Public Company News

Calidus Resources has cleared its final construction hurdle on time and on budget, with commissioning now underway of its 100 per cent owned Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara region of WA. The company says it expects crushing and milling operations to start within the next eight weeks with first gold set to be poured approximately two weeks later.

Development of ASX-listed Adriatic Metals’ Vares high-grade silver project in Bosnia is accelerating with construction starting on time as the company firmly eyes production by the second quarter of 2023. Adriatic is in the throes of appointing mining contractors, engineering consultants and key personnel as it finalises test work and orders mechanical equipment.

Tambourah Metals is eyeing extensions to the known mineralisation at its Pilbara namesake project after recent soil sampling returned up to 3.05 grams per tonne gold. The project, located 85 kilometres southwest of Marble Bar, yielded plenty of other positive samples too with 177 of the 259 samples collected providing potential evidence of an extension to the existing mineralised zones.

Blackstone Minerals has tabled a stunning pre-feasibility study for its vertically integrated nickel mine and refinery project in Vietnam that shows a post-tax net present value as high as $3.57 billion at today’s nickel prices. Almost inexplicably the company says the US$854 million CAPEX required to build the project could be paid down in just 1.8 years from first production. It will churn out over half a billion US dollars a year in operating cashflows.

Aldoro Resources has uncovered a string of high-grade rubidium from a pegmatite rock chip sampling program at its Wyemandoo project approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Mount Magnet in WA. According to the company, the assay results pointed to “exceptional” grades of up to 1.24 per cent in individual samples and says lithium and tantalum were also present.

Soil assays from Strickland Metals’ Iroquois discovery show copper highs that map an interpreted feeder zone structure for zinc-lead mineralisation. The recent zinc-lead discovery is located on the western edge of the greater than 1.5km long feeder zone, creating excitement for the next round of drilling targeting the structure. Iroquois is in the Earaheedy Basin, WA’s newest base metals hotspot.

Meeka Gold has unveiled some strong rare earths numbers grading up to 2,563 parts per million total rare earth oxides after analysing historical drilling that had been testing for three of the 15 rare earth elements at its Cascade rare earth project in WA. 4,426 metres of reconnaissance drilling completed between 2012-2015 has been reviewed with the final metre of each drill hole previously assayed for only 3 of 15 rare earths.

ABx Group has signed a joint venture agreement with Alumin to develop its Sunrise bauxite mine and port project. The mine is expected to have a 20-year life and provide 50 direct local jobs. Situated 115km from Bundaberg Port in Queensland it is anticipated the mine will initially export 500,000 tonnes per year of metallurgical grade bauxite, scaling up to 2 million tonnes per year.

After months of Covid-impacted labour shortages, Buru Energy has begun the process of well testing at its Rafael 1 oil and gas well in WA’s Canning Basin. The company has started the clean up process in anticipation of turning the taps on, opening up the valves and finally ascertaining definitive flow rates from November’s ‘wet gas’ discovery. A robust result could lead to Buru’s second major development in the area.

Canadian listed gold producer Novo Resources Corporation has struck high grade gold up to a serious 91 grams per tonne, or nearly 3 ounces to the tonne, through rock chip sampling at the historic Pilgrims Rest gold mine within the company’s Station peak prospect in Western Australia. Other notable high grade rock chips were 30 g/t gold, 13 g/t gold and 12 g/t gold.

Tambourah has captured 17 priority targets in its battery metals search after a detailed data analysis of the Wongan Hills South project in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The targets were generated using available geophysics and the project’s database. The Wongan Hills South project is part of Tambourah’s larger Julimar North project in what is fast emerging as Australia’s most exciting PGE-nickel-copper-cobalt mineral field.

Cyclone Metals has acquired six exploration projects in New Zealand covering gold, copper, nickel and platinum group elements. Highlights include the Muirs project containing 222,000 ounces of gold near the 45 million ounce Hauraki goldfield. At the Mareburn project drill hits include 10m at 2.4 g/t gold and it is only 8km from the 10-million-ounce Macraes gold mine.