the acquisition of two exploration licences in New South Wales and Queensland. The company picked up the ground after sifting through publicly available geological data and says it could commence boots on the ground exploration as early as January 2023.
Aruma Resources has more than quadrupled the greenstone belt width at its Salmon Guns gold project near Esperance to more than three kilometres and will vector in on new drill targets with an aeria
Askari Metals has encountered visible lithium mineralisation from the first phase of drilling at its Uis lithium project in Namibia in addition to intersecting tantalum and tin in the site’s pegmatites. The company has just wrapped up its first drill campaign at the African operation where it completed 59 RC holes for 3017m as part of an overall 10,000m program set to recommence in February next year.
Unlike traditional participants in the energy technology space Quantum Graphite plans to extract value from its Uley mine in South Australia through the development of heat cells that could ultimately replace coal in thermal power plants. The work stream is all part of a 50-50 joint venture agreement with Melbourne-based Sunlands Company that will see the duo establish a major downstream energy business.
ASX-listed PolarX is firing up the drill rigs in the snow-covered Nevada mountains on the hunt for some US Christmas gold to ring in the new year at its Star Canyon prospect.
