Public Company News

Battery metals explorer Askari Metals is looking to beef up the development of its Australian lithium assets after signing a strategic agreement with Shanghai-listed lithium-heavyweight Zhejiang Kanglongda Special Protection Technology. The new partner has a market cap of nearly US$1 billion and also holds a controlling interest of 51 per cent in Jiangxi Tiancheng Lithium Industry that specialises in extracting lithium sulphate solution.

Infinity Mining has begun an electromagnetic survey across three of its projects in the Pilbara region as the company aims to home in on nickel, copper, gold and zinc anomalies. The explorer is surveying its Strelley Gorge, Panorama and Hillside projects near Marble Bar to identify drill targets for its upcoming exploration planned for 2023.

WA gold explorer Brightstar Resources is now debt-free after just over $6 million in debt was scrubbed from its balance sheet through two cash-less settlements. A larger burden of $5.4 million owed to private company, Stone Resources was lifted from the explorer’s shoulders in exchange for a net smelter royalty over selected tenements held by the company. A smaller debt of $630,000 owed to another private company, Great Cortex International was also extinguished from Brightstar’s books in exchange for a proportionate slice of shares.

American West Metals has tabled an “outstanding” set of metallurgical test results that highlight exceptional recoveries of 94.4 per cent zinc and 78 per cent copper from samples taken at its West Desert project in Utah. The company is already sitting on a 59 million tonne-plus resource at the operation and says the results indicate a significant slice of the operation’s mineralisation is amenable to low-cost, heap leach processing.

Joint venture partners Venus Metals Corporation and Rox Resources have released a scoping study for their Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet in WA which includes a projected production of 71,000 gold ounces per year. The study predicts the site will be capable of producing about 569,000 gold ounces over an eight-year mine life at an average head grade of 5 grams per tonne gold.

WA-focused explorer Horizon Minerals has executed a binding term sheet with US-based resources financer, Nebari Partners LLC, for a US$5 million senior secured credit facility to develop the company’s Cannon gold project in WA. The funding agreement comes hot on the heels of Horizon’s A$300,000 sale of its Kangaroo Hill and Phoenix gold projects to Greenstone Resources earlier this month as it looks to lean down and focus on the more-advanced assets in its portfolio.

Ora Banda Mining has recorded high-grade hits from extensional drilling at its Main Lode prospect under the Riverina open pit that has increased mineralisation at the deposit to more than 350m below surface. The company has completed 12 holes of a planned 30-hole campaign at the project north-west of Kalgoorlie with assay highlights including a 1.2m hit at an impressive 29.3 grams per tonne gold from 359m in addition to 2.8m going 6 g/t gold from 357m.

Medical technology specialist Radiopharm Theranostics is gearing up to approach the powerful US Federal Food and Drug Administration, or “FDA” to get its cancer treatment known as “Pivalate” to market after successfully concluding a phase II clinical trial in the UK. The trial indicated that Pivalate can detect and monitor secondary brain tumours regardless of the origin of the primary cancer.

Estrella Resources has announced an upgrade of the nickel resource estimate at its Spargoville project’s 5A deposit, 20km south-west of Kambalda, with most of the resource now in the more confident “measured” category. Estrella is pressing ahead with optimisation work for a definitive feasibility study and is focused on 16 000 tonnes of massive sulphide grading 7.8 per cent nickel below 5A’s existing open pit.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has begun testing three prospects in the WA Goldfields with a short RC drill campaign aimed at firming up the extent of gold mineralisation at its Bulong Taurus project about 35km east of Kalgoorlie. The company has secured a total of 39 gold rights comprising an exploration licence, mining tenements and prospecting licences on land that has been mined since the 1890s.

Final assay results from phase 3 drilling at Askari Metals’ Burracoppin project show continuity of high-grade mineralisation at its Easter Gift prospect with a 1m hit coming in at an impressive 45.5 grams per tonne gold. The 45.5 gram hit was contained within a wider 3m section grading 17.41 g/t gold from 73m that also included 1m at 2.18 g/t from 74m and 1m recording 4.54 g/t gold from 75m.

Classic Minerals has entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with private company Barto Gold Mining for the toll treatment of ore from the company’s flagship Kat Gap gold deposit in WA. The non-binding agreement comes not long after the ink dried on Classic’s terms sheet with another private company Goldvalley Brown Stone for $10 million in non-recourse funding to facilitate the extraction and processing of its ore.